A Wonderleaf question
Why does the moon change shape?
a real page from the book
The moon seems to change shape because we see different amounts of its sunlit half as it moves around Earth. The moon stays round the whole time. What changes is our view of the bright part and the shadowed part.
A full cycle takes about 29 days, moving from new moon to crescent, quarter, gibbous, full, and back again. The moon is not making its own glow; sunlight is bouncing from its surface into our eyes.
Wonder words
- crescent
- gibbous
- orbit
- sunlit
Try it out
At bedtime, draw tonight's moon shape, then check it again tomorrow and add the new shape beside it.
Read the whole picture book
Watercolour scenes, straight answers, about three minutes cover to cover.
Open the picture bookKeep wondering
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