Earth’s Moon

Moon Facts

• The moon revolves around Earth every 27 days.• The moon is around 239,000 miles from the

Earth.• The circumference of the moon is 6,783 miles

compared to the Earth which is 24, 901 miles at the equator.

• In 1969, Neil Armstrong was the first human astronaut to walk on the surface of the moon.

Important Moon Vocabulary

• Waxing means growing.• Waning means shrinking.• Gibbous means more than half but less than fully

illuminated.• Crescent is when the moon is less than half

illuminated. • Rotation is when an object in space makes one

complete turn on its axis.• Revolution is when an object in space completes a

complete trip around another object.

New Moon

The New moon appears almost completely dark to us. In a new moon, the moon is directly between the Earth and the sun.

Waxing Crescent

Waxing means growing. A waxing crescent moon has a growing portion of sunlit surface on the right side.

First Quarter

In a first quarter moon, half of the moon is lit up from the sun on the right side.

Waxing Gibbous Waxing means growing. A waxing gibbous moon is more than half-way lit from the sun on the right side.

Full Moon

The full moon is completely lit.

Waning GibbousWaning means shrinking. In a waning gibbous moon, the sunlit portion is decreasing to the left side.

Third QuarterIn a third quarter moon, half of the moon is lit on the left side.

Waning CrescentWaning means shrinking. In a waning crescent moon, the lit up portion is shrinking to the left side. The next phase after a waning crescent is a new moon again.

Moon Phases

Label each moon phase with the appropriate name underneath it and use a pencil to shade in each phase.