Category: Activities

MATERIALS
Watercolor paper, cut into smaller squares and rectangles, about 3×4″ each
Small star stickers (Avery star stickers work well)
Liquid watercolor paint (we used blue and turquoise)
Small paint brush
Container for watercolor paint
Salt
Blank cards (card stock folded into cards)
Glue stick
Black Sharpie

Directions
Cut the 9×12″ watercolor paper sheets into smaller squares and rectangles, about 3×4″ each. Press star stickers onto the watercolor paper.  Paint over the watercolor paper and stickers with liquid watercolors.  Sprinkle salt onto the paper.  Observe what happens. Once paint is dry, gently remove the stickers and brush away the salt with fingers or a dry, clean brush. Glue the starry night art to the front of blank cards, which were made from 8×10 paper folded in half. Press the cards by placing them under a heavy book until the glue is dry.  Use a black Sharpie to make a border around the artwork.

 

 

Materials
Bag of black beans
Container or baking pan
Small baby food jar or container
Colorful plastic star buttons
Tongs
Book:  Twinkle by Nick Bland (optional)

Directions
Pour black beans into the container or baking pan.  Add colorful plastic stars or star buttons.  Invite your child to use a pair of small tongs to catch a stars. Drop the stars into a small container like a small bowl or baby food jar. How many stars can your child catch? Can you count the stars? Sort the stars?

This is an excellent fine-motor activity for older toddlers and preschoolers.

Materials
Gallon Ziploc bag
Clear hair gel (16 oz) – from the Dollar Store
Star-shaped confetti
Black poster board

Directions
To make your bag, empty the contents of the clear hair gel into the gallon storage bag.  Shake in the star confetti (about 1/3 of the bag). Before sealing your bag, lay it flat and squeeze out as much air as possible. To make the stars really shine, tape the Ziploc bag down to a piece of black poster board.

Invite your child to explore, move the stars around to make their own constellations. For younger children, reinforce the edges of the bag with packing tape or clear duct tape.  Older children may enjoy researching different constellations, drawing constellations on cards, and then trying to make the constellations by placing the cards placed under the bag.

 

 

 

Materials
Large tub of water
Scoops
Star-shaped ice cube molds

Directions
Freeze colored water in the star-shaped ice cube molds for several hours.  Place them in a large plastic tub filled with water (or use in the bath tub!).

Provide various scoops and invite your child to scoop up as many stars as they can.  Allow your child to explore the water and stars.  Talk about how they float on top of the water.  Why? 

Older children can count how many they catch in the scoop.  Try again and count.  Did they get more or less the second time?  How many more or how many less?  Catch you catch just the yellow stars?

This is a fun activity to do outside on a warm summer day.

 

Materials
Star shapes (plastic glow-in-the-dark stars or stars cut from cards stock or paper)
Flashlight (optional)
Book:  How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers (optional)

Directions
Hide stars around the house or out in the yard. If you have the book, How to Catch a Star, read it to you child.  After reading the book, tell your child there are stars hidden all over the house or in the yard and she needs to go catch her  own stars. Provide a flashlight for additional fun! Your child will enjoy playing the game over and over and even hiding the stars for you to find.

Lesson Extensions

• Count the stars
• Use different colors and sizes of stars. Sort the stars.
• Write letters on the stars and encourage your child to find and keep only the stars that start her name
• Write uppercase and lowercase letters on the stars and have your child match the letters

This is a great game that can be played with several children and with a variety of ages.

Materials
Large cardboard box
String of mini lights (50–00)*
Scissors or sharp knife

Directions
Using scissors or a sharp knife, poke holes in the top of a box large enough for your infant or toddler to lie down in. Scissors tend to make bigger holes that makes it easier to push the lights through.  Push the lights through the holes so that they can be seen when inside the box.  Plug the lights into a nearby outlet and lay your infant or invite your toddler in the box.  Your infant or toddler will love observing the twinkling lights about their head. Close supervision is needed.

*Note: I recommend you not use ultra-bright lights and always test the lights for heat before your child enters the box. Most mini lights do not get warm, but it’s always a good practice to test them.

A delicious snack that supports fine motor practice, counting, and generating simple patterns.

Materials

Watermelon slices 
Blueberries
Mini marshmallows
Wooden skewers
Star cookie cutter

Directions

From a few of the watermelon slices, cut out star shapes.  Invite your child to count out five blueberries and five mini marshmallows.  Have him slide the blueberries and marshmallow onto the skewer, creating a simple pattern of blueberry, marshmallow, blueberry, marshmallow.  When reaching the end of the skewer, place a watermelon star on top.  Poke the fruit kebab into a larger slice of watermelon for a fun centerpiece. Enjoy the delicious patriotic snack!

by Christie Matheson

Read Touch the Brightest Star by Christie Matheson

A sweet, interactive bedtime story that invites young children to experience the magic of the nighttime sky. 

Materials

1 package star-shaped foam stickers or glittery star foam stickers
Card stock

Counting

Cut strips of card stock wide enough and long enough to fit several star stickers.  Invite your child to stick various stars on each strip. Count the stars. Create numeral cards by writing numerals 1–10 or 11–20 on squares of card stock.  Encourage your child to match the number of stars on each strip with the matching numeral card. For an extra challenge, put the strips and numeral cards in numeric sequence.

This activity supports fine motor practice of tearing the paper off the back of the stickers, one-to-one correspondence, recognizing numerals, and sequencing numerals (1–10 and 11–20, then, in reverse order, 10–1 and 20–11).

Sorting

• Sort stars by color, grouping all the red stars together, blue stars, yellow stars, etc.
• Sort stars by size, grouping all stars by large, medium, and small stars.
• For older children, sort using two criteria:  color and size (i.e. group all large red stars together).

 

Patterns

Create simple two-color patterns with the stars (i.e. red, blue, red, blue).  Invite your toddler to say your pattern out loud. Ask your toddler what color comes next when reaching the end of the constructed pattern. Create more complex patterns for preschool-age children.

Invite your toddlers or preschoolers to add on to the patterns.

Encourage your toddlers or preschoolers to generate their own patterns. Have them check themselves by saying the patterns as they point to each star.

Materials

Preztel sticks (or toothpicks)
Mini marshmallows 

Directions

Read Our Stars, by Anne Rockwell.  Spend some time looking at images of constellations together. Then, invite your child to create his own constellation or replicate one from an image using pretzel sticks and mini marshmallows. Name the constellation and display it. Enjoy leftover pretzels and mini marshmallows for snack.