Frankie turned seven on April 2nd. For a birthday present, he got a new bicycle -- a 16 speed bike so that he could go out on the trails with his mom, dad, and older sisters, Karen and Martha. But his best present was a room of his very own. His parents had just bought a new house in the same neighborhood, and the new house had more rooms. Frankie's new room had windows looking out on the backyard. His mom told him they faced east.
The first day in the new house was fun. All the furniture from the old house had to be put into new places. It was like putting together a puzzle. For their first meal in the new house, they sent out for pizza. Everybody was laughing and having a great time. Finally it was bedtime for Frankie. His mom and dad went upstairs with him to his room to tuck him in. Frankie had positioned his bed so he could look across his room and out his window while lying in bed. After Frankie got into his p.j.'s, crawled into bed, and said goodnights all around, his parents turned out the lights.
Wow! Look at that!" said Frankie.
"Look at what?" Mom said, as she stood in the dark room.
"The Moon! It's right there in the middle of my window! It's like a picture with a frame around it."
"So it is," said Dad. "Lucky you to have a room with the Moon looking in your window at bedtime each night."
The Moon was full -- a big white circle, perfectly round and beaming light into Frankie's room. Frankie went to sleep easily.
Being in a strange room in a strange house seemed less scary since he had his own nightlight -- the Moon.
The next night, Frankie went to bed and looked forward to seeing his new friend, the Moon, shining again in his window. After the goodnights and the turning off of the lights, Frankie looked out his window.
"Hey!" he shouted. "No Moon! Where is it?"
He bounded out of bed and looked up at the clear, starry sky. He saw no Moon at all. He felt cheated. Next night, no Moon again.
Two nights later, still no Moon at bedtime. What a disappointment! Bedtime wasn't as cool as it was on his first night in the new house.
About a week later, Frankie awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of a police car whizzing by, sirens screaming. Frankie sat up, frightened by the noise. He looked out the window and saw, to his amazement, his old friend the Moon, framed in the window. It was the Moon all right but it was not big and round. It looked like someone had cut off the right half of the circle.
Frankie was puzzled by this, but was too tired to think about it. It was 3 o'clock in the morning after all. He quickly dropped off to sleep again.
The next morning at breakfast, he remembered what had happened the night before and told his family what he had seen. To his surprise, everyone seemed to have a different opinion.
Karen said there were clouds covering half of the Moon. She didn't know why it was outside his window at 3 o'clock. She also said Frankie might have been dreaming.
Martha thought the Moon changed shapes through the night. She said it came up full and by the time it set, it was just a sliver of light.
Everyone laughed when Mom said she was pretty sure she had seen the Moon in the daytime. But Dad agreed and said maybe the Moon came up at different times each day. But that didn't explain the different shape.
Frankie was still left with a puzzle, and he decided to do some Moon watching to answer his questions.
QUESTIONS:
What are your ideas about what happened?
______
Explain to Frankie why the Moon was showing up at different times and in different shapes?
______
Do you think Frankie could predict where the Moon will be at during certain times and what shape it will have? Why or why not?
______
QUESTIONS:
What are your ideas about what happened?
It was a full moon, then cloudy the next couple of nights. When it reappeared it was a waning gibbous.
Explain to Frankie why the Moon was showing up at different times and in different shapes?
Due to the moon’s movement around the Earth. Different shapes because of the amount of the moon that is lit up from the sun. For each night the moon rises about an hour later since it takes about 3 days to go from phase to phase, which means about 3 hours difference. So if the third quarter rises at 12 a.m., it will set at 12 p.m. and the waning crescent will rise at 3 a.m. and set at 3 p.m
Do you think Frankie could predict where the Moon will be at during certain times and what shape it will have? Why or why not?
Yes. He could make observations from his window each night and document what each phase looks like and the time.