Introduce the "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" nursery rhyme to the children with a finger-play activity that helps children stay engaged while singing the rhyme. For the first two lines, have children open and close their hands at shoulder level, like twinkling stars. At the line "Up above the world so high," have the kids slowly raise their twinkling star hands until they are stretched above their heads. For "Like a diamond in the sky," have children put their thumbs and pointer fingers of each hand against each other to make a diamond shape above their heads. Return to the twinkling stars at shoulder height for the last two lines.
Have children make sparkly stars as a take-home craft. Young children should start with a star cutout, color it with crayons and glue glitter to it to make it a twinkling star. Older children can learn how to cut out a star shape by cutting a pentagon and then cutting a triangle into each edge to make a star. You can also teach them how to draw a star with five straight lines, cut it out and decorate the back. Older children might want to glue sequins on their stars in a specific pattern to make it twinkle.
One line in the rhyme says, "How I wonder what you are." One set of activities focuses on real stars in the solar system. Even children as young as preschool-age can hold an amazing number of facts in their heads and can easily learn to identify the names of a few types of stars. Tell children about the life cycle of a star and how it expands from a smaller star to a red giant or red supergiant, depending on its initial mass. Then it explodes into a nebula or supernova and condenses into a black dwarf, neutron star or black hole. For an activity, help kids paint foam balls to look like stars in the different stages.
Make stars on the ceiling with an opaque paper or plastic cup and a flashlight that fits under it. Have kids poke small and large holes in the bottom of the cup and set the cup upside-down over a flashlight that is turned on. Turn off the room lights to see an array of bright stars on the ceiling. Another activity for parents to do at home is to help children identify constellations in the sky. This is best done during the winter when it gets dark well before children go to bed.