If you are teaching the phases of the moon, this popular snack activity with cookies is sure to be a crowd-pleaser! This yummy and fun activity is sure to make your lunar phases lesson a memorable one. In this post, you’ll find the materials list and directions for this activity, plus, I’ve created a free printable worksheet for this activity!
A note for teachers: If you’re an educator planning to teach the moon’s phases, great learning resources are key to deepening understanding! I think you and your students will love my printable Moon Mini Study, which you can also find within my complete Night Sky Unit (plus you’ll support my blog with your purchase! ❤️)
Moon Phases: background information
Earth has one big, bright moon – The Moon. Though it shines brightly at night, the Moon does not make its own light; it reflects light from the Sun. The Moon orbits Earth, just like Earth orbits the Sun. As it circles us, the Moon’s shape seems to change. These changing shapes, called phases, make the Moon appear to grow and shrink each month. In reality, the Moon doesn’t change size – we just don’t see the part that’s not lit up by the Sun.
For this activity, your students will learn 8 phases of the moon. These phases are:
- New Moon
- Waxing Crescent
- First Quarter
- Waxing Gibbous
- Full Moon
- Waning Gibbous
- Third Quarter
- Waning Crescent
Every 29.5 days, the moon cycles through all of these phases.
Materials
For the phases of the moon cookie activity, each student needs:
- 8 Chocolate & crème sandwich cookies (e.g., Oreos)*
- Spoon and/or toothpick for scraping/removing crème
- A printed copy of the worksheet – available on my free resources page
*To save on materials, it is possible to do this activity with 4 cookies per student if students use both halves of each cookie and carefully split the creme filling to create all phases.
Directions
- Open up a cookie so that the crème is all on one side.
- Scrape away and remove enough crème from the open cookie to
create a phase of the moon. - Repeat until you’ve created all of the phases of the moon.
Free printable worksheets for this activity
Current Email Subscribers: for your convenience, I made a printable version of the directions and a student worksheet for this activity. It’s available on the free resources page of my website (the link was in a welcome email sent when you subscribed – if you lost the link, follow the directions at the bottom of this page).
If you’re new here: consider joining my email community! My email subscribers:
- Can access dozens of free science & nature printables on my free resources page! (including the worksheet for this activity!)
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- Get occasional updates about seasonal sales, new science units released in my shop, and new free resources!
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What’s Next?
Looking for another space-themed snack activity for the classroom? Try this constellation snack activity using pretzel sticks and mini marshmallows!
Study the moon with Wild Earth Lab!
There’s no need to scramble to put together the perfect set of moon lesson materials – I’ve already created it for you! My printable moon mini study includes diagrams, worksheets, and activities for learning all about the moon and its phases!
Or, find all the moon materials plus more materials on constellations, eclipses, and more in my complete Night Sky Unit!
Explore more lessons from Wild Earth Lab:
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