Students have had so much fun learning about the Northern Lights, also called the Aurora Borealis.
They learned where it takes place and its relationship to the sun's activity. They also learned about the earth's magnetic field and how it is affected as the solar storm comes in contact with it. Students now know that there can also be day time and night time lights but we are only able to see the night time ones due to the brightness of the sun. In addition, we talked about the lights at the south pole (the Aurora Australis) and how it is too cold to live there so people rarely see them.
Our activities for this study were very exciting. We used light up balls in the gym. Students were given the challenge of constantly running around the floor and bouncing the balls so they never stopped glowing. This activity had children MOVING. We then relocated to the music room so our next activities could be done completely in the dark. We used light up balloons to create our own Northern Lights. We worked on tapping, throwing, catching, and dancing with the balloons. It was quite the sight. The last activity had children making shadows behind a sheet with different color lights moving in the background. We used a lot of yoga poses. It looked cool.
Watching a fabulous video of the Northern Lights.
Using the light up balloons to create our own Northern Lights.
Keeping the light up balls moving so they would constantly glow.
Imitating the shadow behind the Northern Lights.
