Making a Moon Phase Calender

My children always see the moon first. During its waxing phase they spot it on evening walks and in the waning phase they’ll see it in the morning or afternoon. Their enthusiasm for the sightings of our orbiting celestial body is a joy. A few months ago we kept them up later than usual so we could go on a  moonlight walk to enjoy the full moon amidst our natural surroundings – it was beautiful. (We haven’t been since as it always seems to rain on full moon night but soon again!)

In my post for the recent Mindful Mama Blog Carnival on ‘Mindfulness During the Holidays’, I wrote that I wanted ‘ to craft a series of mindful celebrations throughout the year, being aware of the Earth’s rotations, our connection to nature and spending time honouring this very special and mysterious life we have been blessed with.’ Consciously recognising the phases of the moon is a simple way to be more aware of the continual movement of our planet and participate in the magic of the natural world. So all that being thought of and said I went into action and made this moon phase calender to go along with our other classroom calender wheels.

 

The process was simple and involved:

1. Cutting a circle of white card
2. Tracing the words ‘moon phase’ on the card (I had to use a ruler to get it straight). Leave enough room for the Moon Phase card to be inserted below. The Moon Phase cards were downloaded from Montessori Print Shop. Thanks to Counting Coconuts for the inspiration on this!
3. Colour letters in black ink – add ‘The’ and ‘is’
4. Mount white circle on black card and laminate
5. Use a spare piece of laminating plastic to make a pouch for the moon phase cards (which were all laminated and cut out also)
6. Simple, peasy, done!

I added the completed moon phase calender to the other classroom calender wheels and also added the moon phase diagram from Montessori Print Shop (it comes with the moon phases cards) and a 2012 moon phase chart for us to keep track.

I’m really looking forward to using this with my children and have tons more ideas flowing for additional astrological calenders!

 

One Response to “Making a Moon Phase Calender”

1. Liz Madisetti says:

   December 24, 2011 at 10:18

   Hey Terri, this is such a cool idea. I love looking at the moon. (a definite lunatic!) Here in Dominica the phases look a bit different because we are sort of close to the equator. That’s why the waxing moon sometimes looks like a bowl. I use the website http://www.moonconnection.com/moon_phases_calendar.phtml which shows the phases as seen from the northern and southern hemispheres and we are somewhere in the middle. The kids could keep a moon log also making a sketch of what the moon looks like including location, time and date. Enjoy!

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