Today, the Stars had the most amazing and exciting circle time as we explored all about today’s big event — the eclipse!🌒✨

We began with a lovely discussion about when and where we might be able to see the eclipse tonight, which immediately sparked lots of curiosity and questions from the children. The Stars were particularly fascinated by the idea of an eclipse and wanted to understand exactly what happens, so we watched an educational video together to help bring the science to life.

The children learnt that a solar eclipse happens when the Moon moves between the Sun and the Earth, blocking some or all of the Sun’s light and creating a shadow on Earth. They discovered that eclipses only happen when the Sun, Moon and Earth line up in just the right way. We also learnt some fun facts, including that the Moon is constantly moving around the Earth and that eclipses don’t happen every month because the Moon’s orbit is slightly tilted. The children were amazed to learn just how perfectly everything needs to line up for an eclipse to occur!

Of course, we also had an important conversation about eclipse safety. The Stars learnt that we must never look directly at the Sun, even during an eclipse, as this can seriously damage our eyes. We discussed the importance of using proper, approved eclipse-viewing glasses if we want to safely observe the Sun, and that ordinary sunglasses are not safe enough.

Our conversation then naturally led us onto another exciting space topic, meteor showers! The children learnt that a meteor shower happens when the Earth passes through a trail of tiny pieces of dust and rock left behind by a comet or asteroid. As these tiny particles enter the Earth’s atmosphere at very high speeds, they heat up and glow, creating the beautiful streaks of light that we call meteors or “shooting stars.” The Stars were fascinated to learn that these “shooting stars” aren’t actually stars at all!

As the children were so engaged and having such a wonderful time discussing space, we came up with the idea of creating our very own live eclipse demonstration so that everyone could fully understand how an eclipse takes place. 

We painted one planet orange to represent the Sun, while another grey/white planet represented the Moon. Holly then used her face to represent the Earth! She demonstrated how the Moon moves in front of the Sun, blocking its light and causing a shadow to fall onto the Earth. This helped the children see, in a fun and hands-on way, exactly how an eclipse occurs.

We then explored the different types of solar eclipses. The children learnt that a total solar eclipse happens when the Moon completely covers the Sun from our view, while a partial solar eclipse occurs when the Moon only covers part of the Sun. We also discussed an annular eclipse, where the Moon passes in front of the Sun but appears slightly smaller, leaving a bright ring of sunlight visible around it, often called a “ring of fire”! 

Holly demonstrated these different eclipses using the Moon and a light source, showing how changing the Moon’s position and the shadow it creates can result in different parts of the world seeing different types of eclipse. The Stars were absolutely mesmerised and were so shocked to see how something happening millions of miles away could create such a fascinating effect here on Earth!

The children absolutely loved this experience and were full of excitement, questions and wonder throughout. It was wonderful to see their curiosity about the world around them turn into such a fun, meaningful and hands-on learning experience.

We’ve had such an amazing time exploring space, eclipses, meteors and shadows, and we’re all very excited to see what we might be able to spot in the sky tonight! 

What an incredible day of learning for our Stars!