Fifth grade students will understand and learn about the phases of the moon and what causes the phases.

Transcription

1 Olga Kemencei Grade 5 Direct Instruction Lesson: Phases of the Moon Time allotted: 45 minutes Lesson Overview This lesson will introduce the phases of the moon and why they occur. Learning about the phases of the moon provides students with a better understanding of how the Earth is affected by objects in space. Because it is a new topic, the Direct Instruction strategy of the Behavioral Model will be used to teach this lesson. Standards National Standard NS.5-8.4: Earth and Space Science Content Standard D: As a result of their activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop an understanding Structure of the earth system Earth's history Earth in the solar system NYS Standards MST Standard 4: Science Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in science. Key Idea 1-Physical Setting: The Earth and celestial phenomena can be described by principles of relative motion and perspective Performance Indicator: Explain daily, monthly, and seasonal changes on Earth. Goals Fifth grade students will understand and learn about the phases of the moon and what causes the phases. Objectives Given the worksheet titled The Phases of the Moon, the student will work with a partner and describe using three statements the eight phases of the Moon with teacher guidance.

2 Materials Blank sheets of paper (enough for each student) PowerPoint Presentation titled The Phases of the Moon Ball size of large grapefruit (or any round object that size) Large flashlight Globe Pictures of the eight phases of the moon (one phase per picture) Introduction Anticipatory Set: The teacher will create a setting that will give the feel of being outside on a dark night by turning off the lights. This will also be a signal to get the students attention. The teacher will proceed to ask the students to close their eyes and imagine the night s sky. The teacher will say, Think about what you see in the night s sky. What stands out as the brightest object in the sky? After students respond with The moon, the teacher will ask the students to picture the moon on any given night. Ask the students to open their eyes keeping the image of the moon in their minds and handout blank sheets of paper. The students will now draw a large version of the image on the piece of paper and then share it with their neighbor. After sharing, the students will hold up their drawings. Transition: The teacher will respond with, As you can see the moon takes on many shapes. Today we will explore the moon and find out why and how it has many shapes. Development The Direct Instruction Strategy of the Behavioral Model will be used in this lesson through presenting, modeling, and demonstrating. The teacher will handout a graphic organizer that the students will use to write down their notes based on the PowerPoint Presentation. The teacher will now begin a presentation titled Phases of the Moon: Slide 1: Phases of the Moon-Aim: Why does the moon have phases? Check for Understanding (CFU): Ask the students, How many phases of the moon do you think there are? Slide 2: Facts about the Moon The moon never goes away or changes shape It does not give off its own light The moon orbits the Earth and the Earth orbits the Sun This movement is what causes the phases of the moon

3 CFU: Ask the students, What movement causes the phases of the moon? Students should have background knowledge of what the term orbit means. Slide 3: Earth s Orbit around the Sun Diagram/ Picture Slide 4: The Moon s Orbit around the Earth Diagram/Picture CFU: Ask student volunteers to come up in front of the class and act as the Sun, the Earth, and the moon. The Sun volunteer will stand still while the Earth volunteer walks around him/her. The Moon volunteer will begin walking around the Earth volunteer. This will provide a visual representation of the orbits of both the Earth around the Sun and the moon around the Earth. Slide 5: What causes the phases of the moon and why? Slide 6: The Moon We see the moon from Earth because the sunlight reflects on the moon During the course of approximately one month (29 days), the moon circles once around the Earth As it circles we see changes in the moon These changes we see are known as the phases of the moon CFU: Ask the students, How long does it take for the Moon to circle or orbit the Earth? Slide 7: Phases of the Moon Eight Phases of the Moon: 1. New Moon 2. Waxing Crescent 3. First Quarter 4. Waxing Gibbous 5. Full 6. Waning Gibbous 7. Last (Third) Quarter 8. Waning Crescent Terms to remember: Waxing means growing Moon Waning means shrinking Moon The phases are cyclical meaning they repeat every 29 days Slide 8: Moon, Earth, Sun as viewed from above our solar system Diagram/Picture Slide 9: Stop and Think How many phases of the moon are there?

4 How long does it take the moon to orbit Earth? What causes the phases of the moon? What does the term waxing mean? What does the term waning mean? At this point PAUSE the slideshow and turn on the lights. Go to Guided Practice to see if the students are understanding and learning about the phases of the Moon and why they occur. Slide 10: What Did You Learn Today? Video clip Throughout the development of the lesson, the teacher will check for understanding and get feedback from the students. The teacher should also tell students what to write and where to write in their graphic organizers. Transition: The teacher will say, Now that you know something about the moon and its phases, let s put your brain to the test! Begin the following guided practice activities: Guided Practice Activity 1: Ball and Flashlight Demonstration This activity will accommodate to visual learners. Have all materials including: ball and flashlight to start the activity. It would be helpful if all the desks were in a U-shape for this activity. Ask for 3 student volunteers to come up to the center of the room. Give one volunteer the flashlight (the sun), another volunteer will hold the ball and the last volunteer will hold the globe. Proceed with the following steps: 1. place one student at the center to hold the ball (explain to students that they will be using the ball as a model for the moon) 2. place the bright flashlight at one corner of the room 3. darken the classroom and turn on the flashlight 4. instruct students to observe the globe and to draw on their paper the shape of the shadow they see 5. once all students have completed their drawings, have the students share their drawings with the class beginning with student closest to the flashlight (proceed clockwise around the circle until all students have shared their drawings) 6. initiate a short discussion as to why the shadows appear as they do and the progression of the shadows around the circle Activity 2: Phaze Craze Before starting this activity the teacher will place eight large pictures of the phases of the moon up against the board. It is important to mix the phases up before putting up on the board. As a class have the students figure out the sequence of the phases of the moon starting with the New Moon phase. Student volunteers can also come up to the board and arrange one phase at a time

5 until in correct sequence. After this is complete, hand out Phases of the Moon worksheet and have students fill out the phases of the moon working in pairs. Activity 3 Describing the Phases The teacher should say, Now that we know what the phases look like, let s describe what we see. Have students complete the bottom half of the worksheet with their partner. They should describe each phase using 3 statements. Each statement should include: 1) When the phase occurs 2) Is it during the waxing or waning of the moon 3) What it looks like to them (i.e. smiley face or dark on one side) Teacher should be monitoring the students and guiding them to help answer the questions. Transition The teacher will say, You all did a great job today. I can see that you learned a lot from today s lesson about the Moon. Closure The teacher will show students a quick clip from the last slide of the PowerPoint Presentation reinforcing what they learned today. The beginning of the clip shows the moon going through all of its phases. This will provide the students with a visual of the actual phases of the moon. After the clip is over, the lesson will close with the teacher referring back to the class KWL chart (posted on the wall) that was created at the beginning of the unit on the solar system. As a class, the teacher and students will record what they know about the moon and its phases under the L (what they learned) section. Some questions to ask include: 1) Does the moon really change shape? 2) How many phases of the moon are there? 3) What does the moon orbit around? 4) How long does it take to get around? 5)What causes the phases of the moon? Independent Practice If time permits (In-class activity): Have students color the image they drew in the beginning of the lesson and write a sentence about what phase of the moon it looks like and what they learned today about that phase. Homework (out of class activity): The teacher will handout phases of the moon chart. The teacher will say, Tonight your job will be to take a look at the moon and draw what the moon looks like on your chart and record what phase you think it is in. Tomorrow we will discuss what we saw. Accommodations and Modifications This lesson accommodates to different learning styles. There is a PowerPoint Presentation accompanied with a graphic organizer along with a print out of the notes will also be available for those who need it. For the visual learners, the information and more difficult concepts, such as an orbit, will be presented in the forms of pictures and modeling. In order to reach the more advanced learner, the teacher could offer extra guided practice by going to the site

6 3/phases_moon/phases_moon.html and have the students work with the applet and record their discoveries. Evaluation Diagnostic: The pictures the students drew at the beginning of the lesson were used to asses their prior knowledge and understanding of the different shapes of the moon. Formative: Throughout the lesson the teacher will be checking for understanding and receiving feedback from the students by asking questions and the students will complete a graphic organizer to monitor what they are learning. Summative: The teacher will use the outcomes of the guided practice activities, the closure, and independent practice as an assessment of this lesson. Reflection/Critique of Lesson 1. Does my overview include What, How, and Why? 2. Did the anticipatory set help me assess student s prior knowledge? 3. Was the anticipatory set engaging enough for the student s to want to learn more about the moon? 4. Did my presentation meet the objective of the lesson? 5. Was the content of my slides clear and to the point? 6. Did I check for understanding? 7. Did I provide enough drill and practice for the students to be able to practice independently? 8. Did I include work suitable for all learners? 9. Did I provide ample time for students to learn this topic? 10. Does my closure provide a quick wrap up of the lesson? 11. Can the student s complete the independent practice on their own? 12. Was this the right type topic to use for a DI LP? 13. Did I accommodate and meet the needs of all learners? Resources Technology: ssons/lesson4/phasesmoon.html

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