From Rags to Telescopes

In honor of International Womens day we looked at a famous Astronomer who truly lived a Cinderella fairy tale. She was rescued from her prince of a brother who changed her life from rags to telescopes and gave her her fairy tale ending.

Once upon of time there was a girl called Caroline Herschel. She lived in Germany with her Mother, Father and her nine brothers and sisters. Caroline had scars on her face and was very short. Her family didn't think anyone would want to marry her so she stayed at home and worked as a house maid looking after her family and doing all the chores.

Meanwhile Caroline's brother William was living a fairy tale life. He had moved to England and had become a musician. Caroline felt like Cinderella trapped in her home, held back from all her hopes and dreams.

One day something happened to Caroline that changed her life forever. She escaped her life of misery and chores and went to live with William in England. Caroline worked hard as Williams house keeper and he learnt her how to sing. 

By night William loved to watch the stars in the sky. He wanted to learn more so he built powerful telescopes to help him to see deeper in to space. He loved it so much he  left his job as a musician and became an Astronomer. William became well known for his work and went to work for the king.

We decorated tubes to use as Telescopes

Caroline helped her brother and became his apprentice. She loved studying the sky and worked along side her brother discovering  the mysteries of the skies.

We  made our own Constellations :)  

William gave Caroline a telescope as a gift and Caroline started making discoveries of her own. She discovered eight comets, eleven nebulae, and updated a book on the position of the stars.  Caroline became the First  lady of Astronomy

Hand Print Comets :) 

Not only did she discover eight comets but she showed that even with the odds stacked against her she could get her fairy tale ending and be an inspiration to astronomers and people all over the world. 

Comet Collage :) 

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This day in history - Mount Vesuvius erupts

On the 24th August 79Ad Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompeii

pompeii is in Italy. The country shaped like a boot.

The flag is green,white, and red.

We made a volcano and made it erupt. To find out more check out my post by clicking on the image caption.

erupting paper mache volcano

I explained that Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried a whole city called Pompeii. Everyone forgot about the city and it was not discovered until nearly 2000 years later by a archaeologist.


What is a archaeologist?

An archaeologist is someone who tries to find out about the past by looking at things people left behind. They look at  skeletons and fossils and artifacts.

These are the things archaeologists found in Pompeii

Setting up a  Archaeology dig 

We made some clay (4 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, and 1½ cups of water) and made a city. My children are really young so they were basically balls with there thumbs pressed into one side to make a door but they were aware of what they were and thats all that matters. We also made some bracelets and some vases that were broke in half (so they can be pieced together at the dig). We placed them in the oven  at 180°C for 1 hour and then painted them.

I placed the houses in the bottom of the sensory table and covered them with sand. I then buried the other pieces we made along with lots of 2p and 1p coins. I kept half of the table empy so that they could move teh sand across later.

City before we buried it.

Becoming Archaeologists

A true archaeologist needs the right outfit and tools. We made some cardboard fedora hats using this fabulous tutorial by justjonty on instructables and equipped ourselves with spoons and toothbrushes.

Unfortunately I did not have time to paper mache and paint our hats but we will definitely be doing this later. These are fab to add to the fancy dress box. The children did not seem to mind they were quite happy with just the cardboard.

The dig!

We used the spoons to search the sand and used the toothbrush to rub the sand of the items before putting them into a tub. I explained that digging at a site is slow and careful work to make sure they don't miss or damage anything

I originally set up a archaeologist tent using a hula hoop, shower curtain, and ribbon. Inside was a table with boxes for them to sort out the things they find. It was too windy to use the tent so we had to make do with just the table :(

We used the pink tub for items and the black for coins. Once we got near to the bottom we started to uncover the city. We had to be really careful. We used our hands and the toothbrush to brush the sand away from the buildings.

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