The Ancient Greeks invented pictures and patterns to help them recognise the stars - some of them need a little more imagination to see than others! These are called constellations. Many of the constellations give their names to the star signs of the zodiac. We looked up our own star signs online. We also watched a video about the constellations which you can find here, and Ms. Kirby showed us the Night Sky app on her phone, which you can download on your Apple or Android tablet or smartphone. It helps you to recognise the constellations (as well as planets, satellites and more!) when you point it at the sky at night.
While learning about space for our class project, some children expressed an interest in finding out more about stars and constellations. We found out that stars are huge balls of gas. The sun is our closest star and light from the sun takes about eight minutes to reach earth. However, there are many stars that are much bigger than the sun. We discussed the fact that stars are easier to see on a dark, clear night in an unpolluted area. Often stars cannot be seen at all in cities and towns. Most constellations can be seen with the naked eye, but they can be seen even better if you have a telescope. The Ancient Greeks invented pictures and patterns to help them recognise the stars - some of them need a little more imagination to see than others! These are called constellations. Many of the constellations give their names to the star signs of the zodiac. We looked up our own star signs online. We also watched a video about the constellations which you can find here, and Ms. Kirby showed us the Night Sky app on her phone, which you can download on your Apple or Android tablet or smartphone. It helps you to recognise the constellations (as well as planets, satellites and more!) when you point it at the sky at night. One of our aims for the lessons was to know the names of three constellations, and how better to remember them than to create them...with marshmallows! We used mini marshmallows (each one representing a star) and cocktail sticks to create the constellation of our choice, using the information and pictures from this site to help us. Of course, we also got to eat some of the marshmallows - yummy! Maybe next time it's a dark clear night, you might spot some of these constellations in the sky...
4 Comments
4/6/2015 03:47:20 pm
We used mini marshmallows (each one representing a star) and cocktail sticks to create the constellation of our choice, using the information and pictures from this site to help us.
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Jonny
10/23/2019 09:23:25 am
yummy
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Plotting against
2/18/2023 06:16:54 am
Pop up on my way home from work and colored pencils and colored pencils and colored pencils✏✏✏✏✏ in a row🚣
Jonny
10/23/2019 09:21:33 am
cool
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