If you follow me on Twitter (X), you probably know that Melissa Stewart is one of my favorite picture book authors because her ability to convey non-fiction in simple, yet beautiful language is phenomenal! This post features her book THANK YOU, MOON: Celebrating Nature’s Nightlight which is illustrated by Jessica Lanan. As a beautiful “thank you note” is conveyed on the left-hand pages, the right side shares interesting, related facts about our moon written in kid-friendly language. The facts are fascinating because they all focus on creatures (land and sea) that depend on the moon for their survival. Featured Picture Book:
Thank You, Moon: Celebrating Nature’s Nightlight (2023) By Melissa Stewart Illustrated by Jessica Lanan Summary (via Amazon): With the soothing rhythm of a bedtime story and the scientific wonder of a nature doc, comes a celebration of the moon and all the creatures who rely on its light to find their way home. Under the glow of a shimmering moon, creatures great and small creep out of their dens, using its light to hunt, fend off predators, build their nests or build families. As the moon changes phases these animals adapt their behavior to match its waxing and waning—while human animals look on in wonder. As Earth's closest companion in space, the moon has fascinated humankind for generations, and this nonfiction picture book sheds light on the mysterious ways it affects life on Earth. With luminous illustrations by Jessica Lanan and a lyrical text that is part lullaby and part scientific resource, Thank You, Moon is a treasure for all ages to enjoy. Related Themes and Standards: Science:
SEL:
STEM Ideas: 1. Have students choose one of the creatures mentioned in the story (there are even more facts about each one in the book’s back matter) and create a virtual habitat or build one with recyclable materials. 2. Have students create a video featuring further research about one of the creatures mentioned in the story. 3. Have students write their own thank-you notes to the moon, then engineer a rover that could deliver it from its landing module. If you have access to drones, create a mission where the drones have to deliver the message to a particular place on a mock lunar surface. 4. Use Beebots or other robots to create a more engaging Moon Phases card sort activity. I used this free download and made two laminated sets for each “team”. They had to program their robot to move to the moon phase on the mat that matched the one they selected from their deck. So many grade levels study our beautiful moon! Feel free to add your favorite lunar activity in the comments! #BetterTogether
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For any of you whose curriculum includes teaching kids about the sun, moon, and/or what an eclipse is, make sure you add this gem by Kate Allen Fox and illustrated by Khoa Le to your STEM library! Really, everyone should add this beautiful picture book to their collection! A FEW BEAUTIFUL MINUTES Experiencing a Solar Eclipse combines sweet language and amazing illustrations to explain something that can be confusing for young children to understand—a solar eclipse. Featured Picture Book:
A Few Beautiful Minutes (2023) By Kate Allen Fox Illustrated by Khoe Le Summary (via Amazon): A poetic and exquisitely illustrated tribute to the solar eclipse and the magic of togetherness, seen through the eyes of a child. What happens during a solar eclipse? The sun vanishes. Light becomes dark. Day animals sleep, and night animals wake. The moon takes over the sky. People stop what they’re doing and together, they look up. The whole world changes for a few beautiful minutes. Celebrating a favorite wonder of the universe, A Few Beautiful Minutes encourages young readers to (safely) discover each stage of a solar eclipse, and to experience how this incredible phenomenon can connect us to one another. Related Themes and Standards: Science:
Language Arts:
SEL:
STEM Ideas: 1. Have students build their own sun viewer using the author’s directions in the back matter. 2. Have students code a simulated eclipse using Scratch or Scratch Jr. 3. Have students recreate an eclipse as a stop-motion project. 4. Build a model of a solar eclipse using various-size styrofoam balls connected to an engineered orbit system with LEGO WeDo, Spike, or other programmable robotics kit. 5. Use green screen apps like DoInk, Flip, or Canva and have students act out what happens during an eclipse. 6. HERE is a really neat lesson on measuring solar energy during an eclipse by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory! I'd love to hear about your favorite sun/moon/eclipse STEM activities! Feel free to share in the comments! #BetterTogether With the recent success of India’s lunar landing and interesting articles sent to my inbox by NASA, I wanted to share some relevant STEM lessons my students loved! In their article, “Why Bring Mars Samples Down To Earth?”, NASA explains the purpose behind their Mars Sample Return mission. Moon Rock Challenge This reminded me of the Moon Rock Challenge mission I created for my students following the news about China’s rover landing on the moon's dark side. (Update on mission HERE.) In the challenge, student engineers must build a device to grab moon rocks (in our case, we used the LEGO WEDO grabber build but you could use recyclable materials instead of robotics). The main element of this challenge is that the student grabbing the rocks (packing peanuts) is behind a barrier and can’t see them. They must communicate with another engineer who has the visuals! They must work together to gather as many rocks (could be the Moon or Mars!) for scientists to bring back for analysis. I built collection vessels with recycled large cardboard tubes, but you could use solo cups or any other easy-to-find cylinder. We talked a lot about how space scientists must communicate effectively with the devices they send to the Moon or Mars in order to successfully complete the task. Moon Rover Challenge This was a lesson (Slides) I created for a professional development session with elementary educators. My intent was for them to learn to use the LEGO WEDO 2.0 kits as well as learn how to integrate STEM into non-fiction literacy, science content, math measurement, and the effective use of technology apps. You could copy and edit these slides to include different robots like LEGO Spike, BeeBots, Dash, etc. if you don’t have WEDO 2.0 (which has sadly been discontinued). Or you could have the engineers make it out of recycled materials, not using robots at all! Do you have a favorite Space STEM activity? I'd love to hear about it! #BetterTogether
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Kim CollazoSTEM Advocate and Picture Book Author Archives
April 2024
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