Little Lambs Stars: Stars

Listen to a book about stars.

  • The Stars by Martha E. H. Rustad
  • Shooting Stars by Franklyn M. Branley
  • The Stars in the Sky - Download the PDF

Say three things you learned about stars.

  • There are approximately 400 billon stars in the galaxy. With as many as 500 billion galaxies in the Universe, it is almost impossible to count how many stars are there in the Universe.Stars are made out of dust clouds scattered throughout the space. The turbulence within these dust clouds gives rise to knots which later on develop mass, allowing gas and dust to collapse. While this cloud collapses, the object that is present at the center starts to heat up. This hot core becomes a star later on.
  • The stars do not twinkle. In fact it is the turbulence in the sky that makes the stars appear that they are blinking.
  • The closest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri. It is located about 4.2 light-years away from the Earth.
  • There are many different colors of stars. There are red, white, as well as blue stars. Hot stars give away blue lights and cool stars look white.
  • The sun is the smallest star. It is referred as a G2 yellow dwarf star. Most other stars are red dwarfs.
  • Betelgeuse is about 20 times the mass of the Sun and it’s 1,000 times larger than the Sun. The largest known star is the monster VY Canis Majoris. This star is believed to be 1,800 times the size of the Sun!!
  • It seems that most stars are out there by themselves, but they are actually in pairs. These are the binary stars. Some stars appear in 3, 4 and more numbers, creating a beautiful system in the sky.
  • The bigger the star, the shorter is its life. This is true because larger stars consume their energy at a much faster rate than the smaller ones.
  • Eta Carinae which is thought to be the most massive star has been around for a few million years only. And Sun which is the smallest of all the stars has been burning bright for billions of years and will continue to do so for many more years.
  • When you look at stars you are literally look back in time. This is because the light from the star takes millions of years to reach the Earth. When you look at any star, you are actually looking how it looked thousands of years ago.

Play an action game about stars.

Star Hop
Cut out large star shapes from colored paper. Laminate them and cut them out. Place them on the floor and ask the children to hop from one star to another. These may also be used at seat markers for group time.

Make a star craft.

Stamping Stars
Provide the children with star stamps. Have the child press the stamp on a non-toxic ink pad and press onto a piece of paper. (Silver or white ink will look very neeto on black or dark blue paper)

Glue Stars
Place glue on a piece of paper in a star shape. Have the children place glitter, colored rice or koolaid on the glue.

Song about the Stars:
Twinkle Twinkle
Twinkle Twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the clouds
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle Twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are.

Finger Puppets
Have children hold up one finger after the other as you recite the following rhyme.

One little star came out tonight,
It twinkled and twinkled with all of it’s might.
Two little stars came out tonight,
They twinkled and twinkled with all of their might.
Continue – with three, four and then five little stars.
End with the children all holding up their hands and wiggling them.
Thousands of stars came out tonight,
Twinkling, and twinkling a beautiful sight! -Jean Warren

External Resources

The Stars in the Sky Short Stories