"Goodnight Moon" is probably on every new mom's baby registry and with good reason. What a classic and special book. So simple yet so much hidden detail, points of conversation, and packed with snuggles.
Rowing this book as part of our curriculum Before Five in a Row was a treat!
This book presented so many learning opportunities for my happy little 3 year old.
For scripture memory, we studied Psalm 8:3b - "The moon and the stars, you set in their place."
One art project that also honed in hand eye coordination skills was to hang balloons from the ceiling fan of the porch...red balloons to go with the book, of course...and Ellie painted them using brushes of various textures and sizes, her hands, and by slapping and twirling them around and around. Ellie is learning French and as she chose her colors to paint with, we called them out in French.
Puffy Paint!!
Using white shaving cream and white paint mixed together, Ellie made a paint that when dried is soft and fluffy, but hardens and dries, still even so. Ellie also added silver glitter into it. She used this special puffy paint to make a moon! She made a pre-cut out circle with a little help and then painted her circle with the puffy paint using pop-sicle sticks and her hands to massage and smear it on the circle...this process also helped develop craters in the moon. While she worked on this, I read to her some of our moon science books about the phases and environment of the moon. Then, she drew some stars on the black paper which she glued the moon to...the night sky! Art and science time all in one!
"Goodnight Moon" lunch time! A bowl of mush (applesauce), a cow (pimento cheese sandwich cut with cow cookie cutter) jumping over the moon (provolone cheese), a red balloon (cherry tomato & a dark chocolate sauce for the string), and carrots for her bunny sandwich (also made with a cookie cutter). Ellie ate it up!! She LOVED the elements and it also was a great conversation starter while she ate. We discussed the story and she told me what she recalled from the book.
Pointing out the clock in the book, Ellie enjoyed continuing her playful learning with learning how clocks work. I love this wooden clock with numbers, shapes, colors, and learning how to tell time. She was so interested she asked me to buy her a real clock for her room and she showed me where she wanted to place it! So I will absolutely be doing that! That's when learning is successful, when the child is having fun, engaged, and interested. It makes me so happy! So we will keep working with this puzzle, her Judy clock, and her real clock for her room. Also, because there was an element of Nursery Rhymes hinted at in the book, we read all the nursery rhymes and listened to a CD of them being sung. Hickory Dickory dock was great for amping up the interest in the clock!
More moon study! Moon phases with Oreo cookies! Learning is always better with snacks. We discussed, looked at our moon science books, and made a chart. This is about the 4th time Ellie has studied moon phases now this school year (because full moons are so frequent, we frequently do a moon and stargazing by a fire and study the phases leading up to it.) Because she has had the chance to touch this subject a few times already, she really was able to grasp the science this time around and begin explaining to me and teaching me how it works. She enjoyed this so much!
I found on Pinterest a "Goodnight Moon" matching game. It was a free printable and it was perfect. I printed it, laminated, and cut it out. Then Ellie played her little game with pictures and elements from the book!
"Goodnight Moon" sensory jar! Ellie dyed white rice blue and we dried it outside in the sun before proceeding. Then, in a large mason jar, Ellie made her own sensory jar with the rice, glow in the dark stars and moons, a red balloon, mittens, socks, a cow, a bunny, and glittery stars. She got to fully create and enhance her spatial awareness and other sensory points.
So, we are SO lucky to live in Greenville, SC where we have a free attraction called, "Mice on Main." In "Goodnight Moon," there are 9 semi-hidden or small mice throughout the illustrated pages. Did you notice them with your child and count them? Every page I'd ask Ellie, can you find the mouse?! She would locate the mouse and we continued our count of them. So, these mice in this book inspired a student named Jimmy Ryan (who read "Goodnight Moon" nightly as a child) to turn his senior project into this great addition to our beloved downtown Greenville, SC where local sculptors would create the nine mice in the book, in bronze, throughout Main Street, hiding in different locations. Jimmy Ryan was given permission by the mayor and he teamed up with sculptor, Zan Wells, to make the mice. Together, they created an individual personality and look for each mouse. How awesome is it that this book inspired a young man to create something for his entire city? The benefits of reading to children are limitless. So, then, residents and tourists of Greenville, SC, began to hunt Main Street for the 9 different mice sculptures, hoping to find all 9, same as we hunt the pages of the book for the 9 mice. Inspired by the sculptures, Linda Kelly decided a book needed to be written to go along with these mice for children to enhance the hunt with pictures, clues, and adventure! So she wrote the book loved by our locals, "Mice on Main." And so of course it was one of the go along books.
Ellie and I made a full day of it. We started our morning with breakfast and bible time and then we read "Goodnight Moon." Then, we read "Mice on Main." After this, we got dressed and went downtown to find the mice. Our Mast General Store downtown carries "mice maps" which has the 9 clues written out and gives backstory about how "Mice on Main" came to be. They also carry souvenirs for this local tourist attraction. So I bought Ellie a stuffed mouse that she named, "Nibble," and a mug for our family tea time with the "Mice on Main" logo. Ellie couldn't wait to drink from it so she had her milk in it the very next day. We followed the map, read out the clues, counted the numbers and practiced number visual recognition and numerical order. Ellie was so pumped and excited and we found all 9! I would spot them and then re-read the clue to her and ask do you see "such and such?" And she would look around, up, down, inside things, all around, and when she would find a mouse she would run to it.
I also made her her own picture book laminated and tied together of all of the mice 1-9 with the correlating clue of each mouse glued to the back of the photo of the mouse it pertained to. This way, she had something tangible and visual for her to do a checklist with and know what she was looking for.
Afterwards, we went to lunch downtown and had a mommy-daughter date followed up with ice cream, a walk through the park for rock climbing and viewing the ducks and geese, and construction gear. It was a precious day that reminded me so deeply why I choose and love to homeschool.
On the hunt, Ellie saw this beautiful clock and again time telling conversation came up.
We also practiced rhyming words and sounds with a game we have that my mom gave to me from her early education days. A really great game that covers different subjects, one of them being rhyming, and when you choose the word that rhymes with the word in the sentence, a light turns on! Ellie played over and over again! In the car, we would ride around and Ellie would choose a word and we would go through the alphabet finding words that rhymed with her chosen word! She would do this up for 30 minutes a car ride at times. Rhyming and rhythm are amazing for language development!
Here are our go-along books. There is actually a companion book called, "My World," which was really precious and also awesome for observational skills and conversation starters to get Ellie talking about what is happening in the book - reading comprehension. We also read several other books by Margaret Wise Brown regarding sleep, night time, bunnies, a find it book she wrote which had nursery rhyme characters to locate. WE read Berenstain bear books about sleep/ night time. Again, we read and studied books about the moon and stars for a scientific focus. We read lots of going to bed books that were perfect for snuggles and cozy cuddles. We also have a "Goodnight Greenville" book, which most state's large cities likely do - so look into finding one for a city you are in or near! We read many, many, many, nursery rhymes which are amazing for language development, reading development, and music skills. And of course, I read the Jan Brett version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears as there was the painting on the little bunny's wall of the three bears and three chairs. Ellie picked up the correlation no problem.
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