The phases of the moon can be tough for children to understand. I made this tangible foam board (found on Pinterest) for students to see the Earth's view of the moon at each phase. They put their head in the middle and rotate it. It helps show how the lit part of the moon is the side that is facing the moon. They would help each other rotate, they loved this!
We also used Oreo Cookies to show what the moon looked like at each phase. They had so much fun turning the cookies into moons. They were so precise with their crescent, gibbous, and quarter moon shapes!
For the final product, students worked in groups to create their own planet. They gave their planet specific characteristics; size, climate, colors, number of rings and moons. Individually, they wrote a paragraph describing their planet and illustrated the design and colors. In the Art Studio, groups made a model of their planet out of paper mache. They also made a Flipgrid video talking about their planet and its specific characteristics. At Open House, the models will hang and families will be able to scan the QR Codes to see the group videos!
These are some of the fun mini-projects we did as part of our PBL. The students loved making the Fan Books. Each planet had it's own page with the planet facts. They loved coloring the planets to match the actual planets of our solar system! We also integrated our Spanish and Art classes into our projects. In Spanish, students made these flip books. In Art, students worked in their groups to create a paper-mache model of the planet they created!
