Constellations

Recently, we did a little Astronomy project. Melissa is in the process of learning the major constellations, so I found a little printable that gave us small, easy constellation diagrams to make them into "viewers" for her. Not only were they very little work and fun to make, but it's much more fun to keep pointing tubes at the light and viewing the constellations, than studying them in  a book!

The page of the "Northern and Southern Constellations" in our Science book.



First we lined up a bunch of empty tubes that I have been saving...

I printed out the simplified constellation diagrams that I found here.

Using a push pin, we poked holes in all the black dots that represented stars. (We put cardboard underneath so we wouldn't ruin anything!)

 We cut out the constellation circles.

 

 

Melissa picked out 9 constellations to make viewers for, and labeled the tubes.

 

She picked some of her favorites, as well as some that she was having a hard time remembering.

 

 

Using simple Scotch tape, we attached the cut out circles to the end of their

pre-labeled tubes.

 

 

And there you go! Point it at the light and you can easily see the outline/shape

of the constellation!

 

Here is what it looks like when you look into the tube!

 

Nine constellation viewers lined up in a row. We were picking them up and looking, trying

to see if we could figure out the constellation without looking at the name first! The more we did it,

the easier it became!

 

 

Here  is a neat website called "Lesson Planet"  that has some very interesting worksheets you can print out for extra practice when learning the constellations.