Monitor the Moon

The Moon appears to change shape because you cannot always see all of it. You only see the part that the Sun shines on. The size and shape of the sunlit part of the Moon changes as the Moon revolves around Earth. These different shapes are called the phases of the Moon. In this activity, you and your family will watch the Moon and observe its phases.

A table to record the dates that phases of the moon were observed:
Picture of Moon Phase Name of Moon Phase Date Observed
last quarter moon Last quarter
waning crescent moon Waning crescent
new moon New moon
waxing crescent moon Waxing crescent
first quarter moon First quarter
waxing gibbous moon Waxing gibbous
full moon Full moon
waning gibbous moon Waning gibbous

Materials

Procedure

With an adult, look out your windows at night and find the Moon. If you cannot see the Moon from a window, ask the adult to take you outside. Look at the shape of the Moon. Find the matching shape in the chart and write the date that you saw this phase of the Moon. Repeat this for at least two weeks. If you can make observations for about 28 days, you should be able to see all the phases of the Moon.

Results

How many phases of the Moon did you observe? How many days passed between different phases? How did the weather affect your observations?