Meet Me at the Moon (or in the Speech Room)

On Thursday when I walked a group of kindergarten students to the speech room, one of them told me she had a baby sister on the way. In fact, she said, “Baby Lucy might come out today!” Her mom was in the hospital expecting at any time. Mariah looked excited one minute and apprehensive the next. Almost as soon as we got to the speech room, the excitement disappeared and apprehension took over. She burst into tears. I put aside the language activity I had planned and pulled out the book, Meet Me at the Moon written and illustrated by Gianna Marino. 

Mariah moved her chair close to mine as I read and the other students circled around. The all loved the soothing words,

“Beneath the shade of the baobab tree, Little One sang the calling song, and Mama came with a loving nuzzle.

‘The land is dry, Little One,” Mama said. ‘I must climb the highest mountain to ask the skies for rain.’”

The baby elephant did not want Mama to go but she assured Little One,

“. . . you will feel my love in everything around you.”

“What if I can’t hear you, Mama?”

“Listen for my sound on the wind, Little One. I will sing to you.”

By the end of the book, Mariah’s tears were gone. She related to the separation of mother and child in the story and she was absorbed in the beauty of the illustrations. All of the students were. They were especially intrigued by the drawings of the mother’s song so I asked them to draw their own pictures of songs carried on the wind.

Mariah drew children singing to a rainbow.

Ariel is at the beach singing ocean music.

Olivya drew the sounds a rainbow makes when it sings.

Zayd drew an ant singing. “He likes black music because he’s black. The Mommy ant is calling back to the baby ant. She’s trying to find the sun because the lake is too full.” He went on and created a whole story as he drew!

When I asked the kids how they liked the book, Brenden said, “There were sad bumps along the way but I liked it.”  The others agreed. I suppose a good story has this in common with life – the bumps make the resolution that much sweeter.

On Friday Mariah reported that her sister had arrived. She said, “She’s got my skin and she has my nose and she has my ears and we kissed her all day.” Mariah wanted to make another “song-on-the-wind” picture. I snapped a quick photo with my iPad before she headed out the door. It’s a bit shadowed but I can’t think of a better way to end this post than to share it. I wish you could have heard her singing as she created this work of art.