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While planning different activities for a public event like 100HA, we should take the children into consideration as well. They can learn many facts while visiting events with their parents. BUT, the types of activities and the language used for children are totally different, and should be specifically planned for them. I've always been impressed with all the facts that children learn and remember through an activity which captures their attention. 100 Hours of Astronomy Junior is a collaboration between the 100HA and Universe Awareness (UNAWE) teams to bring astronomy excitement and knowledge to young children as well as adults during the 100HA event. On their website, you can find many different planned programs for children all over the world, and you can also register your own event there.
Children usually don't like to listen to a speaker or watch an activity. Instead, they prefer to do a game-like activity themselves which leads them to discover some interesting facts about that activity. Below, I review a few simple ideas which can be used for childrens' activities during 100HA: Puzzles: It is very easy to make an interesting puzzle and encourage the kids to do it. To make a simple puzzle, a beautiful and meaningful astronomical picture can be printed out and cut into several pieces and glued to paper cubes.
Craft Art: Children love to make toys and crafts. Preparing some craft kits with different kinds of astronomical objects is fascinating for children. A Galileo telescope kit is, for instance, a good idea for 100HA events. Using two simple and suitable lenses, i.e. a convex lens and a smaller concave lens, together with two flat cards which can be rolled to make the tubes, a simple functioning telescope can be built in a similar way as Galileo did 400 years ago. In addition, making very small planets and painting them makes children so happy :)
Painting: Preparing some sheets with some models or ideas for drawing, or even printing out color sheets of cartoons with astronomical shapes, e.g. planets of different sizes, makes children go wild!
To find some useful materials from online resources, you can check out the following links:
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