Activity set: Space and Aliens.
To begin learning about stars and constellations.
I would introduce the story Aliens Love Underpants. We would discuss whether all aliens were the same.
Children close their eyes and imagine they are looking at the night sky. They describe what they see – moon, etc. Where were they when they saw a very starry night. They use as many words as they can to describe the stars. Just as aliens were not all the same in the story, children will learn that the stars can make patterns and that these are called constellations.
Children will look at images of simple constellations and describe the pattern they form. They can replicate these patterns physically in a PE lesson or paint them in an art lesson against a starry sky, having also looked at Van Gogh’s representation. Children in groups could also invent and name their own constellations and each group would have a specific number of stars to arrange.