Teachers, save “Phases of the Moon & Maramataka 🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘” to assign it to your class.

The Māori lunar calendar – the maramataka – used the phases of the Moon as a time measure. In fact, ‘nights of the Moon’ were referred to rather than days, with 30 of them making up the lunar month – 30 nights of the Moon were commonly identified and named. The night of the first appearance of the new moon was whiro. Full moon (huanga) covered 3 nights – ohua, turu and rākau-nui. In the maramataka, each phase of the Moon is related to specific activities – for example, whiro is said to be unfavourable for planting food and fishing but a good night for taking eels. The phases of the moon relate to the amount of light you see (waxing and waning) on the Moon’s surface as it orbits the Earth. The image shows the moon phases – from the new Moon (Whiro) to the full Moon (Te Rākaunui) Over the next month, I would like you to observe the different phases of the moon each night and record what you see digitally. Save your work as a draft until it is complete Attached is a student template that you can use. Make sure to view at the same time each night, and shade the part you cannot see to leave the illuminated part of the moon. If it is too cloudy to see, draw some clouds over the top. We will have a look at our moon diaries in class each week and see if we notice patterns, so please bring back your sheet! 🌓