This week’s theme:
Mysterious Places: Stars and The Planets
This week’s colouring sheet:
Download and print this week’s colouring sheet here
Fact of the day:
A constellation is a group of visible stars that form a pattern in the sky when viewed from Earth
Resources list:
Ladle or big spoon; pen; paper; crafty bits & bobs
Activity 1:
There are constellations called Orion (the hunter with a shining belt), Libra ‘the scales’, and The Ladle.
‘Orion: The Hunter’ – have somebody hide some objects in a room; can you hunt them down?
‘Libra: The Scales’ – Can you balance on one leg – how long can you do it for? Can you balance a book on your head and move around the room without dropping it – how far can you get before it falls?
‘The Ladle’ – Can you play a game of ‘This Is Not A Ladle’ with a ladle or big spoon as a prop. This is not a ladle, it’s a microphone! This is not a ladle it’s an oar to paddle my boat to India.
Activity 2:
The pattern that stars form may take the shape of an animal, a mythological creature, a person, or an object such as a microscope, a compass, or a crown. Draw some dots for ‘stars’ on a page, connect them together with pen lines – what animal/person/creature/object do you think the shape you’ve created looks like? What would you name your newly discovered constellation?
Activity 3:
This time use other objects; use cotton wool balls, raisins, popcorn, blue-tac, smarties, marbles, beads, pompoms for stars, and connect them with shoe laces, ribbon, wool, string, straws. Why not take a photo of your constellation and share it with us? You can share it on our Facebook, Instagram or Twitter or send it to melanie@purplepatcharts.org and we’ll put it online for you!
Add-on Activity:
When it gets dark, take a look out of the window and see how many night stars you can see. Look at the stars live from different planetariums from around the world here. Watch a film about stars that can be seen at this time of year here.