Tin Can Constellation: The Little Dipper

When my daughter was learning about stars and constellations in her Adventures in My Father’s World curriculum, we decided to re-create the Little Dipper by making a tin can constellation. It was super easy and lots of fun!

All you need is a tin can (we used a 36oz sized Nestle hot chocolate container), a nail, hammer, marker, and flashlight. We used the books Stars! Stars! Stars! and Constellations: A Glow-in-the-Dark Guide to the Night Sky while creating her tin can constellation.

Directions: Using the marker, draw the dipper on the bottom of the can. In hindsight, we should have drawn it backwards so that it will appear “the right way” when we used the flashlight. So, be sure to draw yours backwards. Then using the hammer and the nail, poke holes in the can to make the stars forming the little dipper. Make the hole for the North star a little bigger than all the others. My daughter wanted to label both the Little Dipper and the North Star!

Once you have poked all of your stars, now it is time for the fun part! Take your tin can constellation and your flashlight and head into a closet or dark room. Flash the light through the can so that the stars appear on the wall making the Little Dipper! (I tried, but couldn’t get a good picture of our Little Dipper on the bathroom wall…I need to do some research on how to get a good pic in the dark…)

Be sure to check out Science Sunday for more fun science activities.

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