Dissecting the Eight Phases (Not Faces) of the Moon

How much do you know about the Moon? Want to learn more? You are at the right place. Did you know that Earthlings share an interdependent relationship with the Moon? We derive several benefits from the Moon and give back very little, including its birthing, which is a lot, trading their bomb-blasting meteoroids and asteroids with them, donating some free work to them for stabilizing our elliptical tilt and bequeathing a little Earthshine light that we both steal from the kindhearted Sun. From the generous Moon, we Earthlings derive eclipses, appreciate its teaching the tides to behave between King and Neap tides, enjoy its Twilight Zone between Moonrise and Moonset, and decipher who, among three culprits, is the guilty party in corrupting and rusting the nice Moon. Also, we are grateful for its energy-saving "free" combination of Sun and Moonlight thanks to the Sun, its Full Moon cultural myths, its many psychotic-leaning faces, and helping us to mobilize through nocturnal navigation, migration, and plant/animal reproduction behaviors. Next, we launched into the Moon's eight phases and their regularities, irregularities, and idiosyncrasies. Finally, we engaged students in several Moon phase-related challenges and activities, such as creating a paper hat, and a chart, as well as playing a Moon phase game.