Oreo Moon Phases Activity - Special Treat Friday

Learning about the moon is a natural curiosity of many kids. They see it most nights. It is enormous, a circle, a sliver and sometimes we don’t see it at all. Why?

Learning about the moon is an easy buy in for most kids. They get really excited. If they aren’t excited yet, show them some videos of rockets headed for the moon or check out our FREE Virtual Field Trip to the International Space Station. Seeing these astronauts up in space is bound to get them curious.

After we have tracked the moon in our moon journals for a few weeks, and read about the moon, have written about the moon, then we make our Oreo Moon Project. This is a highlight for the students in this unit.

I love doing food activities in class (now with COVID restrictions this may have changed), but you can still buy the Oreos at the store, and use gloves to serve them. None of the kids are sharing cookies or supplies.

Set Your Expectations High

I also have high expectations of my students when it comes to food project. There is absolutely no eating your project or snacking on it while working. If you are caught eating or snacking, your project goes in the trash and you sit at your seat and watch the class have fun.

Each year during our numerous food projects, I usually have 1 or 2 that test the rules and end up missing out. That is all it takes for the rest of the class to see the seriousness of the issue. They learn really quickly!

Here is How it Works

I like to only give out 1 Oreo at a time to the students, this keeps Oreos from getting dropped, eaten or misused.

I use our Oreo Moon Phases worksheet for the students to work with and I have a master that I work off of for them to follow.

I like to start with the full moon, I show them how to twist the Oreo carefully so that the cream stays on, if it doesn’t we use plastic knives to transfer it over.

The other side of the cookie is now blank which makes for the “new moon”. We put that into place. Next, we take the next cookie and we start with a full moon and then just shave a little bit off, to make a Gibbous Moon. Make sure they put the right side towards the sun. The cream that they shave off is put on the empty piece and it will be used as the opposite part, to make a crescent moon.

We continue to move through all the phases. You can maximize your cookie use by using the opposites together.

Now that we are done…, you can let your students eat the cookies or have them put them in a bag to take home. We fold the paper to add to their bag. Once they get home, they can tell their family about the moon phases and then they have a snack for after dinner. Then I pass out the extra cookies to the students to have as a snack.

Have fun doing this project with your students! They will love it, remember it and you will be their hero and favorite teacher.

Click Here for the Virtual Field Trip Activity!