Moon Journal

Record observations and predict what the moon will look like next.

Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.

What children learn in Level 20

Scientists keep journals. Ava looked at the moon every four nights. She drew what she saw and wrote the night.
Her journal shows a pattern: the moon grew bigger each time she looked. So what comes after a full moon? It starts to shrink!
With data from many nights, you can predict. A full moon comes back about every 30 days.
If it's cloudy, write cloudy, and look again the next clear night. Every observation counts!
Try it with a grown-up! Keep a moon journal for a month. Every few nights, draw the moon and write the date. Can you predict the next full moon?

Georgia Standards of Excellence in Science:

S2E2.d — Use data from personal observations to describe, illustrate, and predict how the appearance of the moon changes over time in a pattern. (Students are not required to know the names of the phases of the moon or understand the tilt of the Earth.)