Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

Dr. Carl Sagan

Astronomy Compels the Soul to Look Upwards and Leads us from This World to Another

Plato

Equipped with His Five Senses, Man Explores the Universe Around Him and Calls the Adventure Science.

Edwin Hubble

Whether or not you decide to continue learning more is up to you.

Kathryn Prator

Do not look at stars as bright spots only. Try to take in the vastness of the universe.

Maria Mitchell

The Purpose of Life is the Investigation of the Sun, the Moon, and the Heavens.

Anaxagoras

Lessons - Grades K thru 5

Lessons for Grades K thru 1 | Ages 5 to 6

Topics Activity Ideas Lesson Links

  1. Constellations:
    • Why they were created
    • What we can tell from them
    • Who made them and when
  2. What we see in the sky:
    • Differences between them
    • Where is that light coming from
    • How far away is that light coming from
    • What we can see day vs night
  3. Observing the moon:
    • How it was created
    • How the moon affects earth
    • Why does it follow us
  4. Observing the stars:
    • Names
    • What different stars can tell us
    • North Star
  5. Observing the sun:
    • How we can do so safely
    • How the sun affects earth
    • What is it made of
  6. Solar System:
    • What is it
    • How many planets do we have
    • How big is it
  7. Planets:
    • What is it
    • What are they made of
    • How big are they

  1. Create your own constellation:
    • Draw one
    • Use a cub or paper plate to punch holes into - making your own constellation
    • Marshmallow constellation
      • Use Marshmallows as stars and toothpicks to connect
  2. Moon Journal:
    • Kids journal the moon every night, shading in a circle to show the moon's phase
    • Create a flip book out of the drawings
  3. Moon Crater Experiment:
    • Rocks, marbles, balls drop into flour to create craters.
    • See how size, weight, height of drop affect craters. Have kids make predictions and test their predictions.
  4. Create a piece of artwork using inspiration from what you see in the night sky

  1. Sky Tellers Lesson - Lunar and Planetary Institute Content
  2. Basic life ingredients - PBS Content
  3. Constellations - Crash Course for Kids Content
  4. The Sun - Crash Course for Kids Content
  5. The Moon - Mensa for Kids Content
  6. Constellations - BrainPop Content
  7. Outer Solar System - BrainPop Content
Vocabulary to Note Historical Figures

  1. Constellations
  2. Solar System
  3. Planets
  4. Moons
  5. Stars
  6. Orbit
  7. Telescope
  8. Astronomy
  9. Astronomer

  1. Claudius Ptolemy
  2. Galileo Galilei
  3. Sir Issac Newton
  4. Clyde Tombaugh
  5. Johannes Kepler

"We will always have STEM with us. Some things will drop out of the public eye and will go away, but there will always be science, engineering, and technology. And there will always, always be mathematics." - Katherine Johnson, NASA Research Mathematician

Lessons for Grades 2 thru 3 | Ages 6 to 8

Topics Activity Ideas Lesson Links

  1. Star vs. planet:
    • Temperature, surface, light, energy,
  2. Star maps:
    • different constellations
    • why they were created
  3. Moon:
    • Learn about the phases of the moon
  4. Rotate vs Revolve:
    • What those affect
  5. Planets + Pluto:
    • Size
  6. Gravity:
    • What is it
    • How does it affect us
    • Why is it so important

  1. Create your own constellation:
    • Draw one
    • Use a cub or paper plate to punch holes into - making your own constellation
    • Marshmallow constellation
      • Use Marshmallows as stars and toothpicks to connect
    • Constellation Cube (paper pinhole and cutout project)
    • Use the stars from a real constellation and connect them in different ways to create a new one and come up with a legend for it.
  2. Modeling Earth's rotation, Earth, and Orbit:
    • Use printed circles to have the kids draw and color the Earth tilted towards and away from th Sun to show how the tilt of the Earth is important to seasons.
    • Create a flip book out of the drawings to show the earth orbit and tilt change over the seasons.

  1. Lunar Cycle - PBS Content
  2. Sun Basics Lesson - PBS Content
  3. Weather Basics Lesson - PBS Content
  4. Constellations in Our Sky - Crash Course for Kids Content
  5. Moon Phases - NASA Content
  6. Defining Gravity - Crash Course for Kids Content
Vocabulary to Note Historical Figures

  1. Gravity
  2. Atmosphere
  3. Comet
  4. Asteroid
  5. Meteor
  6. Orbit
  7. Rotation
  8. Revolution
  9. Axis
  10. Satellite
  11. Moon
  12. Dwarf Planet
  13. Scale

  1. Claudius Ptolemy
  2. Galileo Galilei
  3. Nicolaus Copernicus
  4. Johannes Kepler
  5. Sir Issac Newton
  6. Arthur C. Clarke

"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." - Dr Carl Sagan

Lessons for Grades 4 thru 5 | Ages 8 to 10

Topics Activity Ideas Lesson Links

  1. Navigating by the stars
  2. Seasons:
    • Affected by Solstice and Equinox
  3. Weather:
    • Difference between Weather and Climate
  4. Movement in the Solar system:
    • Earth's Rotation
    • Other Planets and Moons Rotation
  5. Planets + Moons:
    • Why moons follow planets
    • How they affect each other
    • Different moons for each planet and why some have more than 1
  6. Lunar Topography:
    • How craters were created
  7. Comet vs Asteroid vs Meteor:
    • Difference between them

  1. Kids will model the Earth and learn how orbit affects what we see:
    • Discuss how the orbit of the Moon effects the Earth (Tides, Moon as Nightlight for animals and people)
  2. Constellations as a Calendar
  3. Earth's Axis and Seasons:
    • Longer days and shorter nights - flashlight on a globe to show day / night, winter / summer.

  1. Climate Lesson - PBS Content
  2. How Science Works and Grows - PBS Content
  3. Daylight in Summar and Winter Lesson - PBS Content
  4. Seasons and the Sun - Crash Course for Kids Content
  5. Explore Earth's Climate: Climate vs Weather - Lunar and Planetary Institute Content
  6. Earth's Rotation and Revolution - Crash Course for Kids Content
  7. Features of the Moon - Planets for Kids Content
  8. Celestial Navigation - Academic Kids Content
Vocabulary to Note Historical Figures

  1. Solar Eclipse
  2. Lunar Eclipse
  3. Solstice
  4. Equinox
  5. Topography
  6. Atmosphere
  7. Climate
  8. Weather
  9. Scientific Method
  10. Scientific Theory
  11. Light Year
  12. Diameter

  1. Giovanni Cassini
  2. Christiaan Huygens
  3. William Herschel
  4. Caroline Herschel
  5. Henrietta Swann Leavitt

"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." - Dr Carl Sagan