July 20th is National Moon Day! National Moon Day celebrates July 20th, 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first American astronauts to walk on the moon. In celebration of this historic event, we’ve come up with a cool, and tasty, experiment for kids in order to demonstrate the phases of the moon.
Materials:
- Plate (to hold all of your moon phases)
- Box of Oreo cookies
- Spoon
Instructions:
- Take an Oreo cookie and open it up. Scrape off all of the creme from one side so that all that is left is the chocolate cookie. Feel free to eat this non-creme covered side, otherwise known as a new moon.
- To make the next phase of the moon, a waxing crescent, scrape off ¾ of the creme and leave a small sliver on the right hand side of the cookie.
- Prepare a new cookie. Scrape off half of the frosting from the left side of the cookie. This is a waxing half (first quarter).
- Grab another Oreo and scoop a small piece of creme off of the left side of the cookie. The remaining creme represents a waxing gibbous.
- Take a new Oreo cookie, but be sure to twist when you open it up. This way, all of the creme stays on one side of the cookie, and you have the representation of a full moon.
- Take the spoon, and scrape a small sliver of creme off of the right side of the cookie. This represents the waning gibbous phase. Feel free to eat this moon phase and prepare another Oreo cookie.
- With the next cookie, scrape off half of the creme from the right side. This represents the waning half (third quarter) moon phase.
- Take a final Oreo cookie and use the spoon to scoop ¾ of the creme off of the cookie from the right side to create the waning crescent phase of the moon.
Congratulations! You’ve made it through all of the phases of the moon (as well as consumed multiple Oreo cookies). Take advantage of this National Moon Day to explain the phases of the moon, and what better way to do so than with some cookies!
