Looking Up!
When did you last look up?
The night sky is one of the most spectacular classrooms on Earth, and it's always open and full of wonder. This teacher's guide gives you everything you need to bring astronomy to life for your students, no telescope required.
Through simple, adaptable observation activities, students become real scientists: watching, recording, and uncovering the cycles and rhythms written across the sky. Activities work across all grade levels, fit both school and home settings, and are designed to spark the kind of curiosity that doesn't stop when the bell rings.
The universe is right above us. Let's help students look up.
Getting started!
One of the best things about Looking Up! is the flexibility. There's no required order, and you don't need to do every activity. Browse through the eight activities and choose the ones that best fit your students, your curriculum, and the time of year. Some teachers may focus entirely on the Moon, while others might mix and match activities to suit cross-curricular goals.
A simple and effective approach is to print the relevant activity sheets and compile them into an observation journal for your students. From there, the rhythm is easy: remind students to look up at key moments, and then take a few minutes of class time to discuss what they saw. These short conversations can be surprisingly rich, and they reinforce the core habit this guide is all about!
Cloudy skies are part of the experience, and you should expect that some observations may take several attempts over multiple nights. It's also worth knowing that starting these activities in Fall / Winter makes evening observations much more manageable since the Moon and stars become visible well before bedtime.
GRADES AT A GLANCE
While at first glance these activities are seem most suitable for elementary students, they are also really great for secondary students! Your students might not have had the opportunity to learn about the largest visible bodies in our skies, and these activities are guaranteed to shed light on the basics of our Earth-Moon-Sun system.
NAVIGATING THIS PAGE
Below you'll find the activities broken down by topic: The Moon, The Sun, and
The Sky & Stars. Each activity is available for download, or if you'd like to have all activities, you can download the full guide here.
The Moon
The Moon is a perfect starting point for sky observation. It's bright, safe to look at, and visible from city or countryside. Best of all, it's always changing!
Over the course of a month, students can watch it grow from a thin crescent to a full moon and back again, tracking its position and shape night by night. The three Moon activities in this guide range from a quick evening check-in to a full month-long observation journal, so you can go as deep as your class allows.
Watch the video below in preparation of these lessons, and feel free to share it directly with your students if you think it would be helpful.
activities
MOON OBSERVATION JOURNAL
Grades 4+
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Activity sheets
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Individual
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At home
Students observe and sketch the Moon as often as possible over a full lunar cycle, recording its shape and position each time. A simple but powerful way to watch an entire month of phases unfold.
EVENING MOON
Grades 4+
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Activity sheets
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Individual
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At home
DAYTIME MOON
Grades 4+
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Activity sheets
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Small groups
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At school
Starting a few days after new moon, students look west after sunset and track the Moon's nightly journey from thin crescent to full moon over two weeks. Quick observations, deep impact.
Most people don't realize the Moon is often visible in daylight. In this outdoor activity, students use a small ball held up to the sky to recreate the Moon's current phase. It's an easy hands-on way to understand the relationship between the Earth, Moon, and Sun.
The Sun
The Sun is the most familiar object in the sky, but its movement is more surprising than most students expect. Because it's never safe to look at directly, these activities use shadows and sunsets to reveal what the Sun is actually doing, how it travels across the sky each day, and how its path shifts throughout the year. Simple, hands-on, and easy to do right in the schoolyard.
The video below shows a timelapse of the sunrise in Edmonton over the course of a year. It's a great way to show the shifting path of the sun on our horizon.
activities
HOW LONG IS MY SHADOW?
Grades 4+
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Activity sheets
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Small groups
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At school
Students head outside at different times of day to measure their own shadows, using the results to map the Sun's journey across the sky. A sunny day is all the equipment you need.
WHERE DOES THE SUN SET?
Grades 4+
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Activity sheets
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Individual
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At home
Over several weeks, students record exactly where the Sun meets the horizon at sunset, and discover that it's not always the same spot. Best done near the spring or fall equinox for the most dramatic results.
the Sky & Stars
Before students can explore the night sky, they need to know what's up there. This section starts with a broad, open-ended activity that invites students to simply think about what they've already seen —day and night— before moving into constellation mapping and a real citizen science project measuring light pollution. No telescope required.
When we think of astronomy, the first thing that might come to mind is the starry night sky. Unfortunately light pollution can make it a challenge to see all the wonders of the sky, but you can still see quite a lot even in big cities. Below is a video on how to use a star finder, for the last two activities in the guide.
activities
IN THE SKY, I CAN SEE...
Grades K—4
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Whole class
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In class
A quick, low-prep activity to kick off any astronomy unit. Students brainstorm everything visible in the day and night sky. They can sometimes be surprised by how long the list gets.
INTRODUCTION TO THE STAR FINDER
Grades 6+
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Activity sheets
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Individual or Small groups
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At school and at home
Students cut and assemble their own star finder, then use it to locate constellations and bright stars visible at night. A hands-on introduction to navigating the night sky.
THE GLOBE AT NIGHT
Grades 6+
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Activity sheets
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Individual
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At school and at home
Students step outside, count the stars they can see in a reference constellation, and submit their data to a worldwide light pollution map.
image gallery
Here you can download all the images from the guide to use as you wish. If you're sharing something of your own, please credit Discover the Universe and link back to this webpage.
SUPPORT
These activities hold a special place in our history, being the very first full guide we published! These activities still sit at the heart of what we do, even 15 years later. We think everyone should head outside to to look up, and we hope your students enjoy learning all about the foundations of our sky!
Should you run into any trouble, or need advice on any activity in particular, please feel free to reach out to our team and we'll get back to you with support as soon as we can!