Learning About the Phases of the Moon for Preschoolers

The boys had a blast learning about the phases of the moon last week.  We worked on this during our Goodnight Moon Unit and even though this was mainly for Vito, I decided to include Mavi as well.  With this, I prepared two sets of learning materials:  one for a preschooler and the other is for older kids (elementary).  This post is on how you can introduce the moon and its phases to kids from 3years and older.

Books

We read a number of books about the moon.  Most of which are fiction which you can find here and the Papa Can You Please Get The Moon For Me is the book that best describe the phases of the moon which is child-friendly.

3 Part Cards

We love using 3 part cards.  To know more about the Montessori 3 Part Cards and its benefits, read here.

This is Vito working on the phases of the moon 3 part cards. I was pretty surprised that he sat with me the entire time, watched my presentation and patiently worked on matching the phases. He loved this!  He would pick a picture card , ask me what it is (he would repeat the name of the picture card) and matched it to the control card. I love that he repeats the word that I’m saying, it goes to show that he is trying to absorb and understand the image. Our convesation is like this:

Vito: What’s this?

Me:  That’s the full moon.

Vito: Oh it’s the full moon.

He would work on the cards every morning.  Below, this was the time I worked with Mavi, but he insisted to work on his cards too.

These are the materials for Vito. I got a control sheet wherein I used this to show Vito the position of the Earth, sun and moon.  Then I got the 3 part cards for the matching activity.  Hopefully next year when he’s able to read, we can use the labels.  For now, we’re settling with the picture cards and control cards only.  The felt Earth and moon were DIY and made 5 years ago for Mavi. 

And here’s how Vito showed me how the moon orbits the Earth.

      

Just a side note, here’s the setup for elementary.  The presentation is so different from my preschool materials.  The booklet is for Mavi to read.  I didn’t make a matching description cards for him yet, Im reserving that for later.

Just wanted to show you that Vito can easily identify the phases. Though he can’t name them yet, but he can match the 3 part cards to the images in the wallchart.  Yes, he is invading his big brother’s work area.

And here he is pretending to read the labels. 

I mentioned in my Instagram account that we would also observe the moon at night.  We were blessed a few weeks back of good weather and clear skies, so there were days that we were able to see crescent moon!

** For the preschool version,  Phases of the Moon is available in our Goodnight Moon Early Literacy Pack.  

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