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 | How much a line slants compared to another line. |
| Full Moon | The phase when we see the whole lit side of the moon. |
| Galaxy | A massive collection of stars, gas, and dust held together by gravity. |
| Gravity | The force that pulls objects with mass toward each other. |
| New Moon | The phase when the moon is between Earth and the sun, so we see none of its lit side. |
| Partial | Describes something that is incomplete — only part of the whole. |
| Phases | The shape of the lit part of the moon that we see from Earth. |
| Position | Where an object is compared with a chosen reference point. |
| Sphere | A perfectly round, three-dimensional shape, like a ball. |
| Spring | A tide with extra-high high tides and extra-low low tides. It happens when the sun, moon, and Earth line up. |
| Tide | The regular rise and fall of the ocean’s surface, caused mostly by the moon’s pull. |
| Tilt | A slant or lean away from straight up and down. |
| Axis | An imaginary line through the center of Earth from the North Pole to the South Pole. Earth spins around it. |
| 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 Sun’s outer atmosphere, visible around the covered disk 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 cycle that repeats. |
| Eclipse | An event where one object passes into the shadow of another, or blocks the view of another, in space. |
| Forces | A push or a pull. |
| Gibbous | Describes a Moon phase where more than half, but not all, of the visible side is lit. |
| Gravitational Pull | The pull that objects with mass have on each other. |
| Hybrid | Describes a solar eclipse that appears annular along some parts of its track and total along others. |
| Lunar Eclipse | When Earth passes between the sun and the moon and Earth’s shadow covers the moon. |
| Milky Way | The name of the galaxy that contains our solar system. |
| Neap | A tide with the smallest difference between high and low water. It happens at the quarter moons. |
| Orbit | The curved path of one object around another in space, maintained by gravity. |
| Path of Totality | The track across Earth’s surface where the Moon completely covers the Sun’s visible disk during a total solar eclipse. |
| Penumbra | The lighter outer part of a shadow, where only some light is blocked. |
| Reflection | A wave bouncing off a surface. |
| Revolution | One full trip of an object around another object. |
| Rotation | Spinning around a center line. |
| Solar Eclipse | When the moon passes between the sun and Earth and blocks the sun’s light. |
| Totality | The stage of a solar eclipse when the Moon completely blocks the Sun's visible surface. |
| Umbra | The darkest, center part of a shadow, where all of the light is blocked. |
| Waning | Getting smaller. The lit part of the moon we see is shrinking. |
| Waxing | Getting bigger. The lit part of the moon we see is growing. |