for classroom thematic connections
Blast Off
Last Laugh
When I'm An Astronaut
First Moon Landing
Letter to the Moon
The Moon
Moonlight
Song
Children of the Sun
Space Song
The Falling Star
Shooting Stars
A Meteorite
A Black Hole
The Milky Way
from COUNTING
Star
Lullaby
Blast Off!
A rocket ship
will take you far
to see a crater,
quasar,
star,
constellations - -
brilliant, bright - -
a planet,
comet,
meteorite - -
Blast off, child,
it's
time
for
flight.
They all laughed when I told them
I wanted to be
A woman in space
Floating so free.
But they won't laugh at me
When they finally see
My feet up on Mars
And my face on TV.
First I'll get into my spacesuit.
Then I'll bravely wave good-by.
Next I'll climb into my spacecraft
Built to sail right through the sky!
In command inside the capsule,
I will talk to ground control.
When we've checked out
all the systems,
I'll say, "Let the countdown roll!"
And it's 4-3-2-1 - - blast off - -
With a smile upon my face,
I’ll spin loops around the planets
up, up, up in outer space!
Two highfliers,
Buzz and Neil,
Said they couldn't
Wait to feel
Just what kind of
Moon it was - -
"Take a look around,"
Said Buzz.
Open the hatch
And out the door,
Down the ladder
To the moonlit floor.
After he had
Sunk his heel
Into the dusty
Ocean, Neil
Knew what a lovely
Moon it was - -
"One small step . . .
Said Neil to Buzz.
Dear Old Moon:
Your new moon face
Has human footprints every place.
The astronauts did not take care
And walked upon you everywhere.
But worse, they left behind a mess
That surely causes you distress.
Forgive us, moon,
Please keep your glow.
With love,
From all of us
below.
The moon has no light
of its own.
It's cold and dark
and dead as stone,
But it catches light
from the burning sun
And shows itself
When each day is done.
On
the
dark
lawn
is a
pale
moon
path
just
me
for
Sing to the sun
It will listen
And warm your words
Your joy will rise
Like the sun
And glow
Within you
Sing to the moon
It will hear
And soothe your cares
Your fears will set
Like the moon
And fade
Within you
Mercury's small
Almost nothing at all.
Venus is bright and near.
Earth is a place with deep blue seas
And a sky that is blue and clear.
Mars is red and angry.
Jupiter has an eye.
Saturn has rings of ice and stone
That circle round its sky.
Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto
Are far away and cold.
So now I know my planets
And I'm only six years old.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Mars;
Here we go whizzing around the stars.
Venus, Neptune, Mercury,
And oh, Pluto - -
What on Earth do you see?
How little Earth looks down below:
What tiny creatures they must grow.
I saw a star slide down the sky,
Blinding the north as it went by,
Too burning and too quick to hold,
Too lovely to be bought or sold,
Good only to make wishes on
And then forever to be gone.
When stars get loosened
in their sockets,
they shoot off through
the night like rockets.
But though I stay
and watch their trip
and search where they
have seemed to slip,
I never yet have found a CHIP
to carry in my pockets.
A fireball
came roaring down
from far in outer space.
That fireball exploded!
Its pieces ran a race,
till one crashed down
in my backyard
and made a great big hole,
that looks as if
a giant lost
his mother's mixing bowl!
A star that's just
Too fat to hang
Far out in space
May pop - - and bang!
Its insides get
So blazing hot - -
One day it's there,
The next it's not!
And no one knows
Exactly why
But in the ceiling
Of the sky,
The hole that swallows
Starry light
Is big as day
And black as night.
Who spilled
these stars
across the sky
like
sparkling
dust
like
clouds of light?
They pour their
milky shine
into the deep black
bowl
above their heads
white
glittering
too many to
count.
Counting the stars
As they glitter bright white
Is lovely indeed
And a marvelous sight
When the air is fresh
As the first night in fall.
But I always have a feeling
That comes very softly stealing
When my head with stars is reeling
That I didn't count them all.
Star light,
Star bright,
First star I see tonight,
I wish I may,
I wish I might
Have the wish
I wish tonight.
Goodnight,
goodnight
to friends in space
and those on ships
that interlace
with suns and moons
across the sea
of light
that rims
our galaxy.
Goodnight,
goodnight
to all who fly
and those who seek
new worlds in sky
from my home planet
swirled in blue
a long and peaceful
calm to you.
Wheelless
wingless
weightless
unknown roads in space await us.
Last modified: March 3, 2017.
* These poems are the intellectual property of the authors. They were gathered and appear on this webpage for use as thematic connections by practitioners to apply to classroom content.