Have your children or students ever asked you about the stars? Well here are some great lesson plans to help your children or students learn about constellations. They will have fun while learning!
I always like to do an introduction before starting any lesson plans. A good introduction for constellations is to read your students some stories about the different constellations. You can find these online and in many books. They love hearing about how the constellations got into the sky.
The first activity is called Henna hand painting. Explain to your children that in India some people believe that a group of stars looks like a woman’s hand painted with henna. Have your children draw a design on paper and then draw it on their hands with washable marker.
Another great activity is called Connect the dot Constellations. Give your children paper with stars drawn in certain places by you. Let them connect them in a way that makes a picture. Then they can color it. You can even have them make up stories about the constellations that they drew and share them with the class after everyone is finished.
A great game to play is catch the great bear’s tail. Tell your students that there is a constellation called the great bear. Have your students line up with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them. The last person has a piece of cloth attached to them lie stuck halfway in the back of their pants. The person in the front has to try and catch the person in the back and pull out the tail. After this happens someone knew gets to be the head and the end of the bear.
Another great game is Constellation Tag. Have kids partner up (partners stand next to each other and link arms) and spread out around the playing field. To start the game the “it” person is a “lonely star” trying to link up with another star. The lonely star chases another star, and tries to catch them before they link up with a constellation. If the person successfully links with a constellation then the person on the opposite end has to run away and find some new constellation to link up with. If played correctly, there are always two stars/campers per constellation, one lonely star (the person who’s “it”) and one person trying to find a new home.
This activity is a great one to play at the end of your constellation unit. This game is called Star Toss. Have your students sit in a circle. Begin playing by having the teacher hold the star/constellation globe ball and say one thing they learned during the course of the session about stars. Then they throw the ball to a student who must then say something they’ve learned. Once you’ve said something you cross your arms and become a black hole. This is a good quiet time activity.
All of these activities are great ones to help teach your students or children about the stars. I have found that students love to learn about the stars and the different stories that past people have made up about them. So pick a few of these activities to try I know you will not be disappointed.
