MacKenzie+Zurn



Moon Bibliography (Activities designed for a 1st grade class) MacKenzie Zurn ECD 418

Non - Fiction Books ** What is the Moon? ** Bredeson, Carmen. (2008) **What is the Moon?** Enslow Publishers. 32 pages. Retrieved from Scottsdale Public Library. This text can be applied to many different activities. The first of which is basic fractions. The book says that if you break the Earth into four pieces, the moon would be the size of one of those pieces. To introduce this concept with the children, you could do a hands-on activity to help them visualize the size of the moon in comparison to the Earth (mathematics.) Another activity that could be done is creating a rocket. In the book, the author talks about how a spaceship could travel to the moon in just three days. Students can make their own rocket using a balloon, and upon releasing the rocket, measure how far the ship traveled (Science.)
 * What is the Moon? ** is a factual based Q & A format book. One of the cool features of the book is that it includes a vocabulary page, as well as a content and index section. The text answers questions about where the moon comes from, its size, and other qualities like the moon’s reflective surface. Another helpful aspect of the book is that it has a chart that shows all the different phases of the moon. This visual provides a good reference for students to clearly see the different sizes of the moon and how the sunlight and distance of the sun directly affects the moon’s appearance. **What is the Moon?** is relevant to the field of study because it provides fact-based information for the reader to acquire.

** If You Decide to Go to the Moon ** McNulty, Faith. (2005) **If You Decide to Go to the Moon**. Scholastic Press. 48 pages. Retrieved from Scottsdale Public Library. My favorite non-fiction book regarding the moon is **If You Decide to Go to the Moon**. This story appeals to young children because it’s written as if they’re getting ready to go on a trip to the moon. It combines a story with factual information, and does so in a way that young children can relate to and understand. It talks about how to prepare for a trip to the moon, the journey and what it would feel like to be on a rocket ship, and then what it looks and feels like to actually be on the moon. The author talks about the environment and why astronauts need to wear a suit, there are no clouds and you could get ‘burned up’ without it! The story compares many of the moon’s attributes to concepts that children can relate to like, “your first step will be difficult, but once you learn how, you will leap forward like a kangaroo.” Similes can be found throughout the text, which in my opinion, is a perfect way to create visuals and connections with the audience. Lastly, the text compares the moon to the Earth, and why we can live on this planet and not the other. For a writing activity with your students, have the children draw a picture of them in space and write about it. The book talks a lot about the loss of gravity, and how that makes you weightless. Encourage children to write about what it would feel like, and what they would do. Another great activity linked to social studies would be to research “The Sea of Tranquility” mentioned in the book. As a class, take notes about what occurred here, who were the people that landed, and how long did they stay? You could also integrate a follow-up journal entry regarding the “Sea of Tranquility” and have them write about what they learned that was most interesting to them.

** There’s No Place Like Space ** Rabe, Tish. (2009) **There’s No Place Like Space.** Random House Children’s Books. 44 pages. Retrieved from my personal library.

 This book would be an excellent introduction to a moon unit. Although it is not solely about the moon, it can be a broad outer space book that centers into just the moon. As part of the Cat in the Hat Learning Library, it uses fun rhymes in true Doctor Seuss style. The story starts out with the Cat in the Hat picking up the two children from the original story, and taking them out to Outer Space in a rocket ship. Along the way, they stop at Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and the sun. Along the way, the children learn fun facts about each planet and about what makes it unique. Lastly, the two children take a stop at the moon and learn that it does not shine, but it reflects the light of the sun. Before the kids head home, they learn that astronauts from Earth have explored the moon and drove a lunar rover to help them get around.  As a broad outer space activity, pair up the students and assign them a planet. Using the book and other classroom resources, have them draw a picture of the planet they were assigned and write three facts they learned about their planet. This activity would be a collaboration between science and writing. Another activity that could be done in the classroom is to introduce students to telescopes. Although it would be really cool to use a telescope during the school day, it wouldn’t be possible because it’s still light outside. However, students could make their own telescopes using a paper towel roll and a cup. Another great idea would be to let a student take home the telescope at night. They can use the telescope at home to look at the stars and the moon, and return it to class the next day for another student to borrow. This activity would fall under the science category. ** The Moon ** Rustad, Martha E. H. (2009) **The Moon**. Capstone Press. 24 pages. Retrieved from Scottsdale Public Library.  This non-fiction book about the moon is an easy read for both students and teachers. It features a table of contents, glossary, references for further information, and an index. It would be a perfect introductory book for modeling the differences between fiction and non-fiction. This text covers reflection, the moon’s matter and surface, size, and the craters you can find on the surface of the moon. The sentences are simple in structure and are very informational with little ‘fluff.’  **The Moon** is a great book simply because it’s at the children’s reading level. To integrate the book with the curriculum and a reading activity, you could simply have the children read it. They could read it in pairs or individually, and ask questions about the words they might not be familiar with. To wrap up the activity, we could add in a writing center where the students write in their journals three things they learned about the moon, and will be encouraged to use some of the new vocabulary from the book like ‘crater,’ ‘reflect,’ or ‘satellite.’ ** Moon ** <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Tomecek, Steve. (2005) **Moon**. Notional Geographic Society. 31 pages. Retrieved from Scottsdale Public Library. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> The book **Moon** provides a thorough explanation of the moon and its history. The story itself follows a cat that is part of all the illustrations, and we see him interact with the pictures along with the story. We follow the moon throughout the seasons, and then go way back to when Galileo first tracked the moon with a telescope. We continue to learn about craters, the moon’s size compared to the sun, its distance from the Earth, and the phases the moon rotates through. The illustrations provide examples of the moon’s rotation around the Earth, and size comparisons that appear accurate. Lastly, we learn about Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong, and the special suits he and the other astronauts wear in space. The story ends with a science experiment children are encouraged to try, making craters with flour and pebbles. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> Using the suggestions from the book, the first activity I would do after reading is have the students create craters. This science activity will help the students understand how craters are made, and why the moon appears ‘bumpy.’ While doing this activity, make sure to be using appropriate vocabulary using the words meteorite, lunar surface, seas, and so on. In the book **Moon**, the author talks about the size of the moon. Students will be encouraged, during this math activity, to measure different spherical objects (designated by the teacher) to measure their diameter. To close up the activity, relate their measurements back to those of the Earth and the moon, and how much larger they are in comparison.

Fiction Books ** Mooncake ** <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Asch, Frank. (1999) **Mooncake**. Aladdin Paperbacks. 32 pages. Retrieved from Scottsdale Public Library. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> **Mooncake** is a story about a bird and a bear who decide they would like to try to eat the moon. They try shooting the moon with a bow and a spoon to try and catch a bite, and when that doesn’t work, they think it would be a good idea to build a rocket ship. It takes the pair so long to build the ship that bird actually has to fly south for the winter, leaving bear to complete the rocket ship alone. When bear finally completes the ship, he gets inside and falls asleep (hibernates.) During the winter, the rocket ship is blown over and Bear stumbles out. With it being the middle of winter, Bear finds himself immersed in snow, and since he’s normally asleep during the winter, he’s unfamiliar with the season, and mistakes the snow for being on the moon. He made a little ‘mooncake’ out of snow, and finally got a taste of the ‘moon.’ He returns to his rocket ship and unknowingly falls asleep again, and wakes back up in the spring. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> To accompany this silly story, students will write and illustrate a short story about how //they// would try to catch the moon and why they would want to. Emphasize including characters, setting, and resolution. To integrate a literacy activity with this book, we will re-read the story as a class and fill out a beginning, middle and end chart to help organize the story. Also, include the characters and setting in the chart. For a class that may need an extra challenge, have the students complete the beginning, middle and end charts individually. These charts will have to have been introduced previously to set the students up for success. ** Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me ** <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Carle, Eric. (1991) **Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me**. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. 40 pages. Retrieved from Scottsdale Public Library. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> One of Eric Carle’s most well-known books, **Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me**, is a about a little girl who asks her father to get the moon for her. He finds a very tall ladder, and places it on top of a very tall mountain. He climbs and climbs to reach the moon, and when he finally does, the moon is too big to grab. The moon tells the father that every night, he will get smaller, and when he is small enough, he can carry the moon down so his daughter can play with him. Once the moon was small enough, the father climbed back up the ladder, and brought the moon back down. The daughter played with the moon until it disappeared, and they could no longer see it back up in the sky. But later, the moon reappeared, and each night it got bigger. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> **Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me** is an excellent introduction into the phases of the moon. For this science activity, students will be assigned homework for the month of documenting the way the moon looks. Each night, they will draw the moon to the best of their ability. The next day in class, they will bring in their drawing on their chart and we will label the phase of the moon. We will continue this activity until we have watched the full rotation of the moon. To integrate a writing activity, I would have the students write in their journals about what they would do with the moon if they had it for a night. They can illustrate their response as well as write a short story. For an added extra, we could collage their illustration like the author, Eric Carle, does in his books.

** I’ll Catch the Moon ** <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Crews, Nina. (1996) **I’ll Catch the Moon**. Greenwillow Books. 34 pages. Retrieved from Scottsdale Public Library. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> **I’ll catch the Moon** is a story about a girl’s dream to go to the moon. The illustrations are a collection of photos taken by NASA, combined with photographs taken by the author. The two are combined to illustrate the imagination of the child. The story begins by the girl dreaming about going to the moon. She talks about all the times she’s seen the moon, and that sometimes she thinks she would like to catch it. She would build a ladder to outer space, and go on and adventure with the moon. She knows she would eventually have to return home because her family would miss her, but every night, she would wave to the moon. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> In the book, the author makes a comparison “Moon. Silver shining like a quarter. I would like to put it in my pocket.” For a writing activity, students will be encouraged to write their own similes. We can brainstorm first as a class for different ideas to compare to the moon, and then students will be encouraged to write their own. Upon completion, the similes can be shared with the class or even made into a class book. For a science activity, we will research why the moon looks larger and smaller during different parts of the night. For example, the moon looks larger when it’s near the horizon than when it’s risen. We will discuss optical illusions, as well as phases of the moon to tie those two transformations together. ** I Took the Moon for a Walk ** <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Curtis, Carolyn. (2008) **I Took the Moon for a Walk**. Barefoot Books. 32 pages. Retrieved from Scottsdale Public Library. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> **I Took the Moon for a Walk** is another imaginary adventure between a boy and the moon. The boy travels through his moon, seemingly taking the moon for a walk without being attached to a string. He takes the moon through the forest, through the clouds, above a church, through the grass, and over the bridge. When the moon and the boy pass over the bridge, they see the moon’s reflection. Eventually, the boy returns home and falls asleep. The book features wonderful rhyming sequences and excellent imagery for the reader, which is the main reason I chose this book. At the end of the book, the text talks about the different phases of the moon and all of the animals that come out at nighttime. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> **I Took the Moon for a Walk** features rhyming and repetition. While reading the story out loud, I will ask the children to clap when they hear a rhyming sequence. The book also reuses the phrase “When I took the moon for a walk,” at least once on each page. When the students hear the repeated phrase, they will do an action like put their hands on their head. As a class, we will count how many rhyming words were in the book, as well as how many times the phrase is repeated. For a science activity, we will research nocturnal animals. Each student will pick a nocturnal animal from a list of pre-selected animals, and they will draw a picture of their animal and find three facts about the animal that make it special. ** Kitten’s First Full Moon ** <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Henke, Kevin. (2004) **Kitten’s First Full Moon**. Greenwillow Books. 30 pages. Retrieved from my personal library. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> **Kitten’s First Full Moon** is a silly take on a kitten’s perception of what she thinks is a bowl of milk. At first, Kitten is laying on the porch as sees the moon. She thinks it’s a bowl of milk! She tries to jump up and lick it, but of course, misses the ‘milk.’ She wanders away from home and up into a tree thinking she would be able to reach it from there, but fails again. Lastly, Kitten sees an even bigger bowl of milk, a reflection of the moon in a pond, and she jumps in thinking she had finally caught it. Of course, Kitten realizes it is //not// milk, and returns home defeated. When she gets home, there’s a bowl of milk on her porch. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> After reading **Kitten’s First Full Moon**, I will introduce the concept of reflection regarding the moon. As a science activity, I will have several mirrors and flashlights ready to go. I will pair up the students, one with a light and one with a mirror, and turn off the classroom lights. As a group, we will look around and see that none of the “moons” are lighting up. Then I will have the students with the flashlights turn them on, and face them at the mirror. I will explain that the flashlights are like the sun, and with them turned on, the mirrors will seem to light up. But are they really lighting up? No, that’s the mirrors //reflecting// the light from the sun. For a writing activity to complete after reading the story, I will encourage the students to brainstorm other ways the kitten could have gotten the ‘bowl of milk.’ Once they all have an idea, they will return to their desks and write one more think the kitten could have tried to get the ‘milk’ or the moon.