I had second thoughts about reading Eric Carle’s Papa Please Get the Moon for Me to my children.
The story is about a girl named Monica who wants to play with moon so she went ahead and asked Papa what she wanted. Papa did everything in his power to give the moon to Monica. He talked to the moon, who told him to wait for a couple of days until she (I presume the moon is a she) gets smaller so Papa can go get her.
A lesson on the phases of the moon is incorporated in this storybook as it gets smaller and smaller.
Papa used a loooong ladder to go get the moon and eventually gave that Monica.
What happened next? You guess it… little Monica got her wish.
How cool is that to have the moon as a toy?
I did not want to read this book to my children because on first read, Monica seemed like an entitled princess brat to me who got what she wanted. I did not want my children to mimic Monica or think that they can be like Monica who can have the moon, a pony or a truckload of toys just because Papa (or Daddy in our case) will get them what they want.
But the “please” in the book title got me. When I introduced this book to them, the twins were about two years old and JJ was an infant. That was the time when they started saying more “please” and “thank you.”
So I went ahead and read the book to them. I focused more on the phases of the moon which was incorporated in this storybook. That gave me a lot of time to discuss this heavenly body.
We’re learning more of the moon these days as we sing a song about the solar system. I am working on a lesson plan to teach them the phases of the moon. But that will have to wait until next week as they are attending the Jollibee Mini Managers Camp until Saturday (April 7).
I promise to share the lesson plan here. I also get doses of inspiration online. I just tweak the lessons and activities so they fit our schedules and interests.
Happy reading!
