When teaching children about stars, you'll want to make your lessons as interactive as possible. Astronomy courses based on books aren't enough because stars can be rather abstract for kids to understand-they are so far away and cannot be touched or explored close up. You'll need to use an extra dose of creativity while explaining various concepts. Try these simple lessons and projects as you explain what stars are, how stars work and how stars affect our daily lives.
Start With The Sun
Begin your lessons on stars by explaining our solar system and the function of the sun. Try playing the song "Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas)" by They Might Be Giants to explain what the sun-and other stars-are made of and how far away they are. Make a solar system mobile, or show your children a picture of the solar system, and teach them about the temperature differences on the planets and their relative distances from the sun.
Expand To Basic Star Facts
Once your kids understand our own sun and its importance to us Earthlings, explain that there are all kinds of stars. You'll want to explain that suns have lives much like we have lives. For some cool star pictures, follow this link to these Hubble Space Telescope photos.
Some basic star facts to explore are the following:
Star Births: Stars take between 10,000 and 1,000,000 years to be "born" or fully created. They are created through a collapsing process that takes place inside a cold interstellar cloud. You can find pictures of Orion Nebula or Eagle Nebula if you look up images of these famous baby star nurseries online. These clouds collapse due to an intense gravitational pull, resulting in a star much like our own sun and possible planets and moons rotating around the central star.
Star Lives: Stars can shine for millions or billions of years. Stars spend their lives fusing hydrogen to helium, which causes a nuclear reaction, creating energy that shines from the star. When stars have used up all their hydrogen, they change and become red giants. You can find pictures of famous red giant stars if you research images of Betelgeuse, Arcturus, Aldebaran and Antares.
Star Deaths: When the thermal pressure of the star no longer can compete with the compressing gravity of the universe, the star dies. Stars either become white dwarfs or they explode as supernovas, and then they become black holes. Most kids are fascinated by the process of a star death, so you'll want to look up information about how black holes work, what a super nova is and what a white dwarf is. You can find photos of white dwarfs if you look up images of Eskimo Nebula or Cat's Eye Nebula. For photos of super novas, look up images of Crab Nebula or Veil Nebula.
Significance Of Stars Throughout History
Explain to your kids that stars were used as navigational guides throughout history. Take them to a planetarium for a constellation show, bring them outside at night to show them the constellations available in your night sky or buy them constellation maps. You can find out what constellations will be visible in your night sky by visiting hubblesite.org.
 | Want to explore basic astronomy for kids? You'll have a blast teaching your children about the solar system and beyond. |
 | What is astronomy? Astronomy is the science of studying all the material beyond our planet's atmosphere. This includes the sun, the planets that orbit our sun, the moons that orbit our solar system's planets, other solar systems and other galaxies. |
When making solar system projects for kids, you can always order a solar system mobile kit. But you can make the project even more fun if you're willing to go the extra mile, literally. |
Check out these fun astronomy facts for kids when you're looking for a science project. Your kids can also build up their online research skills as they learn more about astronomy. |
Have you ever wondered who invented astronomy? Famous astronomers have been studying the stars as long as human beings have been alive, so there have been many contributors to the field. |
