Science at Storytime: A Preschool Planetarium

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On Saturday, we had our library preschool storytime. I've been wanting to get out there and see the planets lined up in the pre-dawn sky, but I haven't been able to get myself up early enough. So I found another way to enjoy this phenomenon, and shared it with the preschoolers and their families at storytime.

Using one of the library's iPads, we turned the storyroom into a preschool planetarium! We have an app called SkyView which allows you to see the locations and images of stars, planets, galaxies, satellites and other celestial objects surrounding the Earth by simply pointing the iPad in any direction.

Why I decided to do this was so that the kids could see something that's probably very hard for them to see, and something they won't get another chance to witness for at least ten years! Currently, and for only a very limited time, all five visible planets are in the same part of our sky, and can be seen with the naked eye just before dawn. But since very few of us are actually up that early, especially preschoolers who need their sleep, I found another way to show them just how close the planets are to each other right now.

The kids each got to take the iPad, one by one, as I guided them from Jupiter to Mars to Saturn to Venus and Mercury. They saw how the planets all line up in the southeast part of the sky. They had a lot of fun with this! I love how iPads can give you an interesting hands-on way to learn about the universe.

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