Kitten’s First Moon, by Kevin Henkes

This is the story about a kitten who just wants a bowl of milk. This a sweet story told in a simple manner which makes it a favorite to many.

Materials

Toilet paper tubes, about 6-8 for a class
Cat stuffed animal/s and shoe box for each
Cut out circles in small, medium, and large sizes.

Vocabulary

Full moon (when the moon is like a circle in the night sky it is called a full moon)

Moon phases (full moon, half moon, quarter moon, cat’s claw)

Before Reading the Story

Draw a circle on your dry erase board and tell the children that you are thinking of something that is round like a circle and can sometimes be seen in the sky. Let them try to guess what you are thinking of. Talk about how the moon comes out at night and the sun comes out during the day. Show the children the Phases of the Moon photo and ask them if they can guess which is called a full moon. Point and show them. Name the other moon types. Hold up the cover of the book and read the title. Show the children the picture of the full moon.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

Reading the Story

Have the children repeat, “Poor Kitten!” in the appropriate spots.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems.

When kitten thinks that thing in the sky is a bowl of milk, ask the children if they know what it really is? Look at Kittens face when she opens her mouth and licks, bugs. Ask the children what they think Kitten might be thinking? Why do you think Kitten was scared when she climbed so high in the tree?

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing involvement in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction and non-fiction books. AND Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other various purposes.

After Reading the Story

Ask who, what, where ,when , why questions.

Who is the story about? What was the kitten trying to get to? Where did she see the bowl of milk? When does the story take place? Why was she scared? Where does milk come from? What shape is the full moon? Kitten thought the moon looked like a bowl of milk, what does the moon look like to you? What are some things that kitten sees in the night? What are some ways that kitten tried to goet to the moon?

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other various purposes. AND Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in ability to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

Discovery

Put out pictures of day and night for the children to sort.

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; shows increasing abilities to match, sort, put in a series, and regroup objects according to one or two attributes. AND Science/Scientific Knowledge; develops growing awareness of ideas and language related to attributes of time and temperature.

Put out the picture of the Cycles of the Moon and ask the children if they can recall the different names for each phase.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.

Music and Movement

Pretend to be Kitten and follow some of her actions. Close your eyes, stretch your neck, open your mouth, stick out your tongue, lick your finger, wiggle your bottom, spring forward, tumble onto the floor, run in place (to the tree), climb a tree, reach up high, leap, leap across the pond, go back to home, drink your bowl of milk.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in ability to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

Teach the children the song, 10 Little Kittens. Make 10 kittens and use them to help sing the song. On your dry erase board draw a tree and a chair. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84hel7_NTSE Once the children are comfortable with the song, they can help move kittens from the tree to the chair.

Creative Arts/Music; participates with increasing interest and enjoyment in a variety of music activities, including listening, singing, finger plays, games, and performances.

Blocks

Encourage the children to build tall, to the moon but not past their shoulders if using wooden blocks. How many high can they build before their tower falls over?

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing patterns and shapes, stringing beads, and using scissors. AND Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects.

Art

Ask the children if they can remember the shape of the moon in the story (circle). Tell them that today you are going to do circle art. Cut toilet paper tubes in half and put out small plates of paints. The children can dip the toilet tube in the paint and make circles on their paper by moving their hand up and down, up and down. Add anything else you may have in your class that will print circles.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops in strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, hammer.

Sand and Water

Bowls of various sizes and measuring cups. How many 1 cups does it take to fill the bowl? Which bowl holds more liquid?

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; begins to determine whether or not two shapes are the same size and shape. AND Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to use senses and a variety of tools and simple measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials, and observe processes and relationships.

Library and Writing

Give the children white chalk and black construction paper to use to practice writing their name on.

Literacy/Early Writing; progresses from scribbles, shapes, or pictures to represent ideas, to using letter-like symbols, to copying or writing familiar words such as their own name.

Dramatic Play

Add any stuffed cats and shoe boxes that you might have. If you do not have stuffed cats, encourage the children to become cats. Put out some night time themed supplies such as blankets, small lamp, box beds, and encourage the children to carry out the theme.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; participates in a variety of dramatic play activities that become more extended and complex.

Math and Manipulatives

Go on a circle hunt about the room.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; begins to recognize, describe, compare, and name common shapes, their parts and attributes.

Put out all the circles that you cut out. Have the children sort them by small, medium, large. Have the children line them up by color and size.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; shows growth in matching, putting in a series, and regrouping objects according to one or two attributes such as color, shape, or size.

Outdoor Play

In the story the kitten climbed a tree to get closer to the moon. If you have a climbing apparatus on playground, pretend that you are the kitten climbing high to reach the moon.

Transitions

Give each child a picture of a cat or one of the circles that you cut out for Math & Manipulatives. Have each child near a chair. Ask them to put their kitten on the chair, under the chair, next to the chair, etc..

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; builds an increasing understanding of directionality, order, and positions of objects, and words such as up, down, over, under, top, bottom, inside, outside, in front, behind.