A Countdown of My Favorite Lessons (#3): A Pretend Trip to the Moon!

This July 20, 2019 will mark the 50th anniversary of the first moon walk.  I remember it well!  I was 14 years old.  My dad read in the Minneapolis Star Tribune that there would be giant TV screens set up that evening in a downtown Minneapolis park.  Since our own TV set at the time was the standard 23 inch or 25 inch console model, we all set off for the park to watch that first moon walk.  It will always be one of the most thrilling memories of my life!

I hope that teachers everywhere are finding ways to talk about this historic event!  Kids of all ages love to learn about space travel and the moon.  In my kindergarten, for many years, we studied a bit about the moon and space travel.  There are good curricular links: in reading, a great author to study is Frank Asch. Focus on books in his Moon Bear series:

Link fiction reading with non-fiction books.  There is an ever-increasing number of  such books written at an age-appropriate level for kindergarteners.  My absolute favorite is:

It may be difficult to locate this book now but there is an Usborne First Read edition of it on Amazon.

In Science, kindergarteners can be exposed to concepts of day and night, gravity, and the phases of the moon.  And history can come alive by inviting a grandparent or two to come to the class and share memories of watching the first moon landing!

But, if you really want to make history come alive and give your students a memorable experience in kindergarten,

     Take your students on a trip to the moon!

Here is how I took my kindergarteners on a trip to the moon:

We took our moon trip on a Friday after having spent the week reading, drawing, writing, and thinking about the moon.  Each day, I would take attendance as if I were Mission Control and they were my astronauts.  While this seems like nothing more than play, it is actually great language play, as kids learn to remember new vocabulary.  It's also good for building impulse control, as each child has to listen to ALL of the words said by Mission Control before responding.

On Friday, I put on a special sweater with an American flag on it to help the kids understand that Mission Control is an American institution and Americans were first on the moon.  I'm seeing a lot of cool T-shirts for sale right now advertising the upcoming 50th anniversary... just saying!

Yes, I know.  The computer in the background is from the 1990s!
But a trip to the moon never goes out of style!

After taking attendance in the above manner, everyone sat down in our gathering area on a felt square "launching pad" in order to view a short segment of the Apollo 13 movie where the rocket ship was launched into outer space. 

I'm sure there are other ways to find a relevant video clip of the launching of a spacecraft
 but this never failed to impress!

After the rocket ship on the video was successfully launched, we pretended our own individual rocket ships were also on their way!  Everyone was asked to stand on their felt squares which were no longer their launch pads; they had become their rocket ships.  They tried to simulate weightlessness by balancing on one leg and then another.  Then, they sat down on their felt squares to drink juice packets just as astronauts must do in outer space.  (Fun Fact:  TANG, a powdered drink mix like Crystal Lite or Kool-Aid, was the original juice packet and it was developed by NASA!)

Some years, I made the juice packets using baggies with straws and a small amount of juice in each.

While my young astronauts drank, I showed and described the four moon-oriented centers they would visit during our stay on the moon. 

Each center was designed for 6-7 students at a time.  Often I had parents who were eager to join us for our trip to the moon.  If I had one for each center, that was perfect.  However, only two centers really needed adult help.  I allotted 8 minutes at each center.  Here is a picture or two of each center with explanations below.

This center is full of great tactile learning!

In my classroom, I had a large diorama that I used on our Pretend Trips...more about Pretend Trips in an upcoming post!  For the moon trip, I hung black roll paper with a cut-out of the earth in the back of the box.  I put a large piece of white styrofoam on the bottom of the box.  I stuck a styrofoam mountain in it and a tiny American flag.  I had purchased a few toy lunar modules for the kids to move around in the box.  I also tossed a lot of styrofoam packing pieces into the box.  Each child had a baggie and used tweezers to carefully collect just 10 packing pieces which we pretended were moon rocks.  While waiting his/her turn to collect the moon rocks, there was white PlayDoh for the students to model into a sphere and pencils to poke holes for craters.  There was also white flour in the nearby sensory tub ( or table) and a borrowed child's boot to make footprints on the moon. (Fun Fact: Neil Armstrong's footsteps are still on the moon since there is no wind there to blow them away!)

A second center was always a "read about the moon" center.  Over the years, there were two different versions.  Our classroom teepee was easily converted into the nosecone of a rocket ship.  Or, I brought in 6 or 8 pillows from home and threw a white or cream-colored sheet over them to create a "crater."  I set out all the books we'd read plus others for the children to read at this center.  In the picture of the crater, you see an adult sitting in the crater with several boys.  However, there isn't really a need for an adult in the reading center.

A third and VERY popular center was the "Make a Moon Cake" center.  This center idea was inspired by Frank Asch's book, Moon Cake.  I baked cupcakes or plain muffins for each of the students.  I set out bowls of teddy bear cookie "astronauts," marshmallow and raisin "moon rocks," and tiny toothpick American flags. There was also a bowl with plastic spoons in it.  I stationed an adult at this center with a simple step-by-step book showing how to dig a crater with the spoon, fill it with moon rocks, and stick in the flag and an astronaut .  The children made and ate their own snack at this center.  After finishing and cleaning up, the children took turns answering questions about the moon which were posed by the adult. (I provided a list of questions for the adult to ask.)

In the fourth center, children posed for a photograph of themselves wearing the astronaut suits they made earlier in the week using paper plates for the helmets and paper bags for the astronaut suits.  This is NOT the best picture, unfortunately, but I do like the BONUS memory of him holding a robot he had designed earlier in the week. It's never too early to learn a bit about artificial intelligence!  Obviously, an adult is needed to take the photos.  While the children waited their turn to be photographed in their spacesuits, they were able to complete my original six page sight word booklet, My Rocket Book.  I am featuring a picture of one page of the booklet here.  If you want to download a FREE copy, go to my TpT store WHERE EVERYTHING IS FREE!, Here Hugo.  The link is posted in the sidebar above.

You can download a free copy of my 6-page booklet at my TpT store,
Here Hugo!
See sidebar.

After everyone had visited all 4 centers, the children regathered on their felt squares  and got ready to be rocketed back into space and returned to earth.  When they splashed down into the ocean, the Apollo astronauts were picked up by helicopters.  In order to simulate this, I walked around making a noise like whirring helicopter blades.  Each child reached up and I gently lifted him/her out of the nosecone of his/her rocket ship, as you can see here:

As the title of this post suggests, A Pretend Trip to the Moon, was one of my favorite lessons as a kindergarten teacher.  And, from what former students tell me, it is one of their best memories of kindergarten!  One of my students will soon head off to college to study aeronautical engineering.  She remembers our trip to the moon as one of those experiences that increased her interest in all things space.  

         I hope you will take a pretend trip 

                          to the moon 

                with your students soon!