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  • Suggested Age Range: 4 – 5 years; 5 – 6 years; 6 – 7 years; 7 – 8 years
  • UK Curriculum: EYFS; Key Stage Two (Lower)
  • Suggested UK Year Group: EYFS; Year 1; Year 3
  • UK Primary Curriculum Link: Understanding the World Around Us; Everyday Materials; Rocks
  • Science Subject: The Moon
  • Science Question: What do we see in the Moon? What is the Moon made of? Why Does the Moon have Craters?
  • Suggested Science Activity: Cosmic Craters; Moon Globes; Moon Hats
  • Children with SEND: Use with children to boost science vocabulary
  • EAL children: Beginners level
  • Country of Origin: Hawaii
  • Source: Grandmothers’ Stories by Burleigh Muten

Long ago on the island of Hawaii, there lived an old woman, Heena. And Heena was so old, that no-one could rightly remember when she had been born. 

She herself had given birth to twenty-two children and now she spent her time cooking and cleaning for all her children’s children. 

And Heena felt old. She didn’t know how old she was, but she knew she was old. And she was tired. She was tired of all the cooking and cleaning, that had filled her days from dawn to dusk, for so many years.

All she wanted was a rest. She was so tired nowadays that she could fall asleep in an instant. She even once managed to fall asleep whilst doing the washing up! 

Her family just laughed. Her husband called her lazy. But Heena gritted her teeth and carried on working.

One night she dreamed of a hammock.

And as she lay in that hammock in her dream, around her, were her children and their children, and they were taking care of everything. She didn’t have to do one single thing!

And when she woke up, she thought:  
“That was a good dream. What a pity, it can’t come true.” 

And she hauled herself off her mattress and back into her kitchen and began to prepare breakfast once again as she had done so many times before.

But oh! How she longed for a rest! But would there ever be time for one?

That night she dreamed again of the hammock. And again, the next night. Night after night she dreamed of a hammock. 

And every morning, she woke up to the reality of a life without a hammock, without the chance of even five minutes of rest.

Until …

One night, the dream seemed particularly vivid. It woke her up! 

She stumbled outside, half-convinced that the hammock had appeared as if by magic on her porch. But of course no hammock was there!

But, when she looked up the Moon, she saw that it was shaped like a crescent. And the crescent-shaped Moon was lying horizontally across the sky. 

Just like the shape of a Hammock. Could this be a sign?

And then, a rainbow appeared and curved up from her garden into the sky. Straight towards the Moon! Could this be another sign?

What do you think?

Heena didn’t think, she knew! She didn’t hesitate for a single moment!

She snatched up her skirts and began to climb up and up and up the rainbow into the cool night air.

And when she landed on the Moon – there was a silver-shaped Hammock awaiting her! And she climbed straight into the Hammock and fell fast asleep.

And the people of Hawaii say that she is still there. 

Up in the Moon, looking down us all, while she swings to and fro in her hammock.

But do YOU think this is true?

Scientists say that the shapes that we see on the Moon are, in fact, patches of rock that have hit the Moon long ago.

But what can YOU see on the Moon?

Copyright: Cassandra Wye, May 2019