A lecture on 'Moon and tides' can be made interesting by including student activities, power point presentations and videos in the lesson plan for third grade. This will help in making the class interesting and also strengthening the fundamentals behind the the Moon and tides.
While introducing the concept of the moon and tides, the teacher should cover the basic concepts about the Moon, tides and relationship between them. A good lesson plan on Moon and tide should include practical tools for demonstrating the process to instill interest in lunar learning. This will also excite the students to explore more about the subject. It is recommended to teach about the moon and tides using videos, charts and multimedia presentations. Lesson plan should motivate students to research the Internet using the moon vocabulary learned and note down any new learning.
Helping the Students Understand The Phases of Moon
The lesson plan for the moon and tides should make use of models to help students understand Earth, the moon and sun relationship. The teacher can include the following strategies to help the students understand the phases of Moon:
- The Earth's movement and the moon should be demonstrated along with effect of sun on the moon. A working model of the entire stricture can be prepared by the teacher herself or the teacher can take the help of the class in getting the model ready as a background preparation for the class.
- Understanding of cyclic phases of the moon should be reinforced by asking the students to present the positions of earth, sun and the moon representing them with different sized balls such as golf ball, basket ball, tennis ball and a torch light.
- Students must be given sufficient time to understand the position of earth, sun and the moon during different phases of the moon.
- The lesson plan for the moon and tides should make the subject interesting by adding interesting notes about American Indian tribal people and their capability to use the moon to measure time.
- Students can be made to perform role play as astronauts and scientists and communicate with each other on the attributes and characteristics of the moon.
- Lesson plan of the moon and tides should also encourage the students to observe a full cycle of the moon every night and record the changes and shapes in the moon.
- A group discussion can be conducted to present the findings and share the experiences.
How to Teach Tides?
Students of third grade must be given an opportunity to explore ocean tides. Discussion must be initiated among the students to research the effect of sun, the moon and earth on tides. A teacher should have the following approach while designing the lesson plan:
- It is good to revisit the concepts learned on the moon to make sure the students recollect the relationship between the sun, the moon and the earth.
- A clear introduction to gravity and the effect of gravity on objects in earth should be taught first to ensure understanding of occurrence of tides. It is advisable to use objects in different weights to explain gravity.
- Before proceeding to teach gravitational pull, the students should be made to think on the effect of gravity on nature. High and low tides should be demonstrated using a tide chart depicting the positions of the earth, the sun and the moon position when the tides occur.
- It is recommended to add simple experiments wherever possible to emphasize the relationship between the earth, the sun, the moon and the effect of gravity to lay the foundation for further learning.
- Including video documentary and power point slides in the teaching kit is a good idea as the visual impact last longer than verbal explanations.
- There are various online resources that which the students can use for better understanding of the moon and tides.
