Goodnight Moon

Written by Margaret Wise Brown and Illustrated by Clement Hurd

Key Scripture:
Psalm 148:3 (NNAS) Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all stars of light!

Although we spent a relatively short time with this well-loved children's classic, we learned a great deal and had a lot of fun! I chose this book as a lead-in to our field trip to Houston to visit the Houston Space Center for their first ever Homeschoolers Day.

On our first day with this book, we looked at four different scripture passages and discussed what each teaches us:
Deuteronomy 4:19: We are not supposed to worship the moon.
Psalm 104:19: The moon marks the seasons.
Psalm 148: The moon has to praise the Lord. When we see the moon, it should cause us to praise the Lord also.
Revelation 21:22-27: Heaven will not need the sun or moon because Jesus will be the Light.

On our second day with the book, I introduced the idea of allusion and we talked about how Goodnight Moon alludes to various nursery rhymes and fairy tales through pictures. We specifically looked at The Runaway Bunny, Hey Diddle Diddle, Hickory Dickory Dock, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We looked at and compared 3 versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the kids acted out this story using some simple props and costumes. They had so much fun with this that they wanted to do it again for Daddy!

On our third day with the book, we looked at several of the books in the Moonbear series by Frank Asche and the kids did coloring pages from Goodnight Moon, Runaway Bunny, and Paddington. After dark, we went outside as a family and did a great activity using light and balls to help demonstrate the phases of the moon and also the relative motion of the sun, moon, and earth. This was one of those FIAR moments that we're likely to remember for a long time! After we came inside, we did an activity where we colored various segments of pictures of the moon to represent the various phases of the moon.

Later in the week, when we went to Houston, we had the opportunity to touch one of the moon rocks that was on display, learn a little more about the space program, and take some fun pictures of the kids. Although the Space Center was a bit much for our kids at this point, we had a wonderful time in Houston. We ate lunch at The Aquarium restaurant at Kemah Boardwalk and had the opportunity to observe the feeding of the fish and various other sea creatures in the huge tank which is at the center of the restaurant. The next day, we went to the Children's Museum and so many of the activities available there were wonderful reinforcement for many of the FIAR activities we have done throughout this year.

The week after we returned, Claire wrote and illustrated a book about our field trip. Click here to see exerpts from her book!