The Earth and the Moon by David Drew

Teaching ideas

This book asks children to compare what we can see on the Earth with what is on the Moon. As they read the book they build up a number of facts about how the Moon is different from the Earth.

Each spread has the same pictures, but a different text. Children can answer the questions by comparing the two pictures.

There are mountains on the Earth.

Are there mountains on the Moon?

There are animals on the Earth.

Are there animals on the Moon?

There are plants on the Earth.

Are there plants on the Moon?

There are rocks on the Earth.

Are there rocks on the Moon?

There are rivers on the Earth.

Are there rivers on the Moon?

There are clouds on the Earth.

Are there clouds on the Moon?

There are footprints on the Earth.

Are there footprints on the Moon?

Now, what happens when you put the book down? How much can the children recall? Do they have any concept of why these facts are true?

Most of what we read we forget. This is true of adults as well as children. One way to overcome these problems is to record the facts as we read, not as a loose collection of 'notes' but in the organizing structure of a table:

Draw this up on a large sheet of paper pinned to an easel so that everyone can see you when you add a check or cross in each box.

Or you can download the free PDF of this table and print out copies for your students here.

You are demonstrating to the children that when we read information we often make notes. We read with a pen in hand. But these notes are not always written as sentences. Notes can be made as diagrams, maps, time lines, flow charts, and so on. Here we are making notes in the form of a table.

Once the book is completed, so is the table, which now looks like this:

Spend time with the children helping them interpret the table, by asking questions such as:

"Find the living things and the non-living things."
"How many living things are on the Moon?" (None)
"Look at the things with crosses. They are not on the Moon. Can you think of a reason they are not on the Moon? What do they all have?" (They all have, need, or are made of water.)

By arranging the information in the book in this table format, we have actually added to the information: the new information is in the pattern of the facts. The red crosses highlight these differences. The pattern of crosses helps us to remember which things are different and to ask why.

We see at a glance that the Earth has all these features, but the Moon does not. We see that the missing things on the Moon have something in common. We can explain and understand the information by doing this. Re-composing the information as a table helps us to comprehend it, remember it, and explain it.

If we had only read the book, we would have missed out on all this extra learning, asking and investigating.

BTW: Don't forget to ask your own questions - and investigate the children's questions - about these pictures. Is there water on the Moon? (No) Is there ice? (Yes) Why does the Earth look bigger than the Sun? (It is much closer. And it's five times bigger than the Moon.) And so on.

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