Make a moon at home and learn about what Earth’s moon is made of …and why it has craters.

What you need:

• Large orange or red bead - the core of the moon

• Small rocks -asteroids and comets

• Black string or fishing wire

• Plain air dry clay

• White and black paint

What to do:

1. Attach the large bead securely to the string.
   This bead represents the hot core of the moon.

2. Create the mantle of the moon by moulding the clay around the core.

3. Add a second layer of clay to represent the moon’s crust.

4. The real moon is puckered with craters, caused bu meteorites and asteroids crashing into it.
   To create craters in your moon, put your moon in a plastic container and have fun crashing small rocks into it.
   Look at the craters they make.
   You can also squash them into the moon and drag them off in slow motion to the sides of the crater to see how it forms peaks on the surface.

5. Take bits of the moons crust and extra pieces of clay and stick them onto the surface.
   These are the pieces of moon and other celestial bodies that have landed on the surface of your moon due to collisions.

6. When you have finished, leave it to dry in the sun for at least a day.
   You can then paint your moon with dark and light patches - these are your highlands and Maria or Seas.

7. When it is dry, hang it up.

Did you know…

There are lots of Earth artifacts that astronauts have left on the moon. These include…

• Two Golf Balls

• Bible

• Moon memorial disc carrying goodwill messages and statements of leaders of 73 countries around the world

• Six US flags were planted on the moon although the first flag was said to be destroyed by take off and the others will be very faded- almost white

• Lunar Laser Ranging Retroflector Array.
  This is the only Apollo science experiment still running. It is used to measure the distance between the earth and the moon and it also helps us to understand the moon's orbit and to test theories of gravity.