Kindergarten worksheets begin in January.
Why, in the diagrams below, did we show east being to the left and west being to the right?
Since we're in Round Rock, the Sun is always to our south. Since the Sun is shown in the diagrams below, we must be looking to the south. Thus, east would be to the left, and west to the right.
If you went further south to the Tropic of Cancer (23.4 degrees north latitude), to a city like Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, then on a few days around the summer solstice, the Sun would, in fact, be directly overhead. Round Rock is about 30 degrees north latitude--too far north to ever be directly under the Sun!
So to us, it looks like the Sun "moves" from east to west across the sky each day.
A lot of stuff in the solar system moves eastward, in fact!
The sunlit face of the Moon is fully visible to us when the Moon is on one side of Earth, while the Sun is on the other side.
Only the dark face of the Moon is visible to us when the Moon is closest to the Sun.
This is the first key idea: if the Moon is going toward the Sun, it is approaching the new Moon position, so it's waning--getting "darker."
And if the Moon is going away from the Sun, it is approaching the full Moon position, so it is waxing--getting "brighter."
In the morning, the Sun is rising in the east. We see a half-lit Moon in the sky. We know the Moon is always heading eastward. So, the Moon is approaching the Sun. That means it's waning. So, this is a third-quarter Moon.
In the evening, the Sun sets in the west. We see a half-lit Moon in the sky. We know the Moon is always heading eastward. So, the Moon is going away from the Sun. That means it's waxing. So, this is a first-quarter Moon.
All due dates are Wednesdays.
Some weeks are skipped due to holidays. The program concludes prior to STAAR testing in the Spring.