When I was a kid, I put a set of glow in the dark constellations stickers on my bedroom ceiling.  They were still up there glowing away when my parents sold the place this year. All kids love stickers, glow in the dark, and as I’ve discovered this summer, studying stars too! Our study of the stars continues this week with a fun fine motor challenge for your preschooler, making their own glow in the dark constellations!

Glow in the Dark Constellations

When you’re only 4 and your bedtime is before the stars come out, glow in the dark constellations are the next best thing. After seeing them in books about stars, including Glow in the Dark Constellations, it was only a matter of days before my girls wanted to make their own for their bedroom walls.

Making Your Own Glow in the Dark Constellation Cards

We created our constellation cards using just a few basic supplies.  You will need the DIY Constellation Projector I shared last week to make your cards.

Supplies

DIY Constellation Projector
Black poster board
Glow in the dark constellation stickers

Cost: Less than $10
Prep Time: Less than 15 minutes
Clean-Up Time: Less than 5 minutes

Cut a black poster board into 8 pieces.  If you haven’t already punched out your constellations and created your DIY Constellation Projector, it will take you about 15 minutes to do so.  Then, project your constellation onto a wall.  We set ours up on a kitchen chair to make sure it would remain fixed in one place while we made our cards.

Next, tape a black poster board piece on the wall where you are projecting your star formation.  Then, using your glow in the dark constellation stickers, affix a star to each projected point of light.

Removing and precisely placing the stars is a great fine motor skill challenge for toddlers and preschoolers.  I love those little faces of concentration!

My 4 year old patiently and precisely placed every star on the projected points of light.  My 2 year old was far more interested in just making her own night sky with the stickers.

See them glow!

After exposing our cards to light, we took them into the bathroom (the darkest room in the house during the day) to see them glow in the dark!

The girls were thrilled with the results.  Do you recognize this constellation?

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow our complete Studying the Stars series.  You will want to save these Constellations Cards to use with our next activity too – Constellation Sensory Bag. For another constellation-themed fine motor skill challenge, check out Marshmallow Constellations from Munckins and Moms!

You can find all of these on my Pinterest boards, STEM for Kids – Science and STEM for Girls.