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Moon Day : A day of fun moon activities
This one is for the kids in your household who love learning about or are just fascinated by the moon! It can be modified for different age ranges.
A fun and yummy activity to start off with is the Oreo cookie phases of the moon activity. You can access instructions about doing the activity HERE. There are also several gluten free versions available as well. Now of course, getting to the supermarket to buy Oreos or a similar type of cookie isn’t actually the easiest task right now, so if you don’t have any handy then there are creative ways to make substitutions. Some suggestions include spreading soft cheese (like cream cheese) on crackers or taking a small plain round cookie and spreading icing on it. Ideally there will be a contrast in light and dark colors.
When I did this activity at home, I printed up and used a template that my son could follow as a guide. Here’s a link to the one we used. We scraped off the cookie cream to match the shapes on the template. After we made them, I took all of the cookies off the worksheet. I then had him match the cookie up with the corresponding image. Another great benefit of doing this activity is the fine motor skills it helps little hands practice. It takes a steady hand and patience to both carefully twist the cookies apart and then scrape off the cream to form the crescent shapes. You can also go over the terms for phases of the moon as well. It also takes a ton of self restraint to not eat all of the cookies before the project is done!
Now that your child just ate a bunch of cookies (because most likely they will), they’ll have some additional energy. A fun song and action activity you can do with them is “Zoom Zoom Zoom We’re Going to the Moon” by having them pretend to be rocket ships and blast off. Then dance off more energy with The Laurie Berkner Band’s song “Rocketship Run.” After your child runs around for a bit to get all the sugary energy out of their system, it might be time to unwind with some related TV time.
With your Caldwell Public Library card, you have access to the streaming service Kanopy which provides free access to tons of videos, including PBS TV shows. Access the web version of Kanopy here or download the Kanopy app to your device. It’s easy to set up an account, all you need is your library card. After your Kanopy account is ready to go, search for the show “Ready Jet Go” and look for one of several episodes about the moon.
After the sun sets, head outside to look up at the night sky. Look up, find the moon, and try to identify what phase the moon is in. What a great way to head outdoors in a way that is still practicing safe social distancing and extend the activity you did earlier in the day.
Then just before bedtime, search for stories about the moon on Kanopy and watch one of several short storytime videos together to end your moon day.