"Hands on learning" is the buzz word throughout school systems. The best way for students to learn is through doing. Subject content areas are filled with hands on learning ideas and activities. A student can learn and discover through experimentation. Most lesson plans available on the Internet are full of activities and learning styles that are facilitated by innovative instruction styles. "The value of peer interaction depends not only on children's abilities to engage with one another, but also on the teacher's ability to engage sometimes as a peer" (DeVries and Zan, pg. 56). Teachers are no longer dictators standing at the blackboard while students sit at their desks with their hands folded. Now students are teaching each other through cooperative learning groups. Students are working together to learn.
Once in a Blue Moon is a science lesson plan for primary students to learn about features of the moon. The lesson plan introduces a literature tie-in which is an appropriate and engaging start for the lesson. Hands on learning is also included through watercolor paintings. Art is important for young students. Students enjoy the activity while improving their fine motor skills. .
The conclusion of the lesson is a class discussion focusing on facts about the moon. A class discussion can be highly effective when it is generated and facilitated correctly by the teacher and students. With primary students class discussions tend to be side tracked very easily. If a class discussion is facilitated properly it can stay on task and allow students to speak openly about the topic. Discussions are a terrific wrap up to any lesson.
For grade levels 4, 5, and 6 students study the moon through an experiment offered in the lesson plan Phases of the Moon. The lesson plan is not heavily detailed. It relies on the book The Moon Seems to Change by Franklyn M. Branley to explain the experiment. The overview of the lesson describes the lesson almost as much as the activities and procedures does.