Fifth Grade
Worksheets
Our Changing Moon
Photo credit: NASA
Sometimes the moon looks like a round, shiny coin in the sky. Sometimes it's a thin, silvery sliver that looks like something took a bite out of it! What causes the moon to look so different at different times?
When we see the moon shining, we are seeing sunlight reflecting from the moon's surface. The part of the moon that is lit up changes as the moon moves around Earth and Earth moves around the sun. We call these changes phases of the moon. These are the moon's phases: new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, waning crescent, and back to new moon.
New Moon For a few days each month, we can't see the moon. This happens when the moon, the Earth, and the sun are lined up in space. The moon is between the Earth and the sun. The far side of the moon, the side that faces away from Earth, is in full sunlight. The side we see is in full shadow. We call this the new moon phase. The new moon rises in the east at the same time as the sun. It sets in the west at the same time as the sun, too.
