Winter Wednesday - Night Sky

We finally broke out Froggy's Star Explorer Kit.  She received it for her birthday back in October and it has sat on the shelf doing nothing since.  We mainly got it for her to use when we go camping in the summer. However, our Winter Wednesday challenge inspired us to open it and use it.

We read the constellation fun fact cards in the afternoon to prepare.  Froggy calls Orion "Daddy's stars" because it is his favorite constellation and one of the first ones he was able to identify as a child so it was an obvious place to start Froggy's education.

We also chose the Big Dipper / Ursa Major and the North Star to read about and try to find. I explained to Froggy that the Big Dipper is only part of the constellation not a whole constellation by itself even though it has its own name.

In addition to the fun fact cards, we took a virtual Winter Sky tour, where both Froggy and I learned that the Big Dipper can be used as a clock with just a little bit of finageling and a higher level student than Froggy. Something to try a few years from now. 

So eventually it was time to actually go outside. We bundled up and took a well powered flashlight to serve as our pointer and trundled out. We did not manage to stay out as long as I had hoped but we did see both the Big Dipper and Orion.  We even traced from the Big Dipper to the North Star with the help of our flashlight.