Star Wheel
Activity
Have you ever looked at the stars?
Have you seen the pictures the constellations make?
The most famous constellation in the Southern Hemisphere is the Southern Cross. Use our constellation wheel to teach the children in your service to recognise the Southern Cross and some of the other constellations.
Activity 1
In this activity you will look at stars and constellations just like the crew of The Spaceship Tree, in our
Universe Reversed workshop.​
Download our constellation wheel for the children to decorate and learn about some constellations in the Southern Hemisphere.
Educators, there are some constellations for you to download as well.
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You will need to cut these out and using a sharp object such as a pin, skewer or sharp pencil, poke holes on all the dots to make the constellations.
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In a darkened room with the children seated on the floor use a light source eg, from the torch on your phone to project the constellations onto the wall or even a whiteboard.
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The children will use their constellation wheels to recognise and identify the constellation projected by you.
This activity is a great use of the STEM concepts of science and maths. Children are using scientific vocabulary eg, constellations. Children can also continue exploring the solar system through the use of technology. Downloading the Star Walk app from the app store or google play store allows children to view different constellations in realtime from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
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Star Facts
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Groups of stars that form a picture are called constellations.
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Blue stars are hotter than red stars.
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The closest star to Earth is the Sun.
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Some other stars have planets orbiting them!
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Large collections of stars are called galaxies.
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Earth is in the a galaxy called the Milky Way.
Activity 2
Did you know you can use your fingers to measure distances in the night sky?
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Download and print our picture of the Southern Cross.
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Children can count how many finger tips they can fit between the stars of the Southern Cross on their printouts.
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Educators can then show the children a larger picture of the Southern Cross, and have children count how many fingertips fit between the stars on the larger picture.
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This introduces children to the idea of scale. The two pictures of the Southern Cross are in proportion with each other, but one is bigger.
This can lead to possible activities about maps and map reading.
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Mathematic ideas such as scale diagrams are being used in this activity. This can be applied to map reading in the future or in plans an d blue prints of structures if using engineering skills.
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If you loved these activities you will love The Spaceship Tree series of workshops.
Attack of the Pinky Ponky and Universe Reversed.
All workshops can be tailored to your services age group!
Did we mention we also give you an educator resource that has synopsis of activity, analysis of learning, extension activity ideas and links to the relevant frameworks?
