Observable Sky Summer Constellation

Materials:

Nature journal, drawing utensils of choice, a flashlight or lantern you can turn on and off easily, and a clear night for observations.

Activity:

Go outside and observe the night sky on a clear night. Use an app like skywalk2 or star charts to identify different constellations and planets. Draw what you saw in the “Night sky” section of your nature journal.

Younger:

After pointing out the stars younger kids may want to copy the constellation in their nature journals at a separate time from their observation.

Older:

Encourage older kids to label their constellations. The next day they may even want to look up the names of specific stars and planets that also made an appearance in or near their constellation.

Take it Further:

Do a mini-lesson on constellations looking up Ancient Greek and Native American legends about the stars. Help the children find the North Star and tell them how people used to navigate based on where the stars were in the sky at different times of the year.

Some fun resources on this topic are linked below. The illustrated tale of Cassiopeia (We have and love the Orion one by the same author), the Life Cycle of a star printable wheel, and the night sky mat and constellation cards from my shop are fun to use when learning popular constellations.

Make Your Own Nature Journal:

Just draw your star map on a blank page.