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🔬 6th Grade · ScienceMS-ESS1-1Unit 1: Earth, moon & the solar system

Moon phases

Google Classroom

🎯 Objective: Students model moon phases with a light source and ball.

Lesson outline

  1. Lamp-and-ball model.
  2. Record phases.
  3. Explain.
  4. Exit: draw the waxing gibbous.

Lesson 1 of 5 in this unit. In the Lesson Planner this lesson takes 1–3 class periods depending on your timetable: day 1 introduce & model, then practice, small-group reteach and a quick check.

📐 Standard

MS-ESS1-1

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), middle school — Earth & Space Science (discipline-specific model)

🏁 Unit goals

  • Model the Earth–sun–moon system to explain phases, eclipses and seasons
  • Explain the role of gravity in the solar system

✅ Check for understanding

End with the exit ticket in the outline. Sort answers into got it / almost / not yet and start the next lesson with a 5-minute reteach for the “not yets”.

Practice & resources on Thinkabara

🦫 Encyclopedia: Space🦫 Encyclopedia: Science🦫 Kids encyclopedia⚡ Capy Live class quiz

🗓️ Plan the whole year like this

Add 6th Grade Science to your free Lesson Planner: enter your timetable once and every period shows the next lesson, skipping weekends and school breaks.

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More lessons in “Earth, moon & the solar system”

  1. Moon phases
  2. Eclipses
  3. Seasons
  4. Gravity in the solar system
  5. Scale of the solar system

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