Phases of the Moon

Phases of the Moon

Multiple Choice

How many squares can you see in the image?

• 20

• 15

• 10

• 5

The Moon and Earth

The Moon orbits Earth and reflects sunlight. It takes about 27 days to go around once.

• The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite

• It takes about 27.3 days to orbit the Earth

• The moon doesn't make its own light - it reflects the sun

Multiple Choice

The Moon makes it own light.

• True

• False

The Moon orbits Earth in a circle. It always shows the same side to us.

The reason it always shows us the same size is because it's spinning in time with its orbit.

The Moon's Orbit

Multiple Choice

What word describes the Moon’s path around Earth?

• Spin

• Orbit

• Eclipse

• Rotation

As the Moon orbits Earth, we see different amounts of the lit-up side.

These are called the phases of the Moon.

Phases of the Moon

The Moon has phases because we see different parts of its lit-up side.

Waning means that we see less of the moon.

Waning

Waxing means that we can see more of the moon.

​​Waxing

Match

Some of the names of the phases of the Moon are given below, with descriptions of how they appear. Match each image of the Moon with its name.

New Moon

The whole moon appears dark

Crescent Moon

Less than half is bright

Quarter Moon

Exactly half is bright

Gibbous Moon

More than half is bright

Full Moon

Whole Moon is bright

• New Moon

  The whole moon appears dark

• Crescent Moon

  Less than half is bright

• Quarter Moon

  Exactly half is bright

• Gibbous Moon

  More than half is bright

• Full Moon

  Whole Moon is bright

Drag and Drop

The phases of the Moon depend on where the Moon is in its​

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. The moon takes ​​

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to complete one orbit. Half of the moon is always lit up by the ​

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and the other half is always in shadow. From Earth, we see different amounts of the bright side at different times of the ​

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.

Drag these tiles and drop them in the correct blank above

orbit

29.5 days

Sun

month

29.5 weeks

crescent

day

gibbous

Earth

Drag and Drop

When the bright part appears to be shrinking, the Moon is said to be

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. When the bright part appears to be growing, the Moon is said to be

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.

Drag these tiles and drop them in the correct blank above

waning

waxing

Multiple Select

Select the two phases of the lunar cycle when the Moon, Earth and Sun are in a straight line.

• New Moon

• First Quarter

• Full Moon

• Third Quarter

Multiple Choice

Identify why the Moon appears dark during a new moon phase.

• It loses its ability to reflect light

• It lies between the Sun and Earth, so we can only see its shadowed side

• It lies on the opposite side of the Earth to the Sun, so it falls in our plahet's shadow