Introduce the subject, telling the children that the moon revolves around the Earth approximately every 29 days.
Show the children a picture of a full moon and explain to them that this is what the moon looks like but that it is not always what people see from the Earth. Tell them the moon seems to take different shapes, such as a crescent, depending on how it is situated relative to the sun and what part of it is reflecting sunlight. Explain that when the moon is not full, the rest of the moon is still there but is in shadow.
Perform an activity in which the children depict the phases of the moon using paper plates. Start with a whole paper plate and tell the children that the plate represents a full moon. Cut a second plate in half and tell them that this is what a quarter moon looks like. Have the children do the same with their own plates and to use craft glue to paste the paper plates onto dark blue or black construction paper to resemble the moon in the night sky.
Tell the children to draw a picture of the moon. Teach them that the moon sometimes appears to have holes in it, like Swiss cheese. Explain that these are craters, dents in the moon's surface caused by the impact of meteors.
Introduce the concept of gravity. Tell the children that gravity is the force that holds people and things down to the ground, but that the moon has one-sixth the gravity of the Earth, which means that people can jump much higher there.
Take the children to a space museum, where they can see images of the moon and learn more about it, such as what the moon is made of and how it was formed, and perhaps get a chance to touch a rock taken from the moon by astronauts. They might also visit a planetarium and gain more knowledge about the moon, the stars and the planets.
Construct a moon out of white putty or clay. Have each child make a different shape of the moon, such as a full moon, half moon or crescent moon. Have the children maintain a lunar calendar that shows the moon's shape every day. Tell them each morning to redo their putty or clay moons so that they look like the moon on the calendar for that day.