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How can stars help you if you get lost?

How can stars help you if you get lost?
Lesson narration:
English Spanish
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Optional Activity: Where Is North?

Your teacher has labeled the walls of the classroom with North, South, East, and West. Discuss:

  • To go to the front of the room, which direction would you walk: North, South, East, or West?
  • Which direction would you walk to go toward the clock?
  • What is closest to the west wall of the classroom?

Suppose you could walk through the wall labeled North and keep on walking in a straight line. Discuss:

  • Where would you end up if you kept walking North?
  • Where would you end up if you kept walking South?
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Look at a globe of the Earth.

  • Find where you are on the globe.
  • Find the North Pole and the South Pole on the globe. If you walked North, you’d end up at the North Pole. What places would you go through on your way there?
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star


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a bright light that can be seen in the night sky
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telescope


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a tool used to make very distant objects look closer, often used to look at outer space
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north


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one of four main directions; when you face north, west is to the left and east is to the right
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east


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one of four main directions; if you are facing north, it is to the right
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south


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one of four main directions; if you are facing north, it is the direction behind you
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west


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one of four main directions; if you are facing north, it is to the left
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pattern


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something that happens again and again and again in a way that can be predicted
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Lesson narration:
English Spanish

Activity Prep

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In this Read-Along lesson, Ryan’s camping trip with his dad includes a night of stargazing, and a mystery to solve. The lesson includes a short exercise where students imagine what they might see looking through a telescope. You can extend the lesson with the optional activity, Where Is North?, that helps students learn the cardinal directions.

Preview optional activity
Number of students:

I have a Mystery Pack

Blank Paper (8.5 x 11")
Used to make Cardinal Direction signs for the classroom. Recycled is fine.
Details
4 sheets per class
Globe
1 globe per class
Compass
1 compass per class
Prep Instructions

We suggest an optional activity that helps students gain a better understanding of the cardinal directions (north, south, east, west).

For this activity, you will need to make four signs:

  • North
  • South
  • East
  • West

You will use these signs to label your classroom walls with the appropriate cardinal direction. To identify which sign goes where, you can use a compass or Google Maps.

Here’s how to identify the directions using Google Maps:

  1. Open Google Maps and enter your school’s street address.
  2. Zoom in on your school and look at the surrounding streets and landmarks.
  3. North is always up on Google Maps. Find a landmark that’s to the north of your school.
  4. Put North on the wall that’s closest to that landmark.
  5. Face North. Put West on the wall to your left, East on the wall to your right, and South on the wall behind you.

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