National Science Week is 10-18 August. The theme is Destination Moon: More missions, more science.

What a fantastic way to celebrate the Moon Landing 50th Anniversary!

This is a great time for big-picture thinking with your students: explore moon missions and space programs of the past, present and future. Solve problems and use technology, engineering and maths to design solutions.

Best of all, your students can produce an engaging piece of informative writing based on this fascinating theme!

Fun and creative ways to write facts!

Your students can transform dull statements into painted pictures with words. Here’s an example of how Step 5: Show, Don’t Tell can be used effectively in an informative text:

Before:

The crescent moon is visible during the night and day. At night it is a bright yellow but during the day it is white.

After:

Hanging high above our heads, the luminous jewel of the night sky beams over Earth. The crescent moon has risen at sunset but will not disappear at sunrise. Instead, its light will be bright enough to see during the day, as white as a swan’s feather.

Classroom activities for Science Week

In celebration of Science Week, we’re featuring a writing prompt to inspire your students’ research into the moon.

Moon facts

1. Use the Picture Writing Prompt (above) and, in groups, ask your students to find 15 facts about the moon.
2. Next, instruct your students to order their facts from most interesting to least interesting.
3. Have students explain the reasons why. This is a great time to use Think, Pair, Share.

Be a moonwalker!

1. Another way to use this writing prompt is to ask students to explore the interactive moon maps on the NASA website.
2. Students can then write what they would see, feel, hear or taste if they were exploring on the moon.
3. Ask students to write a Sizzling Start or Dynamic Dialogue between two astronauts.
4. Students can also integrate the facts they’ve discovered in their writing.

Looking for more classroom resources?

Browse our free Informative Resources page.
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