Astronomy is a science that arouses the fascination of young and old. Through it, we experience, understand, and enjoy the universe that surrounds us and all the mysteries that still remain to be solved. For children, it is a discipline that awakens their curiosity and desire to learn and although there is nothing like going out into the countryside with a telescope and observing the stars through the eyepiece and open eye, there are many astronomy activities for children that can be done. at home or at school and continue learning and enjoying the stars and planets.
Create a nocturnal
Someday we will tell you the origin of our name but with this activity, you can already see some clues. A few years ago we invented a word to designate our night diary: the nocturnal. A notebook in which to take notes of our observations, learned curiosities, make some astronomical drawings, and everything that came to mind.
To make our nocturnal book and the specific activity that we propose, we decorate a notebook with the galaxy print technique. You can suggest that the little ones create their own nightly diaries to write down everything that seems curious, interesting, or that they simply like.
What do you learn in this activity?: The appearance of nebulae and deep sky objects.
Solar System Mobile
Another DIY project that I present to you at El Invernadero Creativo and that you can do with the children is this Solar System mobile.
From an upper polystyrene ring hang the eight planets of the Solar System plus the sun and the Moon. The actual scale is impossible to reproduce because Jupiter would be too large and the rest of the planets would be too small, but we can create an approximate scale using more or less large balls for each size of the planet. Then it’s time to paint them and join them.
What do you learn in this activity?: The planets of the Solar System, their scale and colors.
Glass with phases of the Moon
This activity is perfect for reviewing and learning the phases of the Moon. It consists of using two plastic cups (if it can be bioplastic, much better). In the lower glass, we will draw a full black Moon, in the upper glass we will draw the different phases and name them. A fun experiment for the little ones.
What do you learn in this activity?: The phases of the Moon.
Model of the Moon with relief
In our activities for children, we use a relief model of the Moon that we made ourselves. It is made with a large Styrofoam ball covered with a mixture of water and toilet paper. I modeled this coverage to recreate the craters and seas that the Moon has. Finally, it is time to paint it in different colors.
What do you learn in this activity?: Lunar geography and its colors.
Easy kaleidoscope
One of the great challenges for the little ones, when they come to our activities, is being able to look through the telescope and see what it is showing. Although it seems easy to us adults, this takes practice. One way to practice and experiment is by creating a kaleidoscope. The kaleidoscope also gives us a wonderful opportunity to work on concepts such as light reflection, color, optics, etc.
What do you learn in this activity? Practice for looking through the telescope, and concepts about how light works.
Astronomy activities for children
And finally, we invite you to visit our astronomy activities for children and families in Madrid. We have scheduled the spring-summer 2022 season and we have a lot of interesting proposals: we will travel to the Moon, the Solar System and we will accompany the heroes of the sky on their adventures.
Crafts, experiments, DIY… DIY in general is, as you can see, another of our passions. Would you like us to show you other astronomy experiments to do with children? Leave us your comments.