Gift Guide 
What You’ll Need
- Rocks (4 or 5; flat ones work best)
- White and black paint
- Paintbrush
- Glow-in-the-dark paint
1. Wash and dry your rocks.
Creative
The paint brush icon represents creativity. For content about raising a creative child, look for this icon.
Create Your Own Constellation
A Craft and Mini Science Lesson in One!
Kids who recognize the shapes of triangles, squares, and rectangles on paper can find those same shapes in the night sky. A group of stars that form a pattern is called a constellation, and learning about them can begin a lifelong fascination with our infinite universe.
Image Credit |
Guy Cali Associates, Inc.
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2. Paint white stars on the top of your rocks. Let dry.
3. Paint the stars with glow-in-the-dark paint. Let dry. Then paint the area around the stars black. Let dry.
4. Place your rocks in a sunny spot, such as a windowsill or backyard. Arrange the rocks to make your constellation. The stars will soak up the light during the day and glow at night.
Extend the Fun
For younger kids: Be a constellation detective. Look out your window late at night and find the Big Dipper; the Little Dipper; Cassiopeia (a queen sitting in a chair); Leo (the crouching lion); and Pegasus (a horse with wings). Arrange your indoor constellation to mimic their arrangement. Fun fact: The sun is a star.
For older kids: Visit a planetarium or peek through a telescope to bring the stars up close. Invent your own constellation and give it a fancy name based on your name or nickname. Fun fact: The movie Beetlejuice derives its title from a star named Betelgeuse, which is part of the constellation Orion the Hunter (look for three bright stars in a row).
Craft by Edna Harrington; text by Mary Sears
