Resources
Every day brings new writing experiences. I’m never bored!
Explore These Links
The links below include science resources for both students and adults, classroom activities for educators, and tips for parents on how to raise a reader. Creative kids and teens will find writing tips alongside alongside places that publish young writers. (Kids, please explore with an adult.)
Explore The Night
- Aurora alerts for your location
- Aurorasaurus – help scientists predict auroras
- Best places to see the northern lights in Canada.
- See when the ISS and satellites are visible
- Light Efficient Communities
- Space Weather Canada
- Spot the International Space Station
- Watch the Northern Lights in Yellowknife
- Who was Hubble?
- Check for aurora and other space weather
Astronomy Activities (online)
Light Pollution for Educators
- Quality Lighting Teaching Kit
- Science Projects – Light Pollution Guide – for teaching grades 6-10
- Nocturnal Animals and Light Pollution – activities for middle grade students
- Materials for educators
- Paper plate light pollution demonstration activity
Protect The Night
- National Geographic on light pollution – grades 3-12
- Reducing light pollution at home
- Dark Matters book trailer
- Light Pollution Activities For Kids
- Measuring Light Pollution – student engineering activities for elementary and high school
- Think Like a Citizen Scientist
For Teacher & Librarians
Classroom Activities using the Dot to Dot in the Sky book series.
- Host a star gazing party!
- Debate whether horoscopes are a logical way to classify personality types.
- Practice storytelling using the myth that matches your sign.
- Make dot-to-dot activity pages.
- Compare ancient Greek to Roman gods.
- Explore the impact of light pollution and how you can help preserve the dark night sky.
- Discuss how ancient people created myths to explain things they did not understand.
- Write a myth to explain something you find puzzling.
- Write a paragraph about an astronaut you find interesting.
- Write a paragraph about the questions you would like to ask International Space Station astronauts
More…
- Mortimer: Rat Race to Space Teacher’s Guide
- Space Lessons for Kids
- Stories in the Stars library program
- Teacher’s Guide – Dancing Lights, Exploring the Aurora Through Art and Writing
- Hand-on Aurora activities
- Clouds and weather science activities
- Create a Comet
- Build a Moon Base
- NASA posters – Visions of the Future
- Solar System coloring pages – printable
- Explore the night sky with kids
Tree Resources
Citizen Science
- Help scientists to:
- Measure Light Pollution
- Discover pulsars
- Search for cosmic rays
- Analyze radio telescope data
Science Fun For Kids and Teens
- Children’s Astronomy Glossary (NASA)
- Mission: Astronaut (Canadian Space Agency)
- Make the Solar System out of food
- Space Songs list
You can write too!
- Magazines that Publish Children and Teens
- Stone Soup writing prompts
- Teen Ink
- Story Studio – Guild of Young Writers
- 70+ Places to Publish Teen Writing and Art
- Opportunities for Young Writers
- Writing Contests for Kids
- Writing Fun for Kidz
- Story Starters
- Storyboard That – Digital Storytelling publishes young authors
- YouthWrite Camps – camp for kids who love to write
- Writers’ Guild of Alberta – Wordsworth – writing camps
Literacy Tips For Parents
- Tips for Parents – children of any age
- School Age Literacy Activities
- Book Ownership and its relation to reading enjoyment, attitudes, and attainment (Findings from the National Literacy Trust)
- Help Struggling Readers
- How to Encourage Reading
- Motivate Middle School Readers
- Build Language and Scientific Literacy in Young Children
- Teen Literacy Toolkit
- Ten Literacy Tips to Encourage Teens
- Supporting Struggling Readers
- KidsBookshelf