On the Moon

Summary of book:
Anna Milbourne’s On the Moon is an exciting book for students beginning to read. The story begins and ends with a young girl looking out her window at the moon. She tells us about how the astronauts fly to the moon and explore the dusty planet. Whenever an astronaut needs to move around he walks with such buoyancy that causes him to leap with humongous strides. Anna Milbourne tells how the earth looks so small and Benji Davies’ illustrations added such strength to the story.

Personal reaction to the book:
In my personal opinion, I believe astronaut to be a very big word for someone so little. However, Anna Milbourne does a splendid job at not only defining astronaut, but also putting it into context. The show more illustrations that are used in this book take everything into perspective. When the astronauts are said to ride in a small cockpit, Benji Davies depicts this scene by drawing the gigantic astronauts bigger than the cockpit. When the shuttle flies towards the moon, the earth is larger than one could imagine, while the moon appears to be smaller than a quarter. The pictures and storyline are both very creative, but once put together, they capture everyone’s attention – young and old.

Extension ideas:
1. Have students drink “Tang” just like astronauts do. The teacher will make Kool-Aid or use orange juice and insert it into a small bag making sure there is not a lot of air in the bag. The students will need to squeeze the juice out into their mouths and pretend that there is no pressure to help the “Tang” flow into their mouth.
2. The teacher could have the children color Space Monkeys and will be allowed to pick 3 space stickers to put on their papers. Each student will count their stickers. The teacher will tell the class why some monkeys can go into space.
3. For younger grades, a teacher can introduce the letter “A” by talking about the astronauts. After the teacher gives a few examples, students can give the teacher some words that begin with “a”. The teacher can write these on the board if he wishes. To solidify the concept of the activity, the students can be given a coloring sheet with different objects on them. The directions will be to color only the objects that begin with the letter “a”.
4. If there is extra time, the teacher can take the students outside to the playground and have them “Space Walk” to the monkey bars. A “Space Walk” is when someone slowly picks up and sets down his feet. This will help the students stay in a group and avoid anyone falling. Once at the monkey bars, three or four students can hang upside down on the bars to understand the concept of gravity. This is a big hit with every grade. show less

Summary:
The book of "On the Moon" by the author Ann Milbourne is for children who are interested in space. The illustrations in this book are wonderful and has educational information about the moon and the astronauts. This book is perfect for early readers.

Personal Reaction:
I love the space and astronomy since I was a child. My children and me like to watch the moon and the stars in the sky. In addition, when I was taking the astronomy class at the university, the teacher let us see the stars and the planets with the the telescope and it was a great experience.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. We can draw and color the planets.
2. The teacher can take the students to a tour in the Planetary.
3. We can watch a video in the classroom of the show more first trip of the astronauts to the moon. show less

Summary:
This story is about a girl and how she describes astronauts and what they see. She vividly takes us along on the ride with the words and pictures used. It shows us how amazing the past we have really is.

Personal Reaction:
I think this book is amazing and reminds us of how amazing our past is and what we have accomplished in life with science and technology.

Classroom Extensions:
1) Create a story about them going up to space as an astronaut.
2) Create a list of things they would do if they were to land on the moon.

Summary: This book is about a little girl wondering how far away the moon is.As the book goes on it tells you the process of how the astronaut gets in the rocket, where he sits and how they get off the rocket. It then tell the children it take four days to get to the moon.

Personal Reaction: This book is so cute. My niece loves the moon and loved this book. Its perfect to teach the little kids about astronauts.

Classroom Extensions: I would use this book for science and teching the kids about the moon.

A great non-fiction book that reads like a story. Awesome illustrations.

In this book, we take a trip to the moon. Dressed as an astronaut, we will ride in a huge rocket ship and take a 4 day trip to the surface of the moon. On the way we will see what earth looks like from space. Once we are on the moon we will step outside our rocket ship and walk on the moon's surface. Engaging illustrations and introduction to new vocabulary.

This book is about going to the moon, and has a lot of factual content to it.