Using Oreo Cookies to Discover the Moon Phases
Summary
Second or third grade students will understand the phases of the moon by scraping away the frosting from the inside of Oreo cookies. They will put the Oreos in moon phase order. Students will develop their own guess at the moon phase order first, raise recorded questions about them (by writing about and illustrating the phases using a circle template in their science notebooks), and then the class will discuss answers once each group of four is finished with what they think the cookie order is. A line of learning will be drawn in their notebook to separate their individual thinking from what the class will do with the teacher's guidance. The teacher will then guide the students through the correct phases by referencing the Gail Gibbons picture book and from there any new questions will be recorded.
Collapse
Learning Goals
This activity is designed to go through a scientific process. It will also teach the idea of inquiry. Lastly, this activity will teach the students the moon phases by way of a hands-on activity.
Context for Use
To implement this lesson to a classroom of second or third graders, the teacher will need: 8 cookies per 4 students, pencils, plastic spoons, science notebooks, circle stencils, chart paper, markers, and The Moon Book by Gail Gibbons. This lesson would be a fifty minute science block. The students would already have experience in writing in their science notebooks. This lesson should be done inside the classroom.
Description and Teaching Materials
This lesson is just one snippet in a larger moon unit. The students would have already filled in the O and K part of an OKHWLQ chart as it pertains to the moon phases. The chart is O for observe, K for what they already know, H for hypothesis, W for what they are wondering about, L for what they learned, and Q for questions they have after completing the investigation. The class will have already formulated a hypothesis stating something about what do they think the moon phases are and why they are in that order. Wondering questions will also have been documented. The students would already have had experience with filling in this type of chart from previous science units. The teacher will introduce the lesson by having the students gather around to hear and discuss The Moon Book by Gail Gibbons. Notes can be taken of what the class discusses on the chart paper recorded by the teacher. The teacher will let the students know that they will try to recreate the moon phases by making them out of Oreo cookies. The brown cookie outside is the night sky and the frosting is the moon. The teacher will demonstrate how to twist off one of the cookie tops to get at the frosting easier. The teacher will show how to scrape off frosting with a spoon to create one of the moon phases. The teacher will let the students know they have to make all eight phases out of eight cookies with four students per group. The teacher will tell the students to put them in order and record their findings in their science notebooks. The class will make eight circles with their templates before their group is allowed to go get their supplies to get started. The teacher will explain that after the students have laid out the cookies in the order they believe is correct and illustrated it, they must make sure they have discussed it with the teacher. Only after the teacher has "checked" it, the students may eat the cookies as they are writing about the lessons details. Once all the groups are finished and everyone has had ample time to complete their own observations, the class will have a discussion about their findings. Additional new questions will be recorded to be discussed on a different day. The last part of the lesson is going back and filling in the L and Q part of the chart. Further questions can then be thought through by the teacher to answer on or different date or the class could design an experiment to try to find out the answer.
Teaching Notes and Tips
Most importantly, check for allergies in the Oreo product, most do not contain tree nut ingredients. Have students draw out the eight circles right away in their science notebooks, before they start the investigation. As the groups of four are coming up with their phases, the teacher should circulate around the room and work with each group for small amounts of time. The teacher should be questioning the students "why" they are doing the particular order that they are.
Assessment
The teacher will meet with each group of four students for a few minutes at a time as he or she circulates the classroom. He or she will help the students recall what happens to the moon, how it gets bigger until it is full and then gets smaller until it seems like it disappears. The students will illustrate what they came up with for the phases and then a line of learning will be drawn in their notebook. A line of learning is a line drawn horizontally across the notebook separating what the student did first and what the class and teacher did together. Under the line of learning the students will draw out the correct order of the moon phases. The teacher will take a quick look around the room to see who might need some further one-on-one help. The teacher can also take a closer look at about 4-5 a night until all are given a thorough exam. The students would know that they must include several things in each notebook entry. They are: date, illustration or sketch, some sort of writing or explanation of what was going on, a line of learning and a record of what the class discussed.
Standards
3.3.3.1.2 Recognize the patterns of apparent changes in the moon's shape and position
3.1.1.2.3 Maintain a record of observations, procedures and explanations, being careful to distinguish between actual observations and ideas about what was observed
3.1.1.2.1 Generate questions that can be answered when scientific knowledge is combined with knowledge gained from one's own observation or investigations
3.1.1.2.4 Construct reasonable explanation based on evidence collected from observations or experiments
3.1.1.2.3 Maintain a record of observations, procedures and explanations, being careful to distinguish between actual observations and ideas about what was observed
3.1.1.2.1 Generate questions that can be answered when scientific knowledge is combined with knowledge gained from one's own observation or investigations
3.1.1.2.4 Construct reasonable explanation based on evidence collected from observations or experiments