Web+Lesson+Plan

 ** The Phases of the Moon Tennessee's Third Grade Standards this lesson targets: ** Earth and Its Place in the Universe: 3.7.2 Recognize that there are predictable patterns that occur in the universe.  1. Explain how day and night result from the rotation of the earth relative to the sun.  2. Observe, identify, and order the basic phases of the moon. **Summary of previous lessons:** I would use this lesson after the class had discussed how the planets orbit the sun. For that lesson, we review the concept of gravity to discuss how the Sun pulls the planets toward them and how the planets rotate around the sun. Then, students talk about how the Earth is turning as it goes around the Sun and we discuss how day and night occur. Before we get to this lesson, students should have mastered all those concepts. Now, I want students to understand more about how the moon orbits the Earth so that they can understand more about the phases of the moon. Visuals from the Internet will greatly enhance students' ability to understand this concept.

Introduction: I will ask students to describe the different ways the moon can look in the sky and we will compile a list as a class. I will then say that the moon never really changes; it just looks like it does because of the way it moves around the Earth. I will then ask students to visit the following site to observe this. [|The orbit of the moon] This site lets them see the orbit of the moon in action, but it takes a lot to go from that to understanding how the moon orbits the Earth. Therefore, they will have the following information as well, perhaps on the class wiki page or as a handout, to read and follow as they view the page that orbits the moon. This modifies the existing web page to make it accessible and understandable for younger children. Students will have questions to answer as they complete the handout so that I can see what they are understanding about the process. Handout on "The orbit of the moon" After students have had some time to interact with this Internet page, we would stop and have a class discussion about what we've learned so that I can make sure everybody is beginning to understand why the moon looks different at different times. I would then explain that it takes the moon about a month to go around the Earth once and we would review the process and how the moon looks as a new moon, a crescent moon, a first quarter moon, a full moon and a third quarter moon. I would then have students visit the following web site that lets them play a game where they get more practice recognizing how the moon moves in phases over time. I think this is a great way to have students continue developing their understanding of the cycles of the moon, and this is something that cannot be done as effectively without the aid of the Internet site. [|Phases of the moon game] At this point, I would probably continue on in my unit on Space during class time. However, the above site would be available on the class wiki pages for continued practice on the phases of the moon. Students will be able to practice until they are ready to take a test that would assess their understanding of the concept. For the test, I would have different pictures of the moon and ask students what phase the moon was in. I would also have pictures of the sun and earth and ask students to draw in the moon for a certain phase. The last thing I would do with this project is ask students to observe the moon at their homes at night and figure out what phase of the moon they were looking at. I would ask each student to comment on what they've seen twice a week for a month. This way students could take what they've been learning in the classroom and see whether they can use it when actually looking at the real moon. Having this mini-journal up on a wiki page allows students to discuss with one another what they've seen so they could debate with each other what phase the moon is in. Of course, there won't be a lot of debate for full moon or new moon, but the discussion on whether the moon is heading toward the first quarter or third quarter, etc., should provide a lot of insight for the teacher on how much the students understand. We could discuss some of these entries in class. Moon Journal 
 * Lesson Outline:**

Space is my absolute favorite science concept to teach, but in all my teaching opportunities thus far I have never been in a classroom with access to technology and I've known that I've been missing out on some great visuals. Today, I found some really helpful resources that I can use as visuals to help students comprehension of the phases of the moon, which it took me a while to understand the first time I taught it. I also adapted the sites to my own purposes by providing students explicit directions for what to do once they went to the sites. Christina's Page
 * What I've learned from this assignment:** 