Our Delicious Moon
By Caroline Wyman
Objective: The children will be able to recall the different phases of the moon by biting into Nilla Wafers, tracing the pattern, and labeling them. Grades 1-3
Initiation: Did anyone see the moon last night? Can you tell the class what phase the moon was when you saw it?
Development: Pass out an 8 1/2 by 11 paper folded hot dog way and have them fold it into fourths. Go ahead and show an example with them. They can then open the paper on their desk and have them make sure they have 8 boxes. Pass out a baggie of 5 cookies for each student. Tell them to only take out 1 cookie at a time.
- First trace one whole cookie in the first box and shade it in with a gray crayon. This is a New Moon.
- Take out the next cookie. Bite on the left side of the cookie (carefully) until it looks like a backward c. Trace it in box #2. This is the Waxing Crescent.
- Take out another cookie. Bite off half. Trace it in box #3. This is the First Quarter Moon.
- Take out another cookie. Bite along the right side and trace it in box#4. This is the Waxing Gibbous.
- Take out another cookie. This will be traced whole in box #5. This is a full Moon.
- Take the cookie from box #4 and flip it over. Trace it in box #6. This is the Waning Gibbous.
- Take the cookie from box#3 flip it over and trace it. This is the Last Quarter Moon.
- Take the cookie from box#3 flip it and trace it box #8. This is the Waning Crescent.
Make sure all moon phases have been labeled in each box. Have extra cookies on hand just in case. Let the students know that as soon as they have completed all of the phase, they can go ahead and eat their moons!!!
Closure: Read a story about our moon. There are many out there.
Materials: Cookies, baggies, paper, crayon, book.
Time: 30-40min.
Caroline Wyman has a degree in Sociology and a Masters in Elementary Education and is the administrator for TeacherNet.com.