Field Assignment: Phases of the Moon

Name: Emily Gross

Grade Level: Half-day Kindergarten
Subject: Science
Date: October 20, 2015
1. Title/Source of lesson: Moon Phases
Source: Dr. Nazan Bautista
2. Description of learners: percent or numerical description of gender, race, IEPs, ELLs,
etc.
The information below is descriptions of the learners of my morning and afternoon
kindergarten classes.
Morning class:
10 boys
14 girls
23 total students
8 Hispanics, 2 Asians, 7 African Americans and 6 Caucasians
4 students are on IEPs
2 students qualify as gifted, but will not receive services until second grade.
4 no speaking English learners
2 limited speaking English learners
6 students qualify for TITLE 1 services
Afternoon class
13 boys
8 girls
21 total students
1 African American, 2 East Asians, 18 Caucasians
1 student is on an IEP
No English language learners
4 students qualify for TITLE 1 services
3. Grade Band Theme:
Strand: Earth and Space Science (ESS)
Topic: Daily and Seasonal Changes
Condensed Content Statement(s): The moon, sun and stars can be observed at different
times of the day or night.
Science Inquiry and Application:
Observe and ask questions about the natural world
Discuss observations and make connections to the real world
Record observations and make conclusions based upon these observations
Perform a simple investigation
Use simple tools

4. Instructional Objectives:
Students will be able to explain why the moon creates different phases.
Students will be able to draw various phases of the moon throughout a month.
5. Differentiation(s):
In my morning class I have 6 English Language Learners. For my ELLs specifically, I
would identify key vocabulary to the students before the lesson starts. This will help my ELLs gain
an understanding of the meaning of the word in English, especially since a numerous amount of
mine students are no speaking ELLs. Additionally, my ELLs go to an ESL teacher every day. I will
provide an overview of the unit/lesson for her to provide follow-up practice and extension. When I
am giving oral instructions or information, I will write key words or phrases on the whiteboard for a
visual. If this activity were to be done with partners, I would pair my English students with an ELL.
This can help with communication, social skills, and my English speakers can give guidance to ELLs
who are having a difficult time. I want to give the student ongoing opportunities during the lesson to
show understanding with a thumbs-up signal, or lack of understanding with a thumbs-down signal.
Not only do my ELLs benefit from a variety of medias, I have numerous students who are
visual learners. I want to provide ample opportunities for the information to be presented to my
students. While the first activity will be hands-on using the lamp and ping pong balls to represent
the sun and the moon, I will be reading a book about the phases of the moon, as well as showing a
BrainPOP Jr. video that is an interactive video about the moon. When my students are drawing and
writing the phases of the moon, I will have a visuals provided for them on the board to see the name
of the different phases. My kindergarteners are in the process of learning how to spell short CVC
words. Since they will be unable to spell the phases, if a visual is provided for them, as well as myself
writing the word on the board, they will have a correlation between the word and what the phase is.
The activity is hands on, which makes the learning more accessible to all students. Students will be
able to physically observe the moons changes as well as hearing about the changes through a video,
thereby appealing to both visual and auditory learners.
6. Materials/Resources Needed:
Lamp
Ping pong balls with strings attached
Dark room with minimal lighting
Phase of the moon worksheet
BrainPOP Jr. Video
Moon log for post-assessment (observing the moon throughout a month)
7. Sequence of events:
To start this lesson, I will do a pre-assessment. The goal of my pre-assessment is to see what
knowledge my students have of the moon.
Students will be given a white sheet of paper. I will ask students to draw the moon how they
have seen it.
Once I have seen the drawings my students created, I will ask open-ended questions to elicit
the students observances with the phases of the moon.
These questions will include:
What do you notice about the moon?
How much of the moon can you see?

 How much of the moon is dark?

Is there any time that the moon is completely dark?
While students are answering these questions, I will write them on our smart board. I am not
here to give the right or wrong answers, but listen to students responses to these questions.
This is another form of assessment where I am gauging my students prior knowledge along
with any misconceptions that they have.
We will come back to these questions after the activity has been completed.
After the pre-assessment has been completed, I will start the main activity.
I will have set up the lamp in a center location where all students can see.
I will have a student turn off the lights. This is when I will turn on the lamp.
Before we start the activity, I will explain to my students that we are going to be
astronomers. An astronomer is someone who studies or investigates space. We need to
investigate the moon today! This is a way I can engage my students. By showing that I am
excited, my students will be eager to investigate the moon.
I will explain that since we cannot go into space, the lamp is going to be our sun. It shines
bright like a sun does. Mrs. Gretta will be the earth, letting students know that this the place
that we live. I will introduce the ping pong ball. The ping pong ball is the moon.
Since my students are in kindergarten, it will be best to guide them through this activity.
(Guided-inquiry lesson)
I will take the moon and rotate it around Mrs. Grettas head. I will do this multiple times.
I will ask the question: What do you notice the moon is doing?
I am hoping that an answer will be related to the fact that the moon is rotating around the
earth. If this does not occur, I will rotate the moon, specifically telling students to watch how
the moon is moving.
Once students know that the moon is circling around the earth, I will guide student thinking
towards what the moon looks like.
The ping pong ball will rotate around Grettas head multiple times. Each time it rotates, I
will remind students to watch what happens to the moon when it goes around the earth.
When I am done rotating the moon around earth, I will do a Think Pair Share. Students will
talk to the person next to them about what just happened. Questions that can be asked are:
What did you notice about the moon?
What happened when the moon rotated around the earth?
Did you see anything change? Why do you think this?
Why do you think the moon looked different as it went around the moon?
When students are done talking to their partner, our class will come together and answer
these questions.
We will refer back to the questions that we answered in the beginning of the class, and can
add any more information we found out to our list about the moon after this discovery.
After this part has taken place, it is the appropriate time for the teacher to explain why the moon
creates phases. This needs to be done in a way that kindergarteners will understand.
The moon is lit because it reflects the light from the sun. The part of the moon facing the
sun is lit up. The part facing away from the sun is in darkness.
The phases of the Moon depend on its position in relation to the Sun and Earth. As the
Moon makes its way around the Earth, we see the bright parts of the Moon's surface at

different angles. These are called "phases" of the Moon. These phases look like the moon is
changing shape, but they are just reflections. Our moon is always a circle.

This part is extremely important. Students need to know that moon does not
physically change shapes. It will always be a circle. We see different shapes
because of the reflection. Whatever part of the moon is reflected from the sun
creates a shape. These are called the phases.

All of this information is fresh in students minds. That is why I will provide a
BrainPOP video, along with a book. This gives students 2 other times to hear the
information about the moon.
Once students have had a firm grasp on of the above content, they will be ready to be
introduced to the names of these phases.
Friends, now that we know the moon creates different phases, we are going to find
out the names of these phases! Some of you may know a name already. Does anyone
know what we call a moon that is full? When you look in the sky you see a perfect
circle!

This part is a way to engage students in the figuring out the phases of the
moon. Most likely full moon and possibly new moon will be identified.
Then the BrainPOP video will be played. While students are watching this video, I
will get my book ready along with my pictures of the phases of the moon. I will use
real life images to show what the moon looks like during each phase.
When the video is done, I will ask questions.
What new information did you learn about the moon?
What phases of the moon names did you hear?
When students name a phase of the moon, I will provide the picture on the board
along with the name of that phase. We will do this until each picture has been put up
on the board. When describing the names of the phases, it is important to remember
to explain to students that these phases go in a specific order. This can be brought
back to how we talked about a rotation. The moon rotates around the earth. It goes
through all of these phases and then starts over.
Once all of this information has been given, students will fill out a worksheet. This worksheet will be
a reference for the assessment activity. This worksheet has students draw the phases of the moon
that occur during a moon cycle. They will be able to draw these phases based on previous
observations, class discussions, the video and the pictures on the board.
When students have finished this, I will look over each students paper. If I see that students are
severely struggling, we will go back and provide ongoing instruction. This worksheet leads into the
closing part of our activity, which is also the assessment.
Students will be astronomers for the entire month. Using their moon worksheet, they will
record their observations of the moon for the month of November. Each day they will look
outside and record what they see.
When the month is over, students will bring their moon log back to school and turn it in for
assessment.
This part is imperative to elicit students excitement. The teacher must create a sense
of anticipation in the classroom. Students are going to be astronomers. This is a new word
that will be introduced.

 An astronomer is someone who studies the moon! We need to study the moon for
the month to see all the different phases it goes through. Remember the phases go in order!
Look on our board to see the order in which the phases occur.
8. Assessment plan (Be specific as to how you will assess students UNDERSTANDING and how you will
determine whether or not the students have understood the content taught. Your assessment plan should be aligned
with your learning objectives as well as your instructional activity. Also, remember that assessment should take
place during the entire lesson, not just in the end). You may use the following sub-headings where appropriate.
Pre-assessment: Students will be given a white sheet of paper. I will ask students to draw the
moon how they have seen it. This is an open-ended activity, which the goal is to see what
students know about how the moon looks during the night time. Once I have seen the drawings
my students created, I will ask open-ended questions to elicit the students observances with the
phases of the moon.
During the entire lesson the teacher will gauge the students understanding. By consistently
asking open ended questions, the teacher can see if the students are completely lost or are doing
okay. If students are confused, the teacher can redirect instruction back to what is not being
understood by students.
Post-assessment: Students will have a moon log. They will have a booklet for each day in the
month of October. Students will observe the moon at night and draw their recordings. Using the
worksheet they completed above, students can use this as a reference to help in figuring out
what the moon phases is. The moon log must include a drawing of what they saw, along with
the name of that phase they believe the moon is. When students turn in their moon log, I will
have a mini conference. I will ask questions about what they saw during the month and what
happened to the moon.
Formative assessment: The teacher will be assessing student understanding throughout the
class discussions, questions answered and their post assessment activity. The teacher will also use
the moon log as an assessment to see if students are able to show their understanding that the
moon has phases through an entire rotation cycle.

Post-assessment:
Criteria used to assess student understanding (e.g., rubric)
This is the worksheet that students
will complete. Their job is to draw
the phase of the moon to the
corresponding name.

Below is an example of what a page in the moon log would look like. Students will write the
day they are observing, the phase they believe the moon is, along with their drawing or
observation of what the moon looks like. Furthermore, the rubric is provided on how I will
assess students.
Day # _______
Phase of the moon: _________________________
Observation:

1- Needs Improvement

2- Getting Better

3-Profcient

Students completed half or

less of their moon log.

Students completed half or

more of their moon log.

Students completed their

entire moon log.

Students labeled half or less

of the phases of the moon
correctly in their moon log.

Students labeled half or

more of the phases of the
moon correctly in their
moon log.

Students labeled all of the

phases of the moon
correctly in their moon log.

Students are not able to

explain why there there are
phases of the moon.

Students are somewhat able

to explain why there are
phases of the moon.

Students are able to explain

why there are phases of the
moon.

Reflection
I had the opportunity to teach a science lesson regarding the phases of the moon. While we
always hope a lesson will be successful, this unfortunately was not. The goal of this lesson was for
students to be able to explain why the moon creates different phases, as well as discussing how the
moon changes throughout the month. The how part is directly referring to the different names of the
phases of the moon and what they look like.
To start this lesson, I did a pre-assessment with my students. Students received a white piece
of paper, in which they were to draw what they think the moon looks like. The goal was to see what
students knew about the moon. The majority of students drew an entire circle. I did however have
some who drew crescent moons or half moons. This showed me that some students knew the moon
is not always full, or circular, but can look like different shapes. After collecting students papers, I
asked a series of questions. The goal was not to give the correct answers to the students, but was
another way for me to see access students prior knowledge. This was the perfect time to see if my
students had any misconceptions about the moon. The first question I asked was, what do you
notice about the moon? The leading answer I received was, the moon changes shapes, I then
asked, Friends, give me a thumbs up if you think the moon changes shapes, or a thumbs down if
you think it does not change shapes. Over half of my class gave a thumbs up. This let me know
that my students had a misconception about the moon. While it looks like the moon physically
changes shapes, it is the reflection that is creating the shape, or phase of the moon. I immediately
knew that the objective of my lesson was to show students that the moon does not physically
change shapes. We see different shapes because of the reflection. Whatever part of the moon is
reflected from the sun creates a reflection that looks like a shape. We on earth only see the
reflection, but the entire moon is still there. These are called the phases of the moon.

When asking students open-ended questions about the moon, we wrote a list on our board.
The purpose of this list was to validate students thinking. I was not the one teaching or giving
information, but simply being a facilitator of students ideas. On this list was students
misconceptions. I purposefully did this because I wanted to come back to this list later. Once
students had the correct understanding of the moon and its phases, I wanted them to see what they
first believed was true to what they believed now. We would be able to go back and critique our
previous answers, and then write a new list of what we found out about the moon.
After my pre-assessment was completed, the next appropriate step was to do an activity that
would put students in a situation where they not only saw that their misconception was wrong, but a
situation that showed what was correct. The activity I choose to do was an inquiry-based lesson.
Students were the ones constructing their own knowledge. Using a lamp and a ping pong ball,
students would be able to see the the sun reflecting on the moon while rotating around the earth.
The ping pong ball was showing the different phases of the moon.
After this part of the activity, students were going to watch a BrainPOP video that gave
more in-depth explanations of why there are phases of the moon. The purpose was to show the
video after the activity had taken place. Instead, my teacher decided to play the video before the
activity. This lesson quickly turned from an inquiry-based lesson to a complicated mess.
By showing the video first, students lost all chances to construct their own knowledge, a key
component of inquiry-based lessons. This video gave a significant amount of information. While it
was less than 5 minutes, students were thrown with vocabulary terms, scientific knowledge and
flustered minds. The goal of my inquiry lesson was by doing the activity with the lamp, students
were going to make observations. While I would pose questions, using the hands-on approach let
students see what the moon does while rotating around earth. Students were going to develop and
evaluate their explanations based on evidence they gathered from watching the moon rotate around

the earth. These are all characteristics of an inquiry lesson that would help students build their
knowledge on why the moon creates phases.
After the video was shown, students had numerous questions, one specifically regarding why
the moon does not change shapes. This was a misconception that my students had, and instead of it
being addressed and answered during the inquiry-lesson, the video created confusion and frustration
from students. I did have my activity set up, so I decided to give it a try in hopes of still salvaging
this entire lesson. I soon realized that after the video was shown, my students quickly lost interest in
the entire lesson. Because students had received all the information from the video, they were
uninterested in my activity. While I was able to get through the activity, I was upset with the
outcome. I hoped that my students would be investigators and build their own comprehension on
why the moon has phases.
I decided that it was best to read the book I brought in that talked about the specific phases
of the moon. I had large picture cards that showed a real image of the moon during a particular
phase. When we would read about a phase in the book, I took that picture and placed it on the
board along with the name of that phase. Showing the phases on the board helped students
complete their worksheet that would be used as a reference in completing their moon log.
Students completed their worksheets, and then I was able to describe their moon log. I
explained to students that they were going to be astronomers and record their observations of the
moon for an entire month, or a cycle of a moon. Using the worksheet as a guide, students were to
draw the moon for each day of the month of November. While I was unable to be present during
the assessment, Mrs. Gretta sent me an email regarding how students did in terms of their moon log.
A key component to remember is Mrs. Gretta chooses not to provide homework for her students.
When the moon logs were turned, many had blank pages. I felt that this was simply because students
forgot. It is asking a lot for kindergartners to properly keep a log for an entire month. While some

students brought back their moon logs completed, they were still unable to explain why the moon
creates these phases. They memorized the names, but did not meet the objectives that we had set.
Now that this lesson has ended, I know there are an abundance of changes I would make.
Like I stated above, the video is unfortunately what ruined this lesson. To make this a true inquiry
lesson, the video would be provided after the activity takes place. Students would be able to explore
and investigate during the lamp activity, and together we would construct their knowledge on why
there are phases of the moon. The video and book would be provided as a tool for additional
support during the explanation process. #7 stated above is the ideal situation in which my lesson
plan would be taught.
Additionally, I felt that this concept was hard for kindergarteners. I found it a little
outrageous to teach students about the phases of the moon, when many do not even know what
planet we live on, or any information about the moon in general. In the future, I believe it would be
beneficial to teach this lesson over an extended period of time. Possibly a week or two, giving
students an abundance of chances to grasp these difficult concepts. Furthermore, I feel that at this
moment, the proper names of the phases are not essential. I would rather have students focusing on
why the moon creates phases, instead of having them memorize the names of them.
For assessment purposes, a moon log is asking too much for kindergartners. For my higher
students, a moon log can be differentiation. I would pick students who I believe can handle this
assessment. For my other students, I feel that completing a moon log together would be acceptable.
Instead of all students completing one over the course of a month, students would be assigned days
to look at the moon. They would bring their observations back to class and we would have a class
moon log. This requires far less stress for students, and together we can discuss the moon each day
in class. This again provides students will plenty of chances to learn about the phases of the moon.

It is difficult to know that this lesson did not go the way I planned, but even with life, things
do not go the way they are supposed to. By properly reflecting on how this lesson went, I now know
what needs to be done in the future to better make this inquiry-based lesson developmentally
appropriate for my kindergartners.