‘I see the moon in the light time and in the nighttime,” announces a young boy in my kindergarten classroom.
Another child suggests that maybe that’s because the moon is a sun. Someone else chimes in that the moon looks like a chrysalis.
And so our moon journal journey begins.
Every year, my students and I embark on a monthlong journey beginning and ending with the full moon. While we are addressing the science standards, we are also documenting our wonder. Families are invited to join their child on this adventure. Each child has a journal which travels back and forth between home and school. The students are expected to record observations in their journals at least two times during the school week and once during the weekend.
Young children are innately curious about the world around them. Our responsibility as adults and educators is to nurture this curiosity in an environment where children will develop stewardship and a desire to protect that which they love. This generation will be forced to reckon with our rapidly changing natural world and the immense responsibility humanity has to protect it.
Science in the early childhood classroom should embrace the child’s innate sense of wonder and provide many opportunities for exploration and discovery.
Children should experience the wonder of events happening in their own backyards. They should collectively generate questions about animals they see in the schoolyard or the mystery of the perpetually changing moon in the night sky. With the guidance of their teacher, children can experience scientific thinking while engaging in topics that have personal meaning. After all, science is the new magic!
While completing the moon journal project, the students are using their senses to observe what is happening in the evening outside their homes and watch the night sky with anticipation as the moon mysteriously transforms itself. They are describing and recording their observations using different mediums to document their findings. These include but are not limited to: writing/dictation, poetry, art, photography and technology. The broad range of possibility embraces all learning styles.
Students are instructed that the journal is a tool for collecting data. Scientists use observations to learn more about a particular subject and record their findings to share with others. This is what the students do.
Every morning, they are invited to share their journal entries with their classmates. Nightly observations inspire questions during the school day and the more answers ultimately the more questions. There are many different outcomes and every year I am delighted with the results. One student used LEGOS to build his interpretation of a full moon. Another child used cotton balls for clouds and sticks for trees to illustrate the night sky.
The moon journal is only part of the experience. The children use art to demonstrate their understanding and to connect with the curriculum content. They learn about Vincent van Gogh and then paint their own Starry Night-inspired paintings. Using collage, they make an Eric Carle-inspired picture after hearing the children’s book “Papa Please Get the Moon for Me.” Line poems are written using words from the children’s journal entries. After watching a video of the first moon landing, the children design and build space ships using recyclables collected in the classroom.
While the children are building and creating, they dictate their process and ideas to adults who record their words. The families are invited into the classroom for a tea party during which they recreate the moon phases using Oreo cookies. When the moon journal journey has ended, the art and entries are tied into a keepsake book.
Families are encouraged to continue observing the night sky even though the assignment has ended. In the words of Rachel Carson, “If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.”
Enjoy the journey!
Jennifer Murphy is a kindergarten teacher at New Hingham Regional Elementary School in Chesterfield, and a teacher-consultant with the Western Massachusetts Writing Project. She uses art as a portal into science.