Phases of the Moon

 I've been studying about the phases of the moon this evening in preparation for my 4th grade reading class this week. Before they read a book, focusing on generalizations, I need to give them some background on the moon phases. The story will make much more sense if I do this before we read.

Well, the lesson plan requires me to use scientific diagrams to show and explain the moon phases, and why the moon looks the way it does at different times of the month. In other words, I am going to have to tell them about the new moon, the quarter moon, the half moon, and the full moon, and if possible, explain where the moon is in relation to our earth and the sun during each of these phases.

As much as I love reading science fiction, I hadn't thought much about explaining these things, but teachers have to know enough to explain enough, so I found a book about the moon in my bookcase that I had bought before I even became a teacher (because, I guess, I am a geek after all, but only a geek, not a super geek, or a major geek, btw).

The pictures and explanations were scientific enough for even a fourth grader to understand, which means I got it!

The graphic I copied above is from a moon phase website. This is what our moon looks like tonight. Judging from the picture, and from what I see outside, that means our moon at this time is just past the first quarter moon phase, and waxing toward the full moon. ( I hope the link I left works... I tried it once but when I saved it, it wasn't linked).

If you are a moon afficianado, let me know if  I'm wrong... but do it before I tell my students!

Then, as if reading my mind, the phone rings, and it's my friend and neighbor, Alyson, telling me to run outside and look at the moon! What's the chance?

I go outside while she's still on the phone,  and she tells me there is a huge ring around the moon, larger than what we normally call a halo, a very wide diameter... I don't know if that is a weather predictor... I know when we see a halo around the moon, it means snow within ten days. But this was not a typical halo, it was much further away from the moon than most halos I've seen.

Know anything about that? Leave a response if you are a moon watcher.

And if you want to find out what the moon will look like on any particular night in the future, or how it looked on any given date in the past, go to Virtual Reality Moon Phase Pictures, from the US Naval Observatory (http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/), where you can plug in dates and times, and click, a picture of the moon. Really cool if you like these kinds of things.

Thanks, Bea