- Constellations are groups of stars that appear to form a pattern or a picture. They are an interesting topic about which to teach your children.
- Some constellations are more popular and more easily identifiable than others such as Orion, Ursa Major, and Cassiopeia.
- To help teach your kids about constellations you can download my constellations pages along with the instructions on how to make the viewer HERE.
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What are Constellations?
Do you and your children enjoy looking up at the stars in the night sky? My kids and I do. So much so that we invested in a telescope when my oldest was very young. We have looked at the moon, searched the sky for comets, and even viewed the super blood moon. However, our favorite activity, even without the telescope, is to look for constellations.
Constellations are groups of stars that appear to form a pattern or a picture. Most were discovered and named by the ancient Greeks. Ptolemy, a Greek astronomer, documented 48 named constellations in his writings in the 2nd century AD. In 1922, the International Astronomical Union, or IAU, officially accepted the modern list of 88 constellations. The constellation boundaries that cover the entirety of the celestial sphere were adopted in 1928.
That being said, there are a few constellations that are more popular and more easily identifiable than the rest. Constellations such as Orion the Hunter, Ursa Major, the Big Dipper (which is actually a part of the Ursa Major constellation), Cassiopeia, and Canis Major are known worldwide. Once you see a picture or illustration of these star patterns, they are pretty easy to spot at night, given that you are in the correct hemisphere and/or season where the constellation is visible. On that point, I have made a set of constellation viewers that you can use with your child to help show them what the constellations look like and give them an idea of what they look like in the night sky.
View the Constellations Pages
My kids and I always enjoy doing hands-on activities. This is especially true for science since this promotes a greater understanding of the subject matter by physical demonstrations. Looking at the stars at night is one way to get your children involved in an engaging activity. Another way is to have your child draw the constellations or print out pictures of the constellations that they would like to find in the night sky. With my children I have used what I call ‘constellation viewers’. I print out small pictures of constellations, poke holes where the stars would be, cut the pictures out into a round shape, and let them view the star shape through a cylindrical tube (generally an emptied oatmeal container).
My View the Constellations pages are a great way to show your child the constellations without having to wait for the correct season or be in the correct hemisphere. It also allows them to see the star pattern so that they can more easily find the constellation in the night sky. My set includes 3 pages of 4 small constellation viewers for a total of 12, 3 pages of 4 large constellation viewers for a total of 12, and an instructions page. They are specifically made to be used with the cylindrical containers that oatmeal comes in. The small circle constellations fit in the 18oz container lid and the large circle constellations fit in the 42oz container lid. The pages can be found here on my TeachersPayTeachers store if you do not want to make your own viewing pages.
How to Set Up the Constellations Viewer
To create this activity with your kids without using my viewer pages, you will need to:
- Measure and cut a circle on a piece of paper to the same size as your cylindrical container’s lid.
2. Draw constellations inside of the circles being sure to mark where stars are located.
*** Continue to step 4
If using my viewer pages:
3. Measure the diameter of the lid of the container that you are using, print out the corresponding viewer size pages, and cut out the circles.
4. Poke holes where the stars would be with a small tool such as a needle or a thumbtack.
5. Cut the cardboard/paper part out of the containers lid, being careful not to damage the lid.
6. Place one of the circles inside the plastic lid and replace on the container.
7. Make a small hole, about the circumference of a pencil, in the bottom of the container. This will act as the eyepiece.
8. Have your child look through the small hole the the end of the tube towards the constellation paper, looking towards a light source such as a window or a light. This will give them a view of the constellations and what they should be looking for when trying to spot them in the night sky.
TIP: Using a dark circle actually works better for this activity. For this, I used one of my cutout circles and traced it onto black construction paper, then used a thumbtack to poke holes in the same places. You could also glue the white circle down onto a black or dark blue piece of construction paper or cardstock and cut it out, then poke the holes. As you can see below, the dark colored circle makes the constellation shape a lot more visible.
Here is a link to my View the Constellations pages on my TPT store. –>
I hope that this View the Constellations creative lesson helps to add a little extra fun to your science class. If you found this blog helpful please consider subscribing to and liking this post as it will help to grow the community as well as let me know which type of posts are more beneficial for you. For a creative lesson involving Phases of the Moon check out this blog. If you are interested in other creative worksheets, check out my TeachersPayTeachers store here.
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Do you and your children enjoy looking at the night sky in search of constellations? Share your favorites with the community in the comments below.
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