Ms. Carter: Have you ever noticed that the moon looks different from night to night? Sometimes it is a big, round circle. Other times it is a thin curve, like a fingernail. But the moon itself never changes shape. It is always a round ball.

Ms. Carter: The moon does not make its own light. The light we see is sunlight bouncing off the moon. The sun always lights up the half of the moon that faces it.

Ms. Carter: The moon travels around the Earth, and each trip takes about a month. As it moves, we see different amounts of its bright half. When we can see all of the bright half, we call it a full moon.

Ms. Carter: Starting tonight, I'd like each of you to look for the moon before bed and draw what you see in your science journal. If you cannot find it, write that down, too. In a month, you will have your own record of how the moon changes.