Study Guide
Quick meanings for every word. Pair Tier 3 words with pictures to support newcomers.
Beginner ELL Core Idea
- The Moon moves around Earth.
- Gravity pulls the Moon and water.
- Moon shapes change in a cycle.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Angle | The amount of turn between two lines or surfaces that meet at a point, usually measured in degrees. |
| Full Moon | The Moon phase where the entire side facing Earth is lit up and visible. |
| Galaxy | A massive collection of stars, gas, and dust held together by gravity. |
| Gravity | A force that pulls any two objects with mass toward each other. |
| New Moon | The Moon phase where the side facing Earth receives no direct sunlight, so it isn't visible from Earth. |
| Partial | Describes something that is incomplete — only part of the whole. |
| Phases | The changing shapes the Moon appears to have from Earth, caused by how much of its sunlit side we can see. |
| Position | The specific location of an object at a given time. |
| Sphere | A perfectly round, three-dimensional shape, like a ball. |
| Spring | Describes the strongest tides of the month, which happen when the Sun, Earth, and Moon line up and their gravity combines. |
| Tide | The regular rise and fall of ocean water levels, caused mainly by the Moon's gravity. |
| Tilt | A lean to one side, away from a straight vertical or horizontal line. |
| Axis | An imaginary line through the center of an object that it spins around. |
| Annular | Describes a solar eclipse where the Moon appears too small to fully cover the Sun, leaving a bright ring visible around its edge. |
| Corona | The faint outer layer of the Sun's atmosphere, usually only visible during a total solar eclipse. |
| Crescent | A thin, curved sliver shape, seen when only a small part of the Moon's lit side faces Earth. |
| Cyclical | Happening in a repeating pattern, over and over. |
| Eclipse | An event where one object passes into the shadow of another, or blocks the view of another, in space. |
| Forces | Pushes or pulls that can change an object's motion. |
| Gibbous | Describes a Moon phase where more than half, but not all, of the visible side is lit. |
| Gravitational Pull | The attractive force between two objects due to their mass — the more mass or the closer the objects, the stronger it is. |
| Hybrid | A rare type of solar eclipse that shifts between two other types as the Moon's shadow moves across Earth's curved surface. |
| Lunar Eclipse | An event where Earth passes between the Sun and Moon, casting its shadow onto the Moon. |
| Milky Way | The name of the galaxy that contains our solar system. |
| Neap | Describes the weakest tides of the month, which happen when the Sun and Moon's gravity partly cancel each other out. |
| Orbit | The curved path one object follows as it travels around another due to gravity. |
| Path of Totality | The narrow strip of land where a solar eclipse appears completely total, with the Moon fully covering the Sun. |
| Penumbra | The lighter, outer part of a shadow, where only some of a light source is blocked. |
| Reflection | Light bouncing off a surface — the Moon is visible because it does this to sunlight rather than producing its own light. |
| Revolution | One complete trip an object makes around another object. |
| Rotation | One complete spin an object makes around its own axis. |
| Solar Eclipse | An event where the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, blocking some or all of the sunlight in certain areas. |
| Totality | The stage of a solar eclipse when the Moon completely blocks the Sun's visible surface. |
| Umbra | The darkest, central part of a shadow, where a light source is completely blocked. |
| Waning | Describes the Moon appearing to shrink night after night, from full toward new. |
| Waxing | Describes the Moon appearing to grow night after night, from new toward full. |