What to watch: Over the Moon
Where to find it: Netflix
Run time: 1 hr 40 min
Best for ages: 4+
Rating: PG
Why We Recommend Over the Moon
Get ready for an exciting and emotional ride with Over the Moon. This Netflix original film is a beautiful immersion in Chinese culture with a heartfelt lesson on grief. My four-year-old daughter, Everly was interested in this movie because she has been very curious about space lately. As the preview shows, the Over the Moon is about a 12-year-old girl, Fei Fei who builds a rocket and flies to the moon to prove that the legendary moon goddess Chang'e is real.
The real story, however, is about overcoming grief. Once Fei Fei finds Chang'e, we learn that she is still struggling with immense saddness from being separated from her lover, Houyi. Fei Fei is also still grieving the loss of her mother who passed away four years earlier. Through a series of turbulent events, they learn to move on from their grief by embracing the love that is around them. Fei Fei, comes to open her heart to her father's new fiance as well as her son, Chin (who started as an unwelcome passenger on Fei Fei's lunar journey).
Everly loved the music, adventure, and surreal imagery in Over the Moon. I enjoyed it for the lovey representation of a different type of family as well as the inspiration to learn more about the moon and the Chinese Lunar Festival.
STEM Moon Activities
There are so many great moon crafts and opportunities out there. Everly and I did two different activities that focused on why the moon appears to change its shape.
Total estimated activity time: 20-30 minutes depending on how creative your child wants to get with their Earth Crown.
Phases of the Moon Coloring Sheet
To introduce Everly to the phases of the moon, we started with the Moon Phases Coloring sheet. This also contains a few facts about the moon that you can read to your child.
Materials needed:
Moon Phases Printable page one (see below)
Crayons or colored pencils
Have your child color the new moon black, and the gray moon outlines silver. As they do this, read the name of each phase of the moon and discuss our moon facts with them.
The moon does not glow. It is reflecting light from the sun.
The moon rotates around the earth.
The shape of the moon never changes. It just looks like it changes as it changes position around the earth.
The moon is made out of rock and it has mountains and volcanoes on it.
Moon Phases Activity
Next, I wanted to demonstrate the rotation of the moon around the earth and how this affects the appearance of the moon.
Materials needed:
Moon Phases Printable page two (see above)
Scissors
Tape
Crayons or colored pencils
Small ball (roughly the size of a tennis ball)
Aluminum foil
Lamp without a shade
Step 1: An important part of this demonstration is having your child take on the role of the earth. To do this, we made an Earth Crown (see page two of our Moon Phase Printables). First, have your child color in the earth. Explain the parts that should be green to represent land and the parts that should be blue to represent the oceans. Show them where their country is.
Step 2: If your child is enjoying coloring, you can also have them decorate the two strips to the right. Ask them to draw their favorite things in nature: flowers, trees, animals, mountains, the beach, etc. Everly enjoyed adding stickers. Otherwise, proceed to step 3.
Step 3: Help your child cut out the earth and the strips.
Step 4: Help your child attach the strips to the earth where indicated. Place the band around your child's head and tape the ends together in the back.
Step 5: Make your moon by having your child wrap the aluminum foil around the ball.
Step 6: Go to a dark room, plug in your lamp and position your child 2-3 feet away. Explain to them that the lamp is the sun, and they are the earth. Rotate your "moon" around them and point out how the "sun" illuminates different parts of the "moon" as it makes its way around the earth.
Share the fun you are having with us on Social Media! Tag us @curiouscouchpotatoes when you try any of our activities.
Jeanette's Educational Insights:
I love this activity because it gets to the heart of how young children learn. Abstract concepts are very difficult to understand up to early elementary age. You will often find children creating their own realities when they are unable to absorb abstract concepts.
With this activity, you help put the child in the center of the concept being taught, by making them the Earth! Physically experiencing the revolution of the moon around the sun and watching the reflection of the sun, helps their understanding of the phases of the moon. Kinesthetic learning, doing/having a whole-body experience to absorb a new concept, core to early learning.
Depending on the child's age, you can add the Earth rotating on it's axis (the child would spin slowly) and you could also add in the revolution around the sun (lamp), while the moon revolves around Earth. Be alert that dizziness and laughing may ensue!
Two new vocabulary words come from this lesson: rotation (spin on an axis) and revolution (one body going around another). Have fun acting these two words out!