Lunar Eclipse Activities

Tonight there will be a full lunar eclipse and a super blood wolf moon. We decided to do some moon activities today to celebrate.

We started by making some moon rocks. We mixed equal parts flour and water and added a little silver tempera paint. The kids dunked cotton balls in the flour mixture and put them on a pan covered with tin foil. We baked them for about an hour at 300 degrees.

I mixed one cup of Epsom salt with 1 tsp. of vinegar and some silver paint. I let it dry for about an hour on paper towel. Then we shaped it to look like the surface of the moon. The kids took turns taking slow motion videos of their cotton ball moon rocks hitting the "surface of the moon". 

We also made constellation sensory bags. We put clear hair gel, glitter, and foil star confetti in a Ziploc bag. The kids had fun moving their stars around in the bag. (It takes a lot of hair gel to fill a bag.)

I found an Earth ball at the Dollar Tree. We used that and also blew up a yellow balloon to represent the sun and a silver balloon for the moon and did some visual representation of a lunar and solar eclipse. 

We had some moon and eclipse treats as well. 

We made a crater cake. I found the recipe on http://scratchinit.halversen.com/2013/03/craters-of-the-moon-cake/

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 Tbs cocoa

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp vinegar

1 cup milk

5 Tbsp melted butter

1/2 cup meteorites (nuts, chocolate chips, etc.) 

Start by mixing the flour, sugar, brown sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a 9 inch cake pan. 

This will make it look like a sand volcano.

Make three craters in your pan. Fill the big crater in the center with the melted butter, the medium crater with the baking soda, and a small crater with the vanilla. 

Add the vinegar to the baking soda crater. The volcano will spill over the surface of the moon. Then dump the milk over the other craters and "flood" the moon. 

Stir the ingredients together. 

Add the craters and bake for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees. 

We made whipped cream to eat with the crater cake. 

The last craft Rachel did was to make a picture of the moon out of tin foil. 

They probably had the most fun dissecting the cotton ball moon rocks! 

I finished the night by making some "moon" cheese bread. (http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2014/01/snowman-cheese-bread.html) 

Now we just have to wait and see if the sky will be clear enough tonight!