Activity: Lots and lots of Stars
I will definitely be availing of this ESERO activity next year; perhaps in a thematic unit of work on stars during my Space month. I think I would introduce it after the Counting Can game and ask who thinks there are more stars than those marbles? We would count and move to a see-through container. I explain that there are more and ask are there more stars than there are children in the class? We count the number of children and put that many marbles in a second transparent container. I explain that there are even more and fill a third large container to the top. Explain that there are so many stars that we need computers to count how many there are. I would open up a discussion with questions such as: ‘Have you ever seen the stars? What did they look like? Were there a lot of them? Do stars give light? When do you usually see the stars? Is the Sun a star too?’ The photo of the starry sky would lead to more discussion and discovery and help me explain that the Sun gives off so much light that we have light during the day and this light is so bright that we can’t see the other stars. The children would discover that there are lots of stars in the universe.
My class would love creating their Starry Sky extension Art activity and this would really emphasize that there are so many stars; I would link this with Van Gogh’s Starry Night piece for Looking and Responding in art, star related stories and Twinkle Twinkle in literacy and Gaeilge Lonraigh, lonraigh, réalt os cionn https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=3XVxrgn73ps, the Maths counting worksheet and numerous other possibilities in Maths, Aistear and Geography: making constellations with playdough or Junk-Art, star themed musical and drama performances and activites etc.