John Lewis Advert 2015

The Man on the moon

Questions for discussion:
Pause the film on the image above at 1 second.
What is Lily thinking/feeling?  How do you know?
How could you show sadness? How could you show anger? etc
​
23 secs: What would she think now?  Can we think of any rhetorical questions?

37 secs: How is she feeling now?

Stop the film at 46 secs:  How does the director show that time is passing?  We see the girl watching the man over and over again. 

49 secs:  Why is the bench positioned where it is?  Do you think the man sits there for a long time or often? 

1 min 1 sec:  What do you think she has in the envelope?
What would you write to the man on the moon?  

1 min 23 secs:  Is the girl thinking about the man any more? Why not?  (This may be a great point to discuss the fact that it is easy to forget about people who are not there when we are celebrating Christmas.)
How is the man feeling at this point?  Download the thought bubble sheet by clicking here

Repeat this activity at 1 min 37 secs and discuss happy thoughts. 

1 min 52 sec: What do we see?  How is the man feeling?  Why does he feel like this? 
Meet Lily, the heroine of the latest Christmas advert from John Lewis.  This year John Lewis have teamed up with Age UK to deliver a tear jerking, heart string pulling story about a little girl who spies a man on the moon through her family telescope.  She sees that he is lonely and tries to send him a present in a variety of ways.  Will she be successful?
The advert's strap line is 'Show someone they're loved this Christmas'
What is love? 
When you talk about love with young children they often think it means 'boyfriend and girlfriend'  You could discuss the strap line 'Show someone they're loved this Christmas'  What does this love mean?  Does it mean kissing someone?  How can you show this?  What if it was someone who lives far away?
Children can write letter to someone special detailing why they are so special.  Perhaps put it in a Christmas card. e.g. Dear Grandma, 
You are special because you do ...... for me etc 
Writing opportunities
  • Rewrite the advert as a 3rd person narrative. 
  • Write the narrative in the 1st person as Lily, then convert to the old man in parts echoing her feelings. e.g.  I couldn't believe my eyes, there he was an old man sitting right there on the moon. Sitting on a bench, looking all lonely and staring down at Earth.    I couldn't believe my eyes, I looked through the telescope that had floated up to me and I saw a little girl looking back. 
  • Write the story about why the old man is on the moon.  - Is he there through choice or was he left behind in the old Lunar missions.
  • Create a news report with the headline: Astronaut discovered 50 years late.
  • Write some diary entries for the man on the moon.
Links to Age UK
  • Create Christmas cards to send to people in the local old people's home. 
  • Plan and run a charity event to raise money to buy some chocolates for the old People's home. 
  • Mrs Literacy Shed took her class each year to sing to the old people at a local home and they stayed afterwards to chat to the elderly people.  Both the residents and the children enjoyed it immensely. 

Visit the John Lewis Man on the moon WEBSITE here

Some additional resources by John Lewis on their site.
Explore the man in the moon concept further with this lovely picture book.  Follow the link to peek inside. ​http://theguardiansofchildhood.com/mim.php
For more ideas visit ICT_MrP's Blog by clicking the image below
Click the image below to go to the Age UK website

Links to lunar landings

Links to Baboon on the moon
Click the images to view the resources.