When is the moon visible?

Visible during the day and at night

Wrong Track: The Sun is in the sky here in the daytime and the Moon is the night sky in Australia; then they swap so the Sun goes from here to Australia for their day and the Moon comes here for our night

A true story

A teacher was working with her Key Stage 1 class on this topic and asked them what they thought. All the children agreed with the statement above.

The next week, the Moon was in the morning sky and the teacher took them to the classroom window to see it. The children were totally bemused that what they had thought was not right – so much so that a few were really worried and one even asked: Are we going to die?

Thinking about the learning

We think that it is important to find out what children think and then allow them to make observations to test out their ideas.

By the nature of the topic, it is hard to find linked practical work in this topic so questioning to promote thinking and discussion between children, combined with acting-out and making representations will be focii.