Learners go outside on a clear evening and view the sky to see the Moon for themselves. Using sky charts, children navigate the Moon’s impact craters, flat plains (maria), and mountains with the naked eye and binoculars or telescopes. This outdoor... (View More) night viewing can be combined with the indoor stations activity, Growing Up Moon, or the outdoor activity, Mirror Moon. This activity is part of Explore! Marvel Moon, a series of activities developed specifically for use in libraries. (View Less)

Learners use a Styrofoam ball, sunlight, and the motions of their bodies to model the Moon's phases outdoors. An extension is to have children predict future Moon phases. This activity is part of Explore! Marvel Moon, a series of activities... (View More) developed specifically for use in libraries. (View Less)

This is an activity about the tides. Learners discover how the Moon's gravitational pull causes the level of the ocean to rise and fall twice a day along most coastlines. Six children represent the oceans, solid Earth, Moon, and Sun and move their... (View More) bodies to show the interactions of these elements. They then consider what the Earth's tides might have been like if there were no Moon. They model the smaller tides that would be produced solely by the Sun. This activity is part of Explore! Marvel Moon, a series of activities developed specifically for use in libraries. (View Less)

This is an activity about the Moon's formation, changes over time, gravitational connection to Earth, or influence on our culture and urban legends. Learners share their learning by creating zines: small, self-published magazines inexpensively... (View More) duplicated on standard letter paper and folded into eight-page booklets. This is the concluding activity of Explore! Marvel Moon, a series of activities developed specifically for use in libraries. (View Less)

This is an activity about Lunar samples. Learners will see snapshots of the Moon's history and hold an important artifact of American history with a Lunar Sample Disk. Earth rocks and soil of similar types as the lunar samples may be provided and... (View More) explored with hands, eyes, noses, and tools. Please note, checking out a Lunar Sample Disk requires training, a secure storage facility, and a minimum of a 6-week lead time. This activity is part of Explore! Marvel Moon, a series of activities developed specifically for use in libraries. (View Less)

This is an activity about the Moon's influence on Earth. Learners think like a scientist - with reasoning skills and a healthy amount of skepticism - to sort puzzle pieces containing statements about the Moon into two images. The "Far-out Far Side"... (View More) has incorrect statements about the Moon (urban myths), and "True-Blue Blue Moon" has true facts about the Moon’s influence on Earth and life. This activity is part of Explore! Marvel Moon, a series of activities developed specifically for use in libraries. (View Less)

Learners model how impacts throughout the Moon's history have broken rocks down into a mixture of dust, rocks, and boulders that covers the lunar surface. They consider how the dust will continue to hold a record of human exploration - in the form... (View More) of astronaut bootprints - for countless years in the future. Children may examine a type of Earth soil ("lunar soil simulant") that is similar to what is found on the Moon's surface and that would have been shaped by the processes explored here. The children create their own records of exploration by making rubbings of their shoes. This activity is part of Explore! Marvel Moon, a series of activities developed specifically for use in libraries. (View Less)

This online activity introduces the importance of meteorites to the understanding of the origin of the Solar System. Learners will use a key to determine if samples are meteorites. Finding meteorites can be difficult because most meteorites look... (View More) like Earth rocks to the casual or untrained eye. (View Less)

Learners will draw and write to express their knowledge of Saturn. This is lesson 1 of 10 in "Reading, Writing & Rings!" for grades 1-2.