Skip to main content

Moon Phase Box











I happened to walk into a fourth grade class the other day and they were hard at work making moon phase boxes. They were totally adorable and the kids were completely into it. The teacher very kindly let me take some pictures (thank you Mrs. Parker!) and add to my blog.



Students would need a shoe box and they need to cover the inside and inside lid with black construction paper. Using fishing wire they would hang a ping pong ball in the center of the lid so it is suspended in the center of the box. They then take a flashlight and trace the light end on one of the short ends of the box and then create viewing flaps in the middle of every side (including the one with the light bulb (but that might be slightly off center). It is important that the viewing areas are flaps and not cut directly out (you need to keep the light coming into the box blocked as much as possible).



The teacher used a box cutter to cut the flaps and flashlight hole for the children. I probably would have had students do the cutting and get a parent volunteer to oversee the safety of that station. I am a big believer in letting children do things like cutting (it gives them confidence and makes it easier on me :)



Once it is complete you put the lid on and put the flashlight in the hole. When you look through the viewing stations you will see the ping ball is lit up like the main phases of the moon (only four phases).



Seemed like a very doable project to add into an astronomy unit.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I love this idea and was wondering if each student did their own box?
Anonymous said…
I have seen you wearing the FrontRow microphone in several picture posts...what do you think about the system? I can't seem to find a price anywhere without getting a quote. Would you recommend it?
Eve Heaton said…
I think all the students did their own boxes. I need to ask the teacher how she went about collecting the shoe boxes.

The FrontRow microphone is part of our Promethean Board package all our classrooms have. I like using it but a lot of our teachers don't like it (clunky...they think they are loud enough, etc.).
Kerr Crew said…
We did an Oreo Moon Phase project (virtually) and the students loved it because they remembered the terms based on how much white cream was showing on the oreo! I like the moon box idea!

Popular posts from this blog

Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition Activity

I saw this activity at a science conference years ago and haven't had a chance to use it in a classroom until this week (mainly because I didn't teach weathering, erosion, and deposition). It is a great way to reinforce the definition of the weathering, erosion, and deposition in a highly kinesthetic manner. Basically you break the students up into groups of three. One group is "Weathering" another group is "Erosion" and the third group is "Deposition". Add tape to the back because you are going to stick them to the forehead of the children in each group. The "weathering" students get a sheet of paper that is their "rock" they will be breaking down. At the start of the activity the "weathering" students will start ripping tiny pieces of their "rock" and handing it to the "erosion" students. The "erosion" students will be running their tiny piece of "rock&

Picture of the Day - Activity

I attended a training class and a science coach shared an activity that he does with his students to help them differentiate between observations, inferences, and predictions. He puts a picture on the interactive white board as a warm up (he gets the pictures from a variety of sources but uses National Geographic's Picture of the Day a lot). The picture above is from the National Geographic site. He has the students make five observations. Then he makes the students make five inferences. Finally he has the students make five predictions. He does this every day and it really drives home the difference between those three key inquiry vocabulary terms. I've done this activity with both my sixth and fourth grade science classes and the students really got into it and became proficient at telling me the difference between those terms.

Rock Cycle Activity

Today I got to spend the day with a 3rd grade science teacher doing a rock cycle activity. She had asked for help a couple of weekends ago to find some engaging rock cycle activities for her students. I quickly did a Pinterest search and came up with a link to a middle school blog where they featured a fun looking rock cycle station activity. That website took me to the originating activity site - Illinois State Museum Geology Online and their Ride the Rock Cycle activity . I read through it and felt it was doable for third graders (although I was a little nervous about the cartooning). I offered my help and we put together the activity. The kids did it WONDERFULLY. It was one of those lesson you wish was observed (but of course never is :) They are on an alternating science schedule so she only had two of the four classes today but it was a good sampling of children. She had one class that had a high portion of struggling learners and the second class had a high