STEM PB #11 - A Few Beautiful Minutes

For any of you whose curriculum includes teaching kids about the sun, moon, and/or what an eclipse is, make sure you add this gem by Kate Allen Fox and illustrated by Khoa Le to your STEM library! Really, everyone should add this beautiful picture book to their collection!
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A FEW BEAUTIFUL MINUTES Experiencing a Solar Eclipse combines sweet language and amazing illustrations to explain something that can be confusing for young children to understand—a solar eclipse.

Featured Picture Book:
A Few Beautiful Minutes (2023)
By Kate Allen Fox
Illustrated by Khoe Le

Summary (via Amazon):
A poetic and exquisitely illustrated tribute to the solar eclipse and the magic of togetherness, seen through the eyes of a child.​

What happens during a solar eclipse? The sun vanishes. Light becomes dark. Day animals sleep, and night animals wake. The moon takes over the sky. People stop what they’re doing and together, they look up. The whole world changes for a few beautiful minutes.

Celebrating a favorite wonder of the universe, A Few Beautiful Minutes encourages young readers to (safely) discover each stage of a solar eclipse, and to experience how this incredible phenomenon can connect us to one another.

Related Themes and Standards:
Science:

• Facts about an eclipse (includes a timeline of an eclipse in the back matter)
• Solar system/Sun/Moon

Language Arts:

• Similes and Metaphors
• Imagery
• Alliteration
• Personification

SEL:

• Appreciating nature and scientific phenomena
• Developing sense of community

STEM Ideas:
1. Have students build their own sun viewer using the author’s directions in the back matter.

2. Have students code a simulated eclipse using Scratch or Scratch Jr.

3. Have students recreate an eclipse as a stop-motion project.

4. Build a model of a solar eclipse using various-size styrofoam balls connected to an engineered orbit system with LEGO WeDo, Spike, or other programmable robotics kit.

5. Use green screen apps like DoInk, Flip, or Canva and have students act out what happens during an eclipse.

6. HERE is a really neat lesson on measuring solar energy during an eclipse by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory!

I'd love to hear about your favorite sun/moon/eclipse STEM activities! Feel free to share in the comments! #BetterTogether