Moon Phases Worksheets

About this resource

What does the moon look like tonight, and what comes next? This is a complete kit for one idea: the phases of the moon. It starts with an anchor chart of the eight named phases, from new moon to full moon and back, each with a one-line meaning. Children then name the moons, circle every waxing or crescent moon, find the one that does not belong, say what comes next, fill in words, choose the true sentence, shade the dark part of a moon and cut and paste. Every moon is a clean vector picture of a gray disc with the lit part in pale yellow, and every one is drawn from a single rule for how much of the moon is lit, so the shapes are right. It comes with a tracker, a class grid and a family page, so nothing has to be written from scratch.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (30 pages)

• 15 student pages in 10 page types: Anchor Chart, Moon Cycle Mat, Name the Moon, Circle It, Which One Does Not Belong?, What Comes Next?, Fill It In, Circle the True Sentence, Shade the Moon and Cut and Paste
• 71 scored items on 13 pages, every answer read from the moon data, never typed by hand
• The 8 named phases: new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter and waning crescent
• 24 cut-and-paste pieces on 3 mats: sort 8 moons into waxing and waning, put the 8 phases in order, and paste each name under its moon
• 2 answer keys, generated from the same data as the student pages
• 1 tracker (page, page type, items right, date) and 1 whole-class progress grid
• 1 team note (a hand-off page between team meetings) and 1 home page
• 1 filled example (an invented student), 1 phrase bank (16 observable-language starters), 1 binder cover and 6 divider tabs with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here and a how-to-read-a-page page

The Page Types, Easiest First

1. Anchor Chart (starting): the eight moons with a short meaning each, a line about waxing and waning, and two lines for the child to write what each word means.

2. Moon Cycle Mat (starting): the eight phases numbered 1 to 8 to keep beside the child, a line to finish, and a big circle to draw and name a moon.

3. Name the Moon, 2 pages (1 or 3 dots): look at a moon and write its name. Set A has a box of eight names; Set B has none.

4. Circle It, 2 pages (1 or 2 dots): four rows of four moons. Circle every waxing moon (or every crescent), then write how many.

5. Which One Does Not Belong?, 1 page (2 dots): four moons, three are the same kind. Circle the odd one and write its number.

6. What Comes Next?, 1 page (3 dots): three moons in a row and a question mark. Write the name of the next phase.

7. Fill It In, 2 pages (2 or 3 dots): Set A reads a clue and writes the moon from a box of eight names; Set B finishes a sentence from a box of eight words (three are not used).

8. Circle the True Sentence, 1 page (3 dots): a moon and three sentences about it; exactly one is true.

9. Shade the Moon, 1 page (3 dots): four blank circles with a dotted middle line. Shade the dark part of a named moon.

10. Cut and Paste, 3 pages (1, 2 or 3 dots): a block of 8 pieces that touch edge to edge, so cutting is a few straight lines. Paste 1 sorts moons into waxing and waning; Paste 2 puts the eight phases in order; Paste 3 pastes each name under its moon.

Drawn Right

Every moon is a vector picture. The lit part is a half disc closed by half an ellipse, and the width of that ellipse comes from one formula for how much of the moon is lit. A crescent has less than half lit, a gibbous moon has more than half lit, a quarter moon shows half the disc, and a waning moon is the mirror of a waxing one. The file checks the shape, the side and the amount of every picture before it builds a page. The lit part is on the right for a growing moon, as seen from the United States.

Built For The Child Holding The Page

A big "My name" line, one short instruction, large rounded type, big answer boxes, and dots (not words or colors) to show which level a page is. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult. The shading and drawing circles are about two and a half inches wide so there is room to work. The file prints clean in black and white.

No Guessing The Answer

Wherever a child picks among printed spots (which moons in a row match, which one is the odd moon, which lettered sentence is true, where a word sits in the box, the order of the pieces on the cut strip), the position of the right answer is checked so it does not sit in the same spot three times in a row. The wrong sentences on the true-sentence page are each half wrong, so a child has to look at the moon and read.

Type In, Or Print

The name line and every answer box are type-in fields in any PDF reader: click one, type, then save. The same goes for the tracker, the class grid, the team note and the home page. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

Elementary classrooms, self-contained and resource rooms, and any teacher building a space or earth-science unit into a center, a small group or a morning work folder. The reading is written at about a grade 2-3 level, and the teacher can read each page aloud.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A moon phases worksheet set with the record-keeping around it. It is not a timed test, a screener, a clinical tool, or a claim about any student's age or rate of progress. There is no IEP goal language or eligibility wording anywhere in the file.