🌕 The Story of the Moon 🌕 Myths, Legends, and Mysteries 🌌✨

🌕 Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered what the biggest and brightest object up there is? That’s right—it’s the Moon! 🌌✨ For thousands of years, the Moon 🌙 has fascinated people with its glowing presence and its changing shapes. Not only have we used the Moon to track the passing days and create callendars , but we’ve also created countless stories to explain the mysteries it seems to hold. Let’s explore some of those stories together! 🌟

For example, the Inuit people of Greenland have a story about a Moon god 🌙, who chases his sister, the Sun goddess 🌞, across the sky. But the Moon god gets so busy chasing her that he forgets to eat! Poor Moon gets thinner and thinner—until finally, he remembers to eat, and then he gets fatter again.

In Eastern Asia, there’s a legend that the Full Moon🌕 isn’t just a glowing ball of light—it’s a home for a rabbit! 🐇✨ The story goes that if you look closely at the Moon, you can see the shape of a rabbit pounding rice into cakes 🍚. In Japanese and Chinese cultures, this rabbit is known as the Jade Rabbit, and it’s a symbol of kindness and generosity.

Tribal people from Northeastern America noticed that the wolves 🐺 howled loudly in the snowy woods ❄️🌲 under the bright, clear moonlight 🌕. So they named this first Full Moon in January Wolf Moon .

But the Moon isn’t just about animals or gods. In ancient Rome, people believed the Moon goddess Luna rode across the night sky in a silver chariot 🌕✨. Some people even thought the Moon had the power to affect people’s emotions 🌌💫. In fact, the word lunatic comes from Luna—because they believed the Moon could make people act a little wild during a Full Moon! 🌕😄 And here’s something cool: did you know that the name for Monday also comes from Luna? It’s like starting the week with a little Moon magic! 🌟✨But that's a story for another day..

Today, my story isn’t about myths or legends. It’s about how the Moon came to be. For that, we need to go back—waaaaay back—about 4.5 billion years ago, right at the beginning of the black strip. Back then, the Earth 🌍 was very young, and it was still forming its outer layer, the lithosphere. But the Earth wasn’t alone. There were other giant planetary bodies flying around. One of them, about the size of Mars, crashed into the young Earth with a huge explosion 💥!

Kaboom! A giant planet smashed into Earth, sending fiery chunks of rock flying everywhere! Imagine bits of Earth’s crust floating in space like puzzle pieces. Slowly, gravity pulled them together into one glowing ball—the Moon!” 💥🌕

Since the Moon was made from Earth’s crust, it’s made of lighter materials than the Earth. But just how big is the Moon compared to the Earth? (Show the two balls ⚪—a basketball and a tennis ball 🟡. The tennis ball is about 27% the size of the basketball. You can find here how to make this demonstration. )

Now we will use our imagination in this demonstration. The Moon is about 30 Earth diameters away from us! 🌌 Imagine lining up 30 basketballs between the two spheres to show the distance. ( To make it easier to see, you can use a pre-measured rope🪢 to represent the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Stretch the rope out between the basketball and tennis ball 🎯.) If you traveled to the Moon in a car 🚗 going 100 km/h, it would take you 160 days to get there. That’s like driving for almost half a year—wow!

The Moon’s diameter is only about 27% of the Earth’s. That means if the Earth were a big ball, it would take 50 Moons to fill it up! 🌍

Now, let’s think about how the Moon changes shape in the sky. Sometimes, it’s full and round 🌕, and other times, it’s just a tiny sliver 🌙. These are called the phases of the Moon. We have a booklet The Phases of the Moon here where we can read more about them.

• When the Moon is growing from thin to full, we say it’s waxing 🌒.

• When it’s shrinking from full to thin, we say it’s waning 🌘.

It takes about 29–30 days for the Moon to go through all its phases. That’s why people long ago used the Moon as a calendar! Each cycle was like one month (yes, that word comes from “moonth”!).

Have you ever noticed shadows on the Moon’s surface? 🌕 Look closely—they’re craters! People also gave names to this craters and dark patches on the Moon. They called them “seas” 🌊—but don’t pack your swimsuit! They’re not real seas! These craters were formed billions of years ago when comets and asteroids 💥 smashed into the Moon.

Тhe Moon gets hit more often than Earth because it doesn’t have an atmosphere. 🌌 Earth has a protective blankets of air - the layers of the atmosphere 🌍🌬️ that burns up many asteroids before they even reach the ground. That’s what shooting stars are—tiny space rocks burning up in our atmosphere! 🌠 But the Moon? It’s like a bare, unprotected target 🎯, ready to take on whatever space throws its way! Imagine it standing there bravely: “Bring it on, universe! I'm ready!” 😎✨

There are other planets in our Solar System with moons. Some moons are even bigger than planets! But no moon has been more important to us on Earth than our own 🌕✨. For thousands of years, people have looked up at the Moon and noticed its predictable changes and noticing even the tides 🌊. But this is a story for another day...

💭 I wonder about our Moon? Could humans live on the Moon one day? What would we need to survive there?You can discover more about the Moon from the books we have or how about creating your own Earth and Moon comparison 3d model? 🌍🌕

This story of the Moon connects beautifully to two key presentations from the Geography and History album. In the Layers of the Atmosphere presentation from the Geography Album , we explore Earth’s protective blanket of air, which burns up many asteroids before they reach the ground. This natural shield explains why the Earth’s surface is less marked by craters than the Moon’s, linking directly to the idea of how the Moon, without an atmosphere, takes the full brunt of space debris. By observing the Moon’s craters, children can appreciate the vital role of Earth’s atmosphere in protecting life, sparking curiosity about the delicate balance that supports life on our planet.The Black Strip presentation from the History Album, on the other hand, delves into the timeline of the universe and the Earth’s formation.By connecting the Moon’s formation to this grand timeline, we bridge the awe of cosmic history with the tangible, observable presence of the Moon in the night sky, inspiring questions about our place in the universe

With Montessori joy,

Vanina 😊