Teacher:

Traci Overstreet
Subject: Science
Unit: Earth and Space
Date: 4/8/2015
Defining Success

OBJECTIVE: What will your students be able to do by the end of class?

TEK: 8.7B demonstrate and predict the sequence of events in the lunar cycle.
1. Students will complete a chart demonstrating the phases of the moon.
2. Students will predict the next phase of the moon based on what is already given to them.

ASSESSMENT: How will you know concretely that all

of your students have mastered the objective?
Students will be graded on their lunar chart plate. And a
mini quiz where they have to label a lunar cycle chart.

KEY POINTS: What three to five main ideas or

steps will you emphasize in your lesson? May also
include key questions to ask during instruction.
1. What causes the moon to change?
2. What are the phases of the moon?
3. Can you label the phases of the moon correctly?

ENGAGE: 10 min
MATERIALS
I will ask the students how often they look at the moon. I will also ask them to name any
1. Dry erase
phases of the moon they might know and tell me what they look like if they can. Then I will markers
pass out papers for each group.
2. Phase of the
moon calendar
Each group will get a calendar month showing the moon phase for each day of that month. pages
The groups will have different months, so no one will have the same thing. On the board, I 3. White paper
will have different dates put up and I will ask certain students to go up and draw the moon
plates
phase from their month/day on the board.
4. Oreos
5. Markers
After weve put up a few examples, Ill ask the students what patterns they see with the
moon going from month to month.
EXPLORE: 25 min
I will take up the calendar months showing the moon phases from each group. Each group
will be considered a team. The next part of the lesson, Ill put up a phase of the moon on the
board and each team has to figure out what phase comes next based on what they already
know or think they know about the moon cycle.
Each team may discuss among themselves but then they have to have a designated artist who
draws the moon phase on the board. The first team to get it right will get a point. Well play
several rounds of this before declaring a winner whoever has the most points.
EXPLAIN: 15 min
I will show students a Prezi about the phases of the moon. It contains definitions, debunked
misconceptions, facts about the lunar cycle and a video showing a time lapse of the moon.
ELABORATE: 30 min

Students will be given white paper plates, oreos and markers and will be creating their own
lunar cycle.
Students will draw and color a sun on one side of the plate and the Earth in the middle of the
plate, leaving enough room to draw moon phases around the outside.
Students will take one side of the Oreo off of each Oreo. They will scrape the icing off or
keep it on depending on what phase of the moon its representing. Once they have all of the
phases placed correctly on their plate, Ill check it and then they can copy it with the markers
onto the plate while they eat their Oreos. They also must be able to label each phase of the
moon, the sun and the Earth.
EVALUATE: 10 min
Students will be graded on their completion / correctness of their phase of the moon plate.
There will also be a mini quiz at the end of the lesson where I will give students a lunar
cycle and they have to label it with the correct names.