You clarify better about the eclipses by showing children a few pictures and video clips. If they are very young, cartoons or anime versions may work even better. These methods will help not only the visual learners, but also the audio learners, since they can listen to another voice pattern and type of speech than just the teacher’s. You can also organize a trip to the planetarium, where children can see scientific models of eclipses.
Your students can cut out cardboard in the shape of the sun and you can have one of them to wear it to represent the sun; repeat the exercise for the moon and the Earth; then ask the child representing the moon to walk, in an elliptical orbit, around the child representing the Earth, who, in turn, will walk around the one representing the sun. This game is as much fun as it is instructive, especially for kinesthetic learners.
You can also use props to build models of the eclipses, such as a projector or a flashlight, to represent the sun, styrofoam or golf balls for the Earth and moon, and hoops for the ellipses. Mention that the moon’s elliptical orbit is why we don’t have eclipses every month. For more sophisticated models, you can use adhesive tape, glue, cardboard tubes, torch, scissors, aluminum foil and wire for ellipses.
Whichever model you choose, the method for modeling eclipses is about the same. Place a projector or flashlight at the front of your classroom and turn it on. Tell your students to stick pencils into styrofoam balls to hold them better. Darken the room and have the students stand in a semicircle facing the light source, holding the balls at arm’s length. Explain to them that the light source represents the sun, the balls represent the moon and their heads represent the Earth.
After demonstrating how eclipses work, you could follow up with some questions, such as “When can you see a lunar or a solar eclipse?” or “Is it easier to see a lunar eclipse or a solar eclipse?” or “Why don’t we have eclipses at every full moon and new moon?” For their assignment, they could write about what eclipses they would see if they lived on the moon.