Observable Sky Winter 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. Compare the winter constellation entry to the one you made during the summer. Are there constellations that are the same? Different? Which provided better conditions for stargazing?
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 stars. What they are, their life cycle, how many there are. One of my favorite resources for learning about stars is this life cycle wheel from the Wild Wonder Shoppe on Etsy As well as this video that shows a size comparison of stars in our universe.
You can tell stories of winter constellations like the story of Orion or Ursa Major . If you talked about Native American or Greek legends during the summer tell stories from the opposite side of the earth this time. I’ve also added a link to my constellation cards to help you memorize popular constellations in the Northern Hemisphere.
Make Your Own Nature Journal:
Just draw your star map on a blank page.
