Objectives: At the end of this lesson, students will be able to discuss basic facts about the moon.
The moon incites children’s curiosity from a very young age. Although it’s a space object, it’s more accessible to children because of its dependability and proximity. Through this short unit, children will develop a deeper understanding of the moon.
Materials· - Lots of books about the moon (listed on the books page) from the library or your personal collection. - 1 "Moon Facts" worksheet per student group from Mensa for Kids
- Each student will read one book per person (silently) with their reading groups.
- Have the group order the books within the following categories by laying them out on the floor or on a table in order from most to least realistic.
- Have the child dictate a short book review of his/her favorite book to their group. Then the group picks their favorite book and one student from each group gives a review to the entire class. The review should include the following:
- The best thing about the book - Who he/she would recommend the book to (boy/girl, grade/age) - Reasons for recommendation (illustrations/story/funny/sad)
Then ask the student following questions:
- Would you like to go to the moon? Why or why not? - If you went to the moon, who would you take with you? - What do you think it would be like if we had two moons? How could we tell them apart?
- Read the facts on the worksheet about the moon and its phases. The facts are grouped in lists of five facts. Within each group, have the child rank the facts from 1 to 5 in order of most to least important to know, with 1 being most important and 5 being the least.
- After the facts are ranked, have the child put a star next to the facts he or she knew before reading the list.
Assessment:
- Formatively assess by watching and listening to the students book reviews and each individual group review. - Summatively assess by collecting the fact worksheets to check for understanding.
Resources:
- Interactive notebook pages: Prompt: Would you ever take a trip to the moon? Why or why not? Draw a picture of what you might find.