Moon Unit Study

The next 3 months on the Islamic calendar (which is Lunar), are when much talk of the moon arises, as we insha' Allah, prepare for Ramadaan and Eid. The month proceeding Ramadaan, is titled Shaabaan. Many Muslims make themselves aware of when the Shaabaan moon is sighted in order to figure out aproximatley when Ramadaan will begin. It is also a month in which many Muslim take to voluntary fasting to prepare for the month long Ramadaan fast. The sighting of the Ramadaan moon is an exciting event, and many people venture out to try and get a glimpse of it. The month following Ramadaan is titled Shaawaal, and the first day of that month is the Eid Al-Fitr celebration. In preparation for the start of Shaabaan,  of which the first day is either Wednesday or Thrusday of this week, I decided it was time for a Moon Unit Study. For the next 3 months, we are going to be learning something new about the moon each day. There is also a supplication Muslim say on sighting the new moon, we will be learning that too, as well as doing some Ramadaan Moon crafts and activities. Most of these ideas are floating around in my head right now, and I will blog them as we do them, insha' Allah.

First up is our Phases of the Earth's Moon poster I hung up last night:

I found this poster at our local learning store as well. Masha' Allah it has a TON of activity ideas on the back, all of which I plan to do insha' Allah. There are also alot of Fun Moon Facts that I plan to type out and hang daily under the poster to include in our morning circle time insha' Allah, and I will also couple these with verses from the Quran about the moon.  

In circle time this morning we talked about how important the Moon is for Muslim's since our calendar is based on the moon, which tells us when the new month starts, and of more interest to them, when Eid is ; ) Masha' Allah. Today is the New Moon, or as I've heard some call it the Black Moon. We talked about how we won't be able to see the Moon tonight, because you cannot see the new moon, because it is black. We talked briefly about how the moon travels around the earth, and how many days that takes, and how the moon will be changing as it does that.

Insha' Allah, you will be able to find all our Moon Unit Study activities as we do them under the tag: Moon Unit Study 2012 in the blog archives.