Mrs. McGlone & Mrs. Raddish

Transcription

1 Dear Parent(s), We, as a class, will be starting a unit on the Earth, sun, and the moon and its phases. This will take place over a four week period. There is a web site that will be housing half of the materials that will be used within this science unit. The other half of the materials and projects we will be doing will be done in class at center time (i.e. hands on activities). After this letter, you will see a brief overview of just some of the projects we will be engaging in at center time. This overview will hopefully give you an idea of what your child is engaging in here at school and possibly aid in conversing with your child about what they are learning here at school! We are excited to explain to you about our exciting class project! As we have mentioned, we are learning about the Earth, moon, and sun. Additionally, we are learning to observe and record changes in the appearance of the moon. We will be observing the moon over the course of a month and recording its appearance in the nighttime sky so that we can see its complete cycle. Each child will be the official class Moon Watcher each night. Please take your child outside when night falls and search for the moon. How does it look? Your child will record his/her observations on calendar template that has been provided. If the night sky is too cloudy and your child is unable to see the moon please log into our Web-Based Learning Environment. The web address is: On the left hand side of the website you will find a Cloudy Night icon. This link will enable you and your child to see what the moon looks like on that night. We encourage you and your child to access the web-based learning system and view all of the wonderful learning opportunities that are available. Please take the time to visit the parent link on the left-hand side of the web site to see what materials we have made available for easy home accessibility. Additionally, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns you are more than welcome to contact us via our , school phone, or our online classroom journal site. To log on to our classroom journal site please use the following log in credentials: username is: Parent46455 and password: parent. We will check the online journal site almost daily. We will respond to any questions or concerns you may have in a timely manner. Please be sure to send your child s moon calendar back to school each and every day in their homework folder. We appreciate your support and look forward to embarking on this exciting journey to space with you and your child! Thank you for your continued support in your child s education. Mrs. McGlone & Mrs. Raddish

2 The various activities we will be doing in class are: 1.) 2.) Students will be painting outer space using black construction paper, yellow, red, and blue tempera paint or use colored chalk for this project. 3.) Students will observe what the sun and heat does to paper over time by taping construction paper to a window for 1 week. 4.) Students will be tracing each other s shadows using sidewalk chalk. 5.) Students will be creating the phases of the moon via this craft:

3 6.) Students will be putting the phases of the moon in order via this craft: 7.) Students will be creating and putting the phases of the moon in order with Oreo cookies!

4 Materials for each child: 8 Oreo cookies (4 for younger children) Paper towel A plastic spoon and/or a plastic knife Marker (optional) Oreo Moon Phases Halve and scrape Oreo cookies to illustrate Moon phases. Then arrange cookies on the poster in linear fashion beginning with the New Moon and ending with the Waning Crescent Moon. You may be familiar with other activities that place the phases in a circular formation. We feel this could, however, confuse young children if they attempt to conceptualize the location of the Sun or Earth in relation to the Moon s orbit. We, therefore, recommend that first children simply learn to correctly match the names with the appearances of each phase. For children younger than 8, you may want to model only 4 Moon phases, i.e. New Moon (completely dark), Crescent Moon, first Quarter (or Half) Moon, and Full Moon. Older children should be able to model all 8 phases, as shown below: New Moon Completely (or almost Waxing Crescent A small sliver of light on the First Quarter (or Half) Moon

5 completely) dark. right. The right half of the Moon is light Waxing Gibbous Three quarters of the right side of the Moon is light. The light is in the shape of a humpback (which is what the word gibbous means!) Full Moon The entire Moon is bright. 7 8 Waning Gibbous Three quarters of the left side of the Moon is light. Third Quarter (also Half) Moon The left half of the Moon is now light. Waning Crescent A small sliver of light now appears on the left side. Modified from Paper Plate Education Copyright 2006 Chuck Bueter All rights reserved.