Educators

Moon Activities

Explore the Moon with these hands-on activities!

An artist's drawing of the Apollo shuttle orbiting the moon and seeing Earth rise over the horizon.

Earth has just one moon – a rocky, cratered place roughly a quarter the size of Earth. The Moon has captured our imaginations for thousands of years, and is the only other planetary body that humans have visited. Explore the phases of the moon, craters, moon exploration, and more!

 

Activities

Note:  PDFs meet accessibility standards. If you encounter any issues, please contact us at ua-museumlearn@alaska.edu.

  • Investigate Craters: Explore how craters on the Moon were formed with a hands-on experiment. For older students, see about the physics of impact craters.
  • Lunar Eclipse: Adapt this activity to lunar eclipses by changing the position of the Sun and Earth so that the Earth casts a shadow on the Moon.

  • (Courtesy of NASA JPL): Make a moon calendar to predict what the moon will look like any day of the year. Go to the Astronomy Calendar to find the dates of upcoming full moons!

  • Moon Sand: For younger learners, explore textures, shapes, and patterns with hands-on Moon fun. 
  • Moon Shadow Play: For younger learners, explore the phases of the Moon with hands-on play.
  • Survival on the Moon: In this reflection activity, imagine being stranded on the moon.  Decide which objects would be the most useful for survival.
 
 Find more Moon activities at the

 

A detailed view of the full moon.

Return to Space Science Activities homepage.

 

NASA logo with the word "partner" underneath.

 

This project was funded under NASA cooperative agreement NNX16AL65A and cooperative agreement number NNH15ZDA004C. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and  do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.