Solar Eclipse Activities for Kids

If you’re reading this when I wrote this, the United States is gearing up for a solar eclipse, but even if you’re reading it later, these solar eclipse activities are a lot of fun to add to space unit or to celebrate some future eclipse elsewhere in the world.

For the 2024 eclipse, you can learn about where and when the eclipse will happen from NASA’s website.

There are actually two different kinds of solar eclipses, partial and full, but they both happen because the moon blocks the sun form view (either partially or completely). If you happen to be where the eclipse is in totality, it will get completely dark. Otherwise, the moon will block most of the sun and make really cool crescent-shaped shadows.

It’s worth noting that either way you don’t want to look directly at the sun during an eclipse because it can permanently damage your vision. (These are the glasses I bought; where I live will be 98.5 percent totality so we’re still going to enjoy it. Check the list at NASA for approved suppliers.)

No matter where you are its super fun to talk about and learn about eclipses. That Bald Chick has a good set of printables that talk about what an eclipse is and includes matching, journaling and a word search activity.

Kindergarten Smorgasbord has a free emergent reader printable book on Teachers Pay Teachers, and for older kids you can download diagrams explaining how an eclipse works and discussion questions (these are from SURFF DOGGY on TpT).

Simple Living Creative Learning has a great printable pack for if you are somewhere you can observe the eclipse, total or not. It includes a diagram to label, fill in the blank fact sheets, a word search and a page for kids to write about their experience with the eclipse.

If you will be where the eclipse is happening, you might also want to make a pinhole viewer, which you can do with instructions from Little Cooks Reading Books.

Learning Resources has a printable page you can color and cut out to illustrate what happens during an eclipse, as well as a word search and maze.

Make a glow-in-the-dark eclipse T-shirt with these instructions from Homeschool Superfreak. And make some super simple eclipse cookies with this recipe from The Newlywed Chefs.

Explore the Eclipse with the National Parks Service

Build a Solar System Model with Quilling

Make a Simple Solar System Bracelet

I did a post earlier this year with activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet, but a lot or learning letters and recognizing them just has to do with seeing them and working with them a lot.

That means coloring, tracing, identifying things that start with different letters and more.

One way to reinforce the letters is through little activity books like these cute printable alphabet books from Life Over Cs.

These are available for free when you subscribe to her newsletter, and I’d say that’s well worth it if you have a little one (or a group of little ones!) working on the alphabet and letter recognition.

Each mini book includes a collection of things that start with that letter to color, color and read with words that start with the letter, tracing the letter, finding the letter in a grid and other coloring pages with objects that start with that letter.

These little books are super useful reinforcing the different letters and giving kids different activities related to the letters.

If you do a letter of the day or letter of the week you can use a new book for each one, and then keep the copies in your reading center or in a basket where kids can look at them again.

And of course you can add in all the other letter activities you like, go on a scavenger hunt for items that start with that letter, read alphabet books, practice writing letters in rice or with pompoms or playdough or whatever sensory activities you like.

You can grab the free printables when you enter you email address at Life Over Cs, and check out her other great alphabet resources and activities while you are over there.

Do you have favorite activities for teaching letters to kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Life Over Cs]

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