Constellation Myths: 3rd Grade Research

Third grade students have been researching and learning about stars and constellations. Our favorite part has been learning about constellation myths.

First we learned about the stars and constellations from this book at TrueFlix. Students practiced note taking skills.

Next we viewed a video that gave a great overview of several Greek myths. Before watching, we did a prediction activity guessing what the stories behind constellations were; each group had a different constellation to make a prediction about. We were fascinated by the mythology and stories behind the stars. Many students knew characters from these constellation myths just by reading the Percy Jackson books!

Finally, we dug in and did some more research about  myths behind the stars. Tables worked together to take notes on different star constellations. Then, they used these noted stars to make a NEW constellation! See some examples below:

New Constellation: Brain Freeze, an ice cream cone

New Constellation: a shield

New Constellation: a heart