Oh, the constellations have never been more fun or easy to remember. Until studying them with the kids, I think I could identify the Big Dipper, and that was about it.
After reading some great books on finding the constellations and understanding how important they were for navigation, we had to make our own star maps. We used black mounting board and white embroidery floss.
1. The mounting boards (regularly $3.99 at HobLob for a 16"x20" sheet, but are 50% off this week), I cut in two boards in half to make 4 maps (16" x 10").
2. Using google images, Belle and I found and printed constellation charts. Painters tape held them in place so they worked as our templates. We then tried an upholstery needle and an embroidery needle to see what worked best to poke holes where our stars were.
3. Then we were ready to take away the template, and thread our maps.
4. Belle was really good at the threading. She made the Lion and the Big Dipper/Little Dipper. I made Orion and the Herdsman.
Two books we really liked:
Find the Constellations by H. A. Rey (of Curious George fame).
The Big Dipper by Franklin M. Branley
So, what do you think? Cool right?
4 Creative People Had This To Say:
I love this!
Love this idea! It would be cute framed, too!
Hi, I am Aimee from over at HomeSpun-Threads and I am getting together some creative/crafty bloggers (that I have loved from afar) for the month of May. The plan is that every day in May a different guest share something totally creative for kids to do during the summer. Summer time is approaching quickly and many of us parents are biting our nails trying to figure out what fun things we can do with our kids this summer. I thought this Tutorial was adorable! I’d absolutely love it if you would be interested in joining me, even if you want to share a post you have done previously. Please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested. http://www.homespun-threads.com
Graciously,
Aimee
This is such a great idea for teaching children! I stumbled across your blog through a post at A Common Thread!
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