Navigation Using The Stars

FOR THE KIDS/ AUGUST 22ND, 2020

Welcome back everyone! Today we are going to learn how to navigate based on the stars, which was how early settlers found their way home!

Before the compass was used and when someone didn’t have one, people would look to the stars to find their way. Learning to find directions based on the stars is a great activity to do with the kids to help them with navigation and to gain a sense of direction at night!

Lets take a step by step look at how early settlers figured out the direction while travelling:

First they found the Big Dipper, it is always visible in the starry sky in Canada.

Next they looked straight out from the two stars of the cup of the big dipper (not the handle) and there saw a very bright star!

That is the North Star, also known as Polaris. When you are facing it you are facing true north.

That North Star is the first star of the handle of the Little Dipper.

A helpful line to remember where the other directions are if you know where North is is to say Never Eat Shredded Wheat (See Image 2).

Try and make up your own fun acronym to remember the directions!

We hope you enjoy learning this, Thanks to volunteer Doris for putting together the displays in the images!

𝓗𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 & 𝓜𝓲𝓪

Diagram of the Big and Little Dipper showing how to locate the North Star

Acronym for Directions (Image 2)