Sea of Tranquility Unit Study
The Sea of Tranquility
Author: Mark Haddon
Illustrator: Christian Birmingham
ISBN: 0001981625
Unit written by Kristy Seaman
Social Studies
Geography: Cape Canaveral
On a map, find Cape Canaveral, Florida. Place a story disk there
(maybe a rocket ship or picture of an astronaut) At the time of the
mission to the moon, it was called Cape Kennedy. Located on the
eastern side of Florida along the Atlantic coast, it sits due east of
Merritt Island, separated from it by the Banana River. It is part of a
region known as the Space Coast, and is the site of the Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station. Many spacecraft are launched from both the Air Force
station and the nearby Kennedy Space Center on nearby Merritt
Island. The term "Cape Canaveral" or "Canaveral" has become
synonymous with the launch site of spacecraft.
Occupations: Astronaut
It takes many years of training to become an astronaut. Many are
trained at special facilities in Florida, Texas and Alabama. They
have to learn how to move their bodies in space. Many astronauts
train in special suits underwater. They fly in special jet-planes
so they can feel what it is like to be weightless. The airplane
dives 35,000 to 24,000 feet in about 20 seconds. They also learn
parachute jumping, scuba diving, sea survival and land survival.
Astronauts can be doctors, scientists, pilots, engineers, teachers and
authors. They may work 16 hours a day. Astronauts have many
jobs. They may deliver special equipment, like satellites or
telescopes, pick up equipment or other astronauts, study the Earth from
space, or conduct scientific experiments.
Learn what it takes to be an astronaut today
History—Man's first landing on the moon
From 1950-to the early 1960’s the United States was in a
“space race” with the Soviet Union to reach the moon.
On May 25, 1961 President John F. Kennedy announced to the world that
the United States would put a man on the moon. Up to this point,
astronauts had not ventured very far so this was a huge task.
Shortly after President Kennedy’s announcement, the United States
space program, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration),
began Project Gemini in order to gain experience in 2-man,
longer-flight missions. NASA attempted 10 space missions in 2
years, named Apollo. These missions were preparing NASA for the
final moon landing. After several successfiul missions that
orbited the Earth and the moon, NASA was finally ready to land on the
moon. The crew of Apollo 11--Neil Armstrong, Edwin
“Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins--took off from Cape
Kennedy (Cape Canaveral) in Florida on July 16, 1969. Three days
later the crew was orbiting the moon. Neil Armstrong and
“Buzz” Aldrin separated from Collins in a lunar module
called “Eagle”. Eagle safely landed on a lava plain,
called the Sea of Tranquillity. Six hours later Neil Armstrong
climbed down the ladder touching the surface of the moon, saying
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for
mankind.”
You may want to have your older child research Neil Armstrong, “Buzz” Aldrin, or Mike Collins.
Possible go-along books
One Giant Leap: The Story of Neil Armstrong by Don Brown Reaching for the Moon by Buzz Aldrin Neil, Buzz, and Mike go to the Moon by Richard Hilliard Apollo 11: First Moon Landing by Michael D. Cole Neil Armstrong: Young Flyer (series: COFA) by Montrew Dunham
Scrapbooking
Scrapbooking in its earliest form was a way to blend memorabilia
collections and journaling. People have been scrapbooking since
printed material became available to the average person. Some of
the earliest and most famous American scrapbookers include Thomas
Jefferson and Mark Twain. Scrapbooking often includes
memorabilia, such as photos, magazine clippings, letters and
journaling. Have your child begin a scrapbook about a
particular interest. Don’t forget to give the scrapbook a title.
Language Arts
Title
Look at the front cover and the title, ask your student what they think
the book will be about. Explain that the word tranquility means
free from disturbance or peaceful, quiet.
After you have read the book, ask again why the author chose the title
“Sea of Tranquility”. If your child
doesn’t remember, gently remind your child where the two
astronauts were walking. Explain to your student that cooosing a strong
title help makes a good book. The title helps interest a
reader, relates to the story and helps define the story. A good
title may be the difference between a reader choosing to look at your
work or passing over it. Discuss some of the titles in your
read-aloud books and how the author might have chose it.
Writing Sentences
In the story, the author carefully writes many of the sentences in
series—combining three or more similar ideas—instead of
writing shorter separate sentences.
Example: “He dreamed of going there, of rocketing across the cold, black miles and landing on the crumbly rock.”
You and your child may want to look through the book and discuss a few of the sentences.
Have your older child write six separate sentences about one
idea. Then have them arrange those six ideas into one or more
effective sentences.
Capitilization
Throughout the book there are many words or phrases that are capitilized. Have your child point some out.
Discuss some of the mechanics of capitilization: capitilize all
proper nouns and proper adjectives, such as days of the week, months,
holidays, periods and events in history, special events, geographical
names, heavenly bodies, streets, and offical titles.
Have your child determine why a few of the phrases are capitilized
Rabbit—names of persons and things should be capitilized
Mars, Saturn, Pluto, Jupiter—heavenly bodies are capitilized
Prosper Henry, Bay of Rainbows, Sea of Rains—geographical names are capitilized
Cape Canaveral—Official state titles are capitilized
Christmas—holidays are capitilized
Use of Colons
There are two passages in the book that utilize a colon. Discuss
the use of colons with your child. In both passages the colon is used
to introduce a list. The first passage lists the planets and the
second lists craters. Think of other instances when you might
want to use a colon in your writing. You may even want to have
your child try to write a few sentences using a colon.
Descriptions
The author does a wonderful job at effectively describing objects
without using overused expressions or cliches (such as, “big as a
house” ,“cold as ice”, or “old as the
hills” See if you can think of any more cliches).
A good process for writing a description is “show rather than
tell,” use details and interesting examples. When the
author writes, “astronauts in pumped-up suits and fishbowl helmets floating in zero gravity around their little metal rooms” can you envision the astronauts floating in their spacecraft?
Have your child choose a topic and write a description using details while avoiding any cliches.
Science: The Moon
Phases of the Moon: If you have rowed Owl Moon you may want to review the phases of the moon with your child.
Features of the moon
The moon is very unlike our Earth. There are no rivers, oceans,
trees or flowers. If looking at the moon from afar, on a clear
night, you can clearly see light and darkened areas of the moon.
The Ancient Greeks believed that the moon was like the Earth and the
darkened areas were water. Those darkened areas were given water
names on the first maps of the moon, like the Sea of Vapors. It
wasn’t until the 17th century that Italian astronomer Galileo
Galilei discovered that the moon had varying depths of terrain.
He noted how shadow lengths changed during a day. His first
sketches of the moon, published in November 30, 1609, showed the
variation in the surface.
The moon is divided into two main types of terrain. The first is large, dark plains called maria,
meaning “seas” in Latin. The second terrain is
heavily cratered, highland regions. These regions reflect about
4% of the sunlight that hits them making them appear brighter.
The surface of the moon is covered by bits of pulverized meteorites,
space rock, ranging in size from a particle of dust to large
boulders yards across. There are mountains and valleys on the
moon, but there is no water. There is no atmosphere like we have
on Earth , so there is no wind or rain on the moon. Those
particles of rock will stay in one position for a very long time.
Any imprints, like footprints, left on the moon will have very little
disturbance and thus will remain for many, many years.
Printable map of the moon
Craters
The moon is most noted for its many craters. The majority of
these have been created by impacts from asteriods or space
material. Discuss with your child how different sizes,
different speeds and different dropping heights of meteorites might
affect the size of a crater.
Activity:
Place an inch of colored sand (you could also use flour dusted
with powdered tempera paint) in the bottom of a pie pan. Have
your child drop a small styrofoam ball from about 6 inches. Ask
your child what happened. The ball should create a small
bowl-shaped indentation in the sand. Now have your child try with
a large styrofoam ball, a small wooden ball and a marble from different
heights. Compare the differences in depths and diameters of each
crater. The heavier objects create deeper, wider craters with
concentric rings of mountains.
Asteriods usually strike the moon at 45,000 mph. The impact sends
shock waves and creates heat. The objects are broken apart, some of the
material is vaporized, some is melted and some broken pieces are tossed
out of the target area and piled up around the hole produced. A small
amount of the fragmented material is tossed great distances from the
impact area along paths called rays The higher the drop height, the
greater the velocity of the objects so a larger crater should be made
and the ejecta will spread out farther. The resultant crater is
about 15 times larger than the object creating the impact. You
may also see what happens if the angle of impact is changed?
(If the angle is changed, then the rays will be concentrated and
longer in the direction of the impact.)
Have your older student research to find where craters are found on the
Earth. (Some famous impact craters include Meteor Crater in
Arizona, U.S.A.; Manicouagan in Quebec, Canada; Sudbury in Ontario,
Canada; Ries Crater in Germany, Chicxulub in Mexico.)
The author writes about a Solar System on his wall. This may be a
good time to introduce or review the Solar System. The Learning Page has a printable mural free to members.
In
the book, the author borrows his father’s binoculars to watch the
moon. Try some binocular astronomy of your own. You will need at least
a magnification of 7x or 10x.
Homeschool Share has a Space Lapbook you may want to check out.
Applied Math
Distance
The book mentions that the moon is two hundred thousand miles above the
boy’s bedroom. With your younger child have them write the
number 200,000. You could introduce place value at this
time. Lay out 10 small hundreds sheet (we use a laminated 10 cm
x10 cm grid) and explain thousands. Do the same to explain ten
thousand and hundred thousand.
How far is 1 mile? (5,280 feet in a mile) How many feet are in 200,000
miles? With an older child, you could also have them measure
200,000 miles from their home on a map. When would we measure in miles
instead of feet?
Time
The boy is wide awake at midnight, what time is that? He goes downstairs at 3:00 a.m.. How many hours have passed? Art
Conveying Emotion
The author is telling a story of his childhood and is thinking back to
how he felt. The illustrator is able to create an almost
dreamlike quality to the artwork on each page. Discuss with your
child how the haziness and muted tones in each picture makes them
feel. Does the artwork help the author convey a feeling of
nostalgia and dreaminess? Is the artwork able to stand alone
without the writing and still “tell a story”?
Medium
The artist uses chalk pastels on a warm neutral mid-tone paper in his
artwork. Pastels are like crayons only they smudge easily.
The artist needs to use a fixative, something that will keep the art
from smearing every time you touch it. Try using chalk pastels
with your child. First use a dry medium like pencil and then go
over with chalk pastels using the stick or a stiff paintbrush.
Layering the pastels will make the colors more vibrant. You can
use hairspray as a fixative to preserve the artwork.
Go-along books
The Moon Book by Gail Gibbons One Giant Leap, The Story of Neil Armstrong by Don Brown The Moon by Robert Louis Stevenson Mission to Mars by Franklyn M. Branley Just for Fun
Make Moon Cakes
(we made sugar cookies that we pressed “craters” into and frosted them at different phases of the moon)
