January Moon Calendar - Building Lesson Plans.

Did you know January's night skies will be full of amazing celestial events? Check out NASA's Full Moon Blog. Some notable events this month (from the blog post) include: 

  • "The Wolf Moon, the first full moon of the winter ocurred on January 1st. (Fun Fact: Maine Farmer's Almanac first published Indian names for the full Moons in the 1930's, and according to this almanac, this name came from the packs of wolves that howled hungrily outside the Native American villages amid the cold and deep snows of winter. Another name is the Ice Moon. Some tribes called this the Snow Moon but most applied this to the second full Moon of winter. Europeans called this the Old Moon or the Moon After Yule (an old Germanic name for the solstice celebration now associated with Christmas).
  • On Saturday morning, January 6, 2018, the bright planets Jupiter and Mars will appear near each other, less than a third of a degree apart. (So how many miles in 1/3 of a degree?)
  • On Sunday morning, January 7, 2018, the bright planets Jupiter and Mars will appear even closer to each other, about a quarter of a degree apart. 
  • Tuesday, January 9, 2018, at 2:01 AM EST, will be when the planet Venus passes on the far side of the Sun as seen from Earth, called superior conjunction.
  • Thursday morning, January 11, 2018, the bright planets Jupiter and Mars will appear to the right of, and forming a triangle with, the waning crescent Moon.
  • Saturday morning, January 13, 2018, the planets Saturn and Mercury will appear less than a degree apart in the morning sky. 
  • Sunday, January 14, 2018, at 9:10 PM EST, the Moon will be at apogee, its farthest from the Earth for this orbit at 406,464 km (252,565 miles).
  • Tuesday night, January 16, 2018, at 9:17 PM EST, will be the new Moon, when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun and will not be visible from the Earth. This marks the start of the twelfth month of the Chinese calendar and Shevat in the Hebrew calendar.
  • Tuesday morning, January 30, 2018, at 4:58 AM EST, the Moon will be at perigee, its closest to the Earth for this orbit. At 358,994 km (223,069 miles), the Moon will appear 13.2% wider in diameter and 28.2% larger in area than it will have appeared when it was at apogee earlier in January."

So why is this information relevant? Other than being pretty cool, we can make the solar system more relatable to our students. We can use these concepts to bring in math instruction (angles, degrees, miles). We can build background knowledge about other cultures and history... when did we start tracking the moon cycles? 

What can you do with this information? How will you use it in your classroom? Let's share some ideas.... we have a full month of science lessons and ideas at our finger tips. 

Looking forward to your ideas. 

Sincerely, 

Kathy Tracey