Midnight on the Moon

For warm up, the children colored a picture of an astronaut and a space buggy on the moon. They also worked on two connect-the-dot worksheets since that is how Jack and Annie figured out the mouse was the fourth M thing in the book. Instead of forming a mouse, these connect-the-dot worksheets formed a moon and an alien. You can find them at http://colormefree.com/category25/ctd129.gif and http://www.fun-website.com/tockalice/alien.jpg. I chose an alien because Annie thought the giant space man on the moon was an alien.

I summarized the eighth book, Midnight on the Moon, and asked the children a variety of questions about the book.

When we arrived at the part in the book where the tree house spun and took Jack and Annie to the moon, each child received a Dizzy Pill (which is actually a tootsie roll) to help make them less dizzy. After eating their Dizzy Pills, the children were instructed to spin around three times, as if they were in the spinning tree house.

When we got to the part in the book where Jack wrote in his notebook, I showed the notebook I made that has all of Jack's notes in it.

Then, we made space buggies out of celery, carrot slices (the wheels), and grapes (Jack and Annie). The children attached the fruit and vegetables using toothpicks. Instead of giving them direct instructions, I chose to just hand them the supplies and let their creativity take the reigns. Everyone had a lot of fun experimenting with different designs for their space buggies.

When we discussed the meteorite falling on the moon and blocking Jack and Annie's way, we played a game with white balloons or "meteorites." The children got in a circle and tossed the meteorites, keeping them from hitting the ground which was the "moon." If you plan this game for your own book club, be prepared that the children will not stay in the circle for very long, as can be seen by the pictures below.

Finally, we played a game called Moon Rock Relay. The children were divided into two equal teams, and each team received a snowball maker and a pile of plays balls or "moon rocks." Each child used the snowball maker to pick up one play ball, walk to the other side of the room, and drop it in the bucket. They then had to walk back and hand the snowball maker to the next person in line. This continued until all of the rocks had been moved. The children enjoyed the game so much that we ended up playing two times!