Stars burn bright for millions of years
Classroom activities about the life cycle of stars can be interactive and fun for elementary and middle school children. Once students are exposed to the material, teachers can test their grasp of the information through both individual and team activities. The projects can be completed with just a few supplies, such as scissors, poster board, glue sticks and markers.
Show and Tell
Group activities encourage critical thinking
Print a series of photographs of a star's life cycle. Divide the class into groups and give each group its own set of pictures. Designate one student in the group to speak for the whole when they've completed the exercise. Have your students rank each of the pictures by age, going from youngest to oldest. Students should put the number "1" by the picture they think is the youngest star, a 2 by the second youngest, and so on.
Life Cycle Posters
Describe a star's life cycle in class.
Create a handout for each student that lists the steps in the life cycle of a massive star but don't list the steps in their proper order. Instruct your students to carefully cut out each step in a strip. With the information they've learned about massive stars, have them glue the strips onto poster boards in the order in which they occur, and write a small caption describing each photo.
Star Cycle Scrapbooks
Children can be creative while learning.
Have students create individual scrapbooks showing the life cycle of a star from nebula to supernova. Each child should write a paragraph or two that describes the sequence of the star's formation, life cycle and death. To enhance their scrapbooks, they can use stickers and glitter, sketch pictures or choose photographs from the web to support their paragraphs.
Word Puzzles
Have all of the students participate.
Make a list of words from the materials you used to teach your students about the life cycle of stars, and create a word search on a blackboard or smart board. Write the star words horizontally, vertically or diagonally, left to right or right to left, within a 5- by 7-inch box. If you need help, there are many online puzzle makers available that will create a word search using the words you provide. Assign specific words to individual students and have them circle the words on the board.
Tags: life cycle, your students, about life, about life cycle, create word, create word search