Moon Phases Teaching Resources

Bring moon phases into the primary classroom with printable worksheets, digital activities and more that help students visualise the phases of the moon during the school day!

This collection of Australian science curriculum-aligned teaching resources has been teacher-created to help you save time on your lesson planning so you can spend more time doing what you really love — engaging your students! Inside you'll find snacktivities that turn delicious cookies into a hands-on moon phases lesson, vocabulary and game cards and so much more.

These moon-themed teaching resources are editable too, so you can easily differentiate instruction for your individual learners and make any necessary changes to meet your individual state standards.

New to teaching this part of the science curriculum? Take off for the moon with our teacher team in this quick primer, including a definition you can use to explain the meaning of moon phases to your students, explanations of the different phases and more!

What Are Moon Phases? A Kid-Friendly Definition

First thing's first, our teacher team has a handy definition you can use to introduce the phases of the moon to your students!

The term 'moon phases' refers to the moon's changing appearance as it orbits around the Earth. The moon's phase at any given time is determined by the relative positions of the sun, Earth and moon.

As the moon orbits around the Earth, the amount of sunlight reflecting off its surface changes. This makes it appear to change shape (although it's simply a reflection!). These different shapes or appearances of the moon are what we describe as the moon phases.

Throughout human history, we've used these phases of the moon for everything from navigation to tracking time. Some teachers even say they can tell when their classes are going to be a bit more rowdy based on the phase of the moon!

How Many Phases of the Moon Are There?

There are 8 different phases of the moon to walk your students through, and their names are packed with vocabulary such as 'waxing' and 'waning' that they'll be learning during your moon unit.

Why so many? This comes down to the exact way the moon orbits around the Earth, but that's only half of the equation. The phase of the moon is also affected by the way that both the Earth and the moon orbit around the sun.

The moon orbits the Earth, completing one orbit in approximately 27.3 days. As the moon orbits the Earth, the angle between the sun, Earth, and moon changes, and that means the amount of sunlight that reflects off the moon and reaches Earth varies too. This causes the appearance of the moon as viewed from Earth to change, resulting in — you guessed it — the eight different phases of the moon.

What Are the Phases of the Moon?

We already said there are eight different phases, so let's dig deeper. Here are the phases in order of when they're seen by humans:

New Moon
Waxing Crescent
First Quarter
Waxing Gibbous
Full Moon
Waning Gibbous
Third Quarter
Waning Crescent

The New Moon phase occurs at the beginning of a new lunar cycle, and it is not visible from Earth because the side of the moon facing the Earth is not illuminated by the Sun. The Full Moon is seen here on Earth in the middle of the lunar cycle and appears as a fully illuminated disc.

What Is the Moon Phases Calendar?

Although humans down here on Earth use the Gregorian calendar (sometimes called the New Style calendar) to determine the length of a typical year and month, the Moon doesn't exactly follow along with humankind.

The celestial body has its own calendar of sorts, and a month of moon phases — essentially the time it takes for the Moon to complete one full cycle of phases — is just 29.5 days. This is known as a lunar month or a synodic month.

Waxing Moon vs. Waning Moon

One final word on the world's nightlight! Students often get caught up in understanding what it means when a moon is waning and when it's waxing.

The difference between the two has to do with the amount of sunlight that is visible on the moon's surface as viewed from Earth.

Here's how to break them down so your students can understand them:

Waxing Moon

This is a moon that appears to be getting bigger and brighter as it moves from a New Moon towards a Full Moon. During the waxing moon phase, the amount of sunlight that reflects off the moon and reaches Earth increases, so the visible portion of the moon's surface is slowly growing.

The Waxing Moon can be divided into four phases:

New Moon
Waxing Crescent
First Quarter
Waxing Gibbous

Waning Moon

Essentially the opposite of a waxing moon, the waning moon is one that appears to be getting smaller and dimmer as it moves from a Full Moon towards a New Moon. During this moon phase, the amount of sunlight that reflects off the moon and reaches Earth decreases, so the visible portion of the moon's surface is gradually shrinking.