Learning about lunar phases can be tedious, especially if you do not know your rights from your lefts. I always describe to my students that when the right-side is bright, those lunar phases will be new, or waxing (lit side is growing). When the moon has completed the full moon phase, then those phases are left-side bright and they are old, or waning (lit side is shrinking). What is the reason why we experience moon phases? Because half of the moon is always lit and the other half is in darkness. An observer from Earth can see portions of the moon lit since the moon is circular in shape and it follows a counter-clockwise elliptical orbit. This picture was obtained from the Earth Science The Physical Setting.
Another great audiovisual came from teacher tube on moon phases. I would love to perform the same thing for my class. If not, I will have to come up with something very clever for my students to work on, perhaps a Mr. Rankin phase laboratory. What I would do is take pictures of my face with various amounts of shade and the students would have to cut them out and put them in order and answer a few questions. Some of the questions would have to include the amount of days it takes for each successive lunar phase, tides, and eclipses.
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