Ages 3–5 · 8 little discoveries
Piko’s Sky and Space Discoveries
Eight picture discoveries: day and night, the Sun, Earth, the Moon, rockets and stars.
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Day and night
Match a marked place facing sunlight with day and a place facing away with night.
The Sun on the left sends light to Earth. The golden dot is our place. The dot is in the light: it is daytime here!
In this picture the golden dot is on the dark side. It is night here. The Sun did not go out; it lights the other side of Earth.
Earth turns and turns. When our place turns to the light it is day; when it turns away it is night.
Find the golden dot before you choose. The Moon can be seen in the day too, so look at the dot!
Our star, the Sun
Identify the Sun as a star that produces its own light.
The Sun is a star! It is a very, very hot, glowing giant ball. It makes its own light.
The stars we see at night are suns too. They look tiny because they are very far away.
Earth and the Moon do not make their own light. Sunlight hits them and bounces back.
Never look straight at the Sun; it can hurt your eyes. We look at pictures instead.
Earth is our home
Recognize Earth as our home planet and distinguish a whole-planet model from a house.
We live on Earth. Earth is a planet. It is round like a ball, with land and oceans on it.
Our house is a tiny place on Earth. Earth is huge: it has millions of houses, mountains and forests.
Most of Earth is covered by ocean water. The rest is land: mountains, plains and forests.
The Sun is a star and the Moon is Earth’s companion. Our home is Earth!
The Moon’s shapes
Recognize full and crescent appearances as views of the same Moon reflecting sunlight.
The Moon is a huge round rock that goes around Earth. It has no light of its own; it reflects sunlight.
Sometimes the Moon looks fully round: a full moon. Sometimes it is a thin slice: a crescent. But the Moon is always round.
We only see the part of the Moon that the Sun lights up. That part changes a little every night.
Piko saw a full moon first. Days later, Piko saw a crescent. You can see the Moon in the daytime too!
A star and a planet
Distinguish named Sun/star and Earth or Mars/planet examples using their light descriptions.
The Sun is a star: it makes its own light. Earth is a planet: it goes around the Sun.
At night we see bright dots in the sky. Most are stars, some are planets. From far away they look alike!
Mars is a planet too. It is called the Red Planet because its ground is reddish.
The Sun goes in the star place, Earth in the planet place. Then we will place Mars too.
A rocket trip
Sequence preparation, launch and later space travel in a stated fictional mission.
The rocket waits on the launch pad. The team checks everything carefully.
Three, two, one... lift-off! The rocket pushes hot gas down and shoots up.
The rocket goes past the sky into space. It carries a robot satellite.
The satellite goes around Earth. It helps us watch the weather and talk on phones.
Near and far
Compare near and far positions from a fixed reference without using the drawn object’s size.
Each card has a flag on the left. One ball is near the flag, the other is far.
Both balls are the same size. Look at the gap between the flag and the ball: a short gap is near, a long gap is far.
Space is very big! The Moon is fairly close to us. The Sun is much farther, and the stars are far, far away.
Now there are rockets instead of balls. Which one is near the flag?
Sky diary
Sequence explicitly described sky observations without forecasting or inferring unseen events.
Piko looks at the evening sky and writes in a diary. First Piko saw clouds. Then the Moon, and last the stars.
A diary keeps what we saw in order. That way we remember what came first.
Put the cards in the order of Piko’s diary. If one is wrong, move it and try again.
On another evening the order can change: first the Moon, then clouds. Listen again every time!