Star Constellation Crafts to Help Your Kids Learn the Night Sky
by Karen & Grace Morris
Make star constellation crafts. It will help your kids learn the night sky. It is like a picture in the sky. The two projects below will help your kids recognize the patterns outside.
You can use a flashlight to see "stars" in a dark room.
You will need;
- A flashlight
- Pushpin
- Red craft foam
- Field guides of the night sky
Directions
Cut a piece of craft foam so that it will fit inside of your flashlight.
Look in your field guide.
Lightly copy the design with a pencil on the craft foam.
Make small holes with your pushpin to represent the stars.
Place the disk on the flashlight.
Go in a dark room and turn on the flashlight and point it to the wall. See the “stars”?
On the star constellation crafts, write lightly with the pencil the name. This way if you make a lot of them you won’t get confused which one is which.
An Easier Craft
It is always fun to go in a dark room and turn on a flashlight, but sometimes you need a bigger background to place your stars on.
So gather;
- Star stickers
- White crayon, or chalk
- Black or dark blue construction paper
- A field guide for stars
How to Make Star Constellation Crafts
Look in your guide for star patterns that you would like to learn more about. Now copy the design on your piece of paper.
When you have all the star stickers on the paper, in the correct place, draw lines with your crayon to outline the pattern.
Instead of using regular star stickers, I have seen glow-in-the-dark foam star stickers. It would be cool to use. To make them glow you need to let them be exposed to the light for a while.
Facts about Stars
A constellation is a group of recognizable stars. There are officially 88 of them, declared by the International Astronomical Union.
An asterism is a pattern of stars that is not part of the officially 88. They can however be part of a constellation.
Finding the patterns of the stars is like playing a game of “connect-the-dots”.
You will see different star patterns depending which hemisphere you are in.
People used the stars to help them find their way on Earth as well as helping them view the night sky.
In the Northern Hemisphere the Big Dipper is an asterism. It does use some of the stars that are part of Ursa Major. The Big Dipper is also used to help find Polaris, the North Star in Ursa Minor, the Little Dipper.
The unknowns of outer space are exciting. Star constellation crafts help your kids to learn some of these mysteries.
