Stars- I would use these activities with my class
Look at drawings of constellations. What do you see?
Can you recognize some of them?
Now make a star lantern which is going to project the constellation on the walls!
What do you need:
Needle, coloured paper, glue stick, flashlight , newspaper, brush, crepe paper, luminous paint, string, A4 paper, stapler
1. Copy a constellation or create your own on a piece of paper
2. Paint it with luminous paint on the coloured paper
3. Prick holes in the stars
4. Fold the paper in a circle and staple it.
5. Tie a piece of string across the cylinder.
6. Tie the flashlight to the stick.
7. Hang the lantern from the stick and decorate it.
8. Light it.
Stars- Seeing Stars-Looking at the plough in two different ways
What you need for this activity
An A4 sheet of black cardboard
Bluetack
Seven 15x 15cm Squares of tin foil
Seven 30cm lengths of black wool
A ruler
Sellotape
A Pencil to poke hole in the cardboard.
Star map from Activity sheet
Method
1. To start stick the star map to the black cardboard using the sellotape
2. Poke a hole through each of the stars on the map so that there is a hole in the black cardboard.
3. Now make the stars , To do this use sellotape to stick the end of a piece of wool to the centre of a piece of tin foil.
4. When this is done crumple the foil up into a ball.
5. Do this until you have made seven stars.
6. Now starting from the black side of the model poke the free end of each piece of wool through the cardboard and the star map. Don’t pull the wool all the way through as we will use Maths to calculate how long each piece should be.
7. Each of the seven stars in the plough is actually a different distance from earth, the distance chart in the activity sheet lists how far each star is from our planet and gives a length for each piece of wool we will be using to hold our stars
8. As all our pieces of wool are 30cm long using the chart calculate how much wool needs to be pulled through the back of the paper
9. Make calculations and pull each piece of wool through to the correct length.
10. When all the stars are set they can be sellotaped in place at the back of the paper.
11. Now you have built your 3D model of the Plough
12. Use your bluetack to stick your Model to the ceiling or the underside of your table
13. When you look up at it you will see that your stars look just like the plough, but when you look at it from a different angle you see what the stars in the plough would look like from space.
These activities would be great as a group work within the classroom. Mixed ability groupings or putting an older class with a younger class to carry out the activity. Older children could help with the Maths calculations.
At Assembly the children could describe the process involved and display their Models in the hall for the whole school to appreciate.