Exploring the Moon, Light and Shadows ☆ Kindy 3

Hello, everyone!
This month in Kindy 3, we are learning about the Moon, Light and Shadows. We have many exciting questions to ask, like:

Where does the Sun go at night?

Why does the Moon change shape?

What is gravity?

How do planets and the Moon move in space?

We started by learning about gravity.
If we drop a ball, it falls down — that’s gravity! The Earth has gravity, and so does the Moon. The Earth’s gravity is stronger because it’s much bigger. On the Moon, you could jump much higher than on Earth!

We did an experiment to see how gravity works in space.
We used a black sheet to be space, and put a heavy water balloon in the middle. The sheet pulled down in the center — this shows how a heavy object (like a planet or the Sun) bends space around it with gravity.. When we rolled a small ball, it moved toward the middle. If we rolled it just right, it went around in a circle — this is called an orbit! It’s like how the Earth orbits the Sun, or how the Moon orbits the Earth.

In real space, there is no air to slow things down, so planets and moons can keep orbiting for a very long time. In our experiment, the ball stopped after a while, but it helped us see how orbits work!

We had fun taking turns rolling the balls around the black sheet like planets in space.

Next, we started learning about the moon cycle. The Moon looks like it changes shape because of how the Sun’s light shines on it. When the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth, we can’t see it because the light is on the other side — this is called a new moon.

As the Moon moves around the Earth, we can see more and more of the lit-up part. When the Moon is on the other side of the Earth, it is bright and round — this is the full moon.

We worked together on a worksheet to shade and learn about the different stages of the moon cycle.

Lastly, for a fun, hands-on way to learn about light and shadows, we made shadow puppets in the classroom! We learned how to make different animals with our hands, like a bird, crab, snail, dog, and deer, and practiced making them in front of a torch. It was a little tricky, but everyone enjoyed themselves.

Can you guess which animals our shadow puppets are?

We have already learned a lot, but the month is only just beginning, and there are so many more exciting questions for us to explore!