Moon phases [comprehension quiz] [tooltips over pictures]

The Moon goes through 8 phases as it moves through a 29 day orbit of the Earth. In the Northern Hemisphere, the Moon moves from East to West in the sky, as it orbits the Earth in an anti-clockwise direction. It starts as a New Moon, grows [waxes] to a Full Moon, then shrinks [wanes] to a New Moon again. You can shorten the Moon phase names to: “Never can quit getting food” = NCQGF NCQGF = New, Crescent, Quarter, Gibbous, Full Just remember that sequence of letters: NCQGF. That gives you the order of the waxing phases. Reverse it to get the waning phases: FGQCN. FGQCN = Full, Gibbous, Quarter, Crescent, New The Moon reflects light from the Sun, and this reflected sunlight is what we see as "moonlight". Sunlight illuminates half of its surface at any given time. The different phases of the Moon, such as the full moon, are a result of how much of the sunlit portion of the Moon is facing Earth as it orbits.

1.How many phases are in the Moon's cycle? 7 8 9 2.What does the word waxing mean? shrinking staying the same growing 3.What does the word waning mean? shrinking staying the same growing 4.Where does the "moonlight" originally come from? the Moon the Earth the Sun 5.When can the letters NCQGF help? as a way to remember what the names mean as a way to remember the names of the phases as a way to remember the order of the waxing phases

There are 9 pictures in a grid. As you hover over each picture a blue screen appears on which there is some information about what is being shown in the picture. Read this information and look at each picture to make sure you understand what is being shown. If you want to check how much you understand try the quiz on the right hand side. To start the activity again just refresh the page.