📖 Floating in Space by Franklin Branley. This stage 2 Let's-Read-and-Find-Out title explains gravity and describes how astronauts live and work in the space shuttle. Floating in Space is an accessible introduction to space travel for elementary aged kids. – Preschool • Elementary

📖 If You Decide to Go to the Moon by Faith McNulty. Here's a very simple how-to guide for kids with plans to travel to the moon and back. Features nice illustrations and really simple text; best for preschool and young elementary. – Preschool • Elementary

📖 Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca. Moonshot is a nicely illustrated retelling of the first moon landing. Floca tells the story in present tense from the perspective of the astronauts, lending an air of excitement to the narrative. Simple enough for young children to enjoy. Also along these same lines, see One Giant Leap by Robert Burleigh. – Preschool • Elementary

📖 Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon by Catherine Thimmesh. "Here is a rare perspective on a story we only thought we knew. For Apollo 11, the first moon landing, is a story that belongs to many, not just the few and famous. It belongs to the seamstress who put together twenty-two layers of fabric for each space suit. To the engineers who created a special heat shield to protect the capsule during its fiery reentry. It belongs to the flight directors, camera designers, software experts, suit testers, telescope crew, aerospace technicians, photo developers, engineers, and navigators." Team Moon is a compelling, exciting read; highly recommended. – Middle

📖 Sally Ride: Life on a Mission by Sue Macy. For those who want to learn about the life of pioneering astronaut Sally Ride, Macy's recently published chapter book biography is a great place to start: "Most people know Sally Ride as the first American female astronaut to travel in space. But in her lifetime she was also a nationally ranked tennis player, a physicist who enjoyed reading Shakespeare, a university professor, and the founder of a company that helped inspire girls and young women to pursue careers in science and math. Posthumously, she was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom." – Middle

📖 Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race by Margot Lee Sheerly and Laura Freeman. Here is a picture book retelling of the four female African-American mathematicians who played a critical – and until recently overlooked – role in launching Americans into space. This story makes a great accompaniment to a unit on Space Travel, Civil Rights, or math. End material includes a timeline of space travel and brief bios of the four women. – Elementary

🔗 Content Connection: Solar System. Find resources about space.

✏️ Lunar Landing from PhET. Try this fun online simulation from PhET: “Can you avoid the boulder field and land safely, just before your fuel runs out, as Neil Armstrong did in 1969? Our version of this classic video game accurately simulates the real motion of the lunar lander with the correct mass, thrust, fuel consumption rate, and lunar gravity. The real lunar lander is very hard to control.” – All