Roll and Read (Yellow) 1 2 3 4 5 Have you ever wanted to poke your finger through the stars in the night sky? If so, you are like the ancient astronomers. They lived thousands of years ago. At different times of the year you can see different constellations in the sky. That’s because constellations only suggest things. A ran is a male sheep. Rams have horns. Horns are like antlers. Why do these names come from the Latin language? Because people who spoke Latin discovered and named many constellations. You have already read about the names of constellations. A myth is an old story that has been told orally for generations. Other stories tell about amazing events involving gods and heroes. Greek and Roman parents would point out constellations such as Hercules to their children. The Greek and Romans spent many nights looking overhead at the night sky. To people who lived in Africa, the cluster of stars call Pleiades was very important. When the Bantu people saw Pleiades in the sky, it was time for them to begin plowing and planting crops. You’ve now learned plenty about the constellations. Think about what you’ve learned the next time you look at the night sky. The narrator explains that when people die they travel through the sky. Then they have to pass the Dog Stars. Once a year just before sunrise, Sirius can be see in Egypt. The Greeks and Romans had many great astronomers. These bright stars were important to ancient peoples. The astronomers placed the stars into separate constellations. The first star charts had forty-eight constellations. Ancient astronomers imagined that there were lines between some stars. The word astronomy comes from Greek words meaning “star” and “law”. If you roll a 6, choose 1 block to read.
Roll and Read (Green) 1 2 3 4 5 The Snohomish people still live in what is now Washington State. They have lived there for a long time. They were known for hunting elk. The elk gave them meat for food. They made clothing from elk skin. They made tools, weapons, and art from elk antlers. As he went he made the land. He gave people different languages. The Creator stopped when he reached the land of the Snohomish. The people got together. They agreed to push up the sky. But none of them spoke the same language! “We can use a word as a signal to start pushing,” said another leader. The decided on the word ya-hoh. It would mean “lift together!” While everyone else was pushing, three hunters were chasing four elk. Just when the pushing started, the four elk reached a place where the sky touched the earth. The elk raced into the sky. The hunters followed! When people work together they can do great things. That is the lesson of the Snohomish story. The elk and the hunters wanted to return from the sky. It was too late! They became trapped in the sky! After a while they turned into seven stars. The leaders explained the plan. People made poles out of tall trees. When the signal was given, they would push and poke the sky up with their poles. There were too many languages! No one could understand anyone. These people were unhappy. They were unhappy for other things. People bumped their heads on the stars. The sky was not easy to get around either. It also honors the elk that they hunted. It explains what the Snohomish saw overhead in the night sky. Elk even became part of a constellation. This tale tells how that happened. The elk were very important to the Snohomish. If you roll a 6, choose 1 block to read.
Roll and Read (Blue) 1 2 3 4 5 Suppose you are being driven to a soccer match, but your dad doesn’t know his way. Up in space a satellite transmits a signal. The satellite locks onto the car’s position and sends back directions. A galaxy may include hundreds of billions of stars. Galaxies contain gas and dust, and are held together by gravity. The two stars in the bowl are called the Pointers because they point to the North Star. The famous star is the North Star. The famous set of stars is the Big Dipper. Of all the early explorers, Christopher Columbus is probably the most famous. He is known both for the places he sailed to and he different groups of people he met on his travels. With dead reckoning, a captain would start sailing from a known point and measure out each day’s course and distance. Each day’s ending position would be the starting place for the next day’s measurement. Navigators used a magnetic compass to measure the course. The North Star is sometimes covered by clouds. And the horizon can be hard to locate at night because of darkness. Some people believed that two children were playing with his lenses and put two of them together. One night in 1610 Galileo noticed four objects near Jupiter that no one had seen before. What Galileo had discovered was Jupiter’s moons. Those “stars” were later identified as Saturn’s rings. That interest led him to design a reflective telescope that used reflecting mirrors instead of lenses. In Newton’s design a curved mirror was angled to reflect light through a side eyepiece. These telescopes were refractive. Their front lens bent, or refracted, light. Astronomers are scientists who study the universe. Constellations are groups of stars that make up shapes in the sky. In Columbus’s time the quadrant was the most important tool in celestial navigation. Your latitude is your distance either north or south of the equator. Columbus also used celestial navigation techniques. If you roll a 6, choose 1 block to read.