Year 4 know the Moon changes shape but have never watched a whole cycle. The teacher opens Stellarium on the board, sets the location to the school's town, switches off the ground and the atmosphere so the Moon stays in view, locks the view on it and runs time forward from one new moon to the next, a little under 30 days, in about two minutes. The class watches the lit part grow and shrink, then the teacher runs it again, stopping at the dates for each eighth of the cycle, worked out before the lesson; at each stop the children name how much of the cycle has passed, and at 2/8 the teacher points out that astronomers call this the 'first quarter' Moon even though it looks half lit, because a quarter of the cycle has gone. The class then names fractions nobody has drawn for them, such as 3/16 and 5/16 of the way round, and the teacher sets the date for each so they can see the Moon at that point. Children draw the eight Moons round a circle in their books, label each with its fraction of the cycle and write the families they found, such as 2/8 = 1/4 and 4/8 = 2/4 = 1/2.
Tools: Stellarium Nine ideas for your own version in Generate
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