Today we’re going to teach Little Bear’s classroom about space! The kids are 3 and 4, so we’re going to keep it hands-on and light. . . literally!
We’re going to help each kid make a “telescope” out of construction paper and point it at pictures of the planets, to see how they’re different. After we talk about the planets a while, we’ll tape a piece of black paper with pinholes to the end of the telescope and look through it at a light — to see “the stars.” It’s an easy craft to make, and I hope it will be a fun way to introduce these little ones to the planets and put the stars within their reach. (Even if they’re not allowed to stay up late enough to see the real ones!)
I can post instructions and a debrief afterwards — but now, I’ve got to run — Widget and I have a date to teach Bear’s class about the planets and the stars, and I am SO HAPPY.
The idea for this craft came from Marissa, at Our Daylight Adventures, who did the toilet paper telescope craft with her son for Team WhyMommy’s Virtual Science Fair last April. The Virtual Science Fair was such an amazing gift — I read through all the projects again last week, and I still can’t believe it. I wanted to go through and leave comments everywhere, since I was too sick to do it April 7 after my surgery (though I read and loved them all!), but who checks comments on year-old posts?
Toddler Planet is written by 
Toddler Planet 
Looking forward to the debrief. I love finding these simple projects.
Very cool!
This sounds great – the school is so lucky to have you !!!!!!!
Lucky Little Bear! He’s going to burst with pride that his mom and dad came to do this in his class. I can just see his proud smile and hear his voice…love love love!
Too funny!! Alexei came home *today* with a “constellation telescope” – the pinhole one you described. They had several fun templates to chose from. He did a swan. 🙂
What a fabulous idea! I’m going to suggest it to our daycare for their older kids, and my friend who is a Year 1 (5-yr-olds) teacher.
It’s hard to believe that it’s a year since the Virtual Science Fair, wow…
I home educate my children….I will have to remember this fun project for future reference – if I am ever in charge of a group of youngsters for the day, or perhaps if my children choose to homeschool their children. Hope you had a great time sharing your enthusiasm about the planets with the schoolchildren.
Ruthie