Moon Journal
What Are We Doing? You and your child will observe the Moon over the course of a
month and note how its shape appears to change in a Moon Journal.
How Long Will It Take Us? A few minutes every other night for a month.
What’s Needed?
The night sky
One Moon journal for each child or 15 paper plates
A dark-colored and a light-colored pencil (markers or crayons)
How Do We Start?
Print out the Moon Journal pages, preferably double-sided. Cut the pages in half, so
that there are two journals. Staple the pages together so that you have a booklet with
the front cover showing the title and place for your child’s name; the other pages should
show a circle and place for the date.
Ask your child if the Moon always looks the same in the sky? Does it change? If so,
how long does it take to change? What does it look like? Does the Moon make its own
light, like the Sun?
Note: The Moon rises and sets at different times during the day, so you may have to
shift your viewing time. In general:
Phase
New Moon
First Quarter
Full Moon
Third Quarter
Rises
Sunrise
Noon
Sunset
Midnight
Overhead
Noon
Sunset
Midnight
Sunrise
Sets
Sunset
Midnight
Sunrise
Noon
What Do We Do?
On a clear night, go outside and look at the Moon with your child. What does the
Moon look like? What part is light and what part is dark? Help your child color
the Moon circle in their journal (or the circle on the paper plate that is on the flat
part of the plate) to illustrate what the Moon looks like. Have them color the lightcolored part of the Moon with the light-colored pencil and in dark part with the
dark-colored pencil. Mark the date on the page (or the paper plate edge).
Every other night or so, view the Moon with your child. Note: Sometimes it is too
hard to see changes if the Moon is viewed every night. Have them color in the
next page on the journal (or paper plate) with what they observe about the light
and dark parts of the Moon. If using paper plates, hang them in a line along a
wall as your child completes them.
Some nights may be too cloudy for viewing. You can have your child skip a page
if you wish; based on what they observed on nights before and after the cloudy
nights, what do they think the shape might have been?
After you and your child have viewed the Moon for a few
weeks, review the Moon Journal. What is happening to the
shape of the Moon? How is it changing? What does your
child predict will happen over the next few days?
Wrapping Up
Once you have viewed the Moon for a month or more, review the
Moon Journal. What happened to the shape of the Moon? You and
your child should have observed that the Moon changed shape
growing (waxing) to a full Moon and getting smaller (waning) until
the new Moon phase was reached (depending on the Moon’s
phase when you started viewing).
What does your child think will happen to the Moon next? The
lunar phases are a cycle; the Moon’s shape will appear to change
in the cycle of phases from new to first quarter to full to third
quarter and back to new to repeat the cycle.
Does the Moon make its own light? No. Like all planets and moons
in our solar system, the Moon reflects the Sun’s light. If the Moon
made its own light the entire Moon should be bright all the time; it
is hard to explain why we see a changing shape from a thin
crescent to the full Moon. The Sun’s shape does not change, nor
does a light bulb’s. Based on your child’s observations of the
Moon’s phases over their nights of viewing, they should also
recognize that the Moon’s shape does not change because of
clouds.
Moon Phase
Investigator Journal
Name: ___________________
Moon Phase
Investigator Journal
Name: ___________________
The Moon looked like:
The Moon looked like:
on __________________________
on __________________________
The Moon looked like:
The Moon looked like:
on __________________________
on __________________________
date and month
date and month
date and month
date and month
The Moon looked like:
The Moon looked like:
on __________________________
on __________________________
The Moon looked like:
The Moon looked like:
on __________________________
on __________________________
date and month
date and month
date and month
date and month
The Moon looked like:
The Moon looked like:
on __________________________
on __________________________
The Moon looked like:
The Moon looked like:
on __________________________
on __________________________
date and month
date and month
date and month
date and month
The Moon looked like:
The Moon looked like:
on __________________________
on __________________________
The Moon looked like:
The Moon looked like:
on __________________________
on __________________________
date and month
date and month
date and month
date and month
The Moon looked like:
The Moon looked like:
on __________________________
on __________________________
The Moon looked like:
The Moon looked like:
on __________________________
on __________________________
date and month
date and month
date and month
date and month
The Moon looked like:
The Moon looked like:
on __________________________
on __________________________
The Moon looked like:
The Moon looked like:
on __________________________
on __________________________
date and month
date and month
date and month
date and month
The Moon looked like:
The Moon looked like:
on __________________________
on __________________________
The Moon looked like:
The Moon looked like:
on __________________________
on __________________________
date and month
date and month
date and month
date and month
The Moon looked like:
The Moon looked like:
on __________________________
on __________________________
The Moon looked like:
The Moon looked like:
on __________________________
on __________________________
date and month
date and month
date and month
date and month