Today’s astronomy lesson is a tasty one. Â Fruity, to be exact. Â These Constellation Fruit Gummies give kids a chance to identify their constellations with star shaped fruit gummies, made from scratch. Â Plus, there’s a free printable… Â It makes a perfect snack for that after-schooling STEM learning session. Â This post contains affiliate links.
How to Eat & Learn
To do this activity, print out the free Constellation Fruit Gummies Printable and make the fruit gummies.
Constellation Printable
In the Constellation Fruit Gummies Printable you’ll find 8 different star patterns, chosen for their visibility in the sky and for their notoriety. Oh and for how many stars they have.  Sagittarius is a pretty cool looking constellation, but your kiddo would never eat dinner because there are so many stars in it.
- Ursa Major (The Great Bear)
- The Big Dipper
- Ursa Minor (Lesser Bear) which is home to the North Star
- Orion (The Hunter)
- Canis Major (The Great Dog)
- Taurus (The Bull)
- Gemini (The Twins)
- Scorpio (The Scorpion)
In addition to the gummy play pages, you’ll see a summary page with a drawing of the constellation to help kids envision that it’s a bear, a bull, etc.  Oh, and I highly recommend either laminating the printable or covering them with plastic wrap.  Don’t do as I did and assume that a regular print out is fine.  You’ll have black gummies.  Not yummy at all…
Now then there’s the Big Dipper. Â I learned something while compiling these printables. Â The Big Dipper isn’t technically a constellation. Â Since it’s actually a part of Ursa Major (The Great Bear), it is an asterism. Â An asterism is what astronomers call interesting star patterns that aren’t constellations. Â I decided to include it because it’s often the first (and sometimes the only) star pattern that kiddos can easily find.
Constellation Fruit Gummies Recipe
- 2 cups fruit juice (I used peach mango for a yellowish tone. Â Fruit / Veggie blends work well too.)
- 4 packets Knox Gelatin (other brands are fine, check package size if using a different brand)
- Honey to taste
- Small star cookie or fondant cutter (mine is ~2/3″) {affiliate}
- Pour 1 1/2 cups of juice into a small sauce pan. Heat over medium heat until it reaches a gentle boil.
- While juice heats, pour remaining 1/2 cup of the juice into a small bowl. Add gelatin and let bloom for five minutes.
- Add gelatin to heated juice and stir until fully dissolved.
- Take a quick taste of the juice mixture. Is it sweet enough for you? Add honey and stir until it is.
- Pour mixture into 9″ x 13″ pan. Â This is bigger than many of my gummy recipes because you want the stars to be thin. Â Thick stars means they’ll fill up before they learn many constellations…
- Chill for 1-2 hours and remove from pan by pulling out gummy in one piece by running a knife along edges. Then place on a cutting board and cut into stars using your star cutter.  The remaining non-star scraps can be cup up into pieces and eaten.
- Store in refrigerator for up to 3-4 days.
More Space Play & Learn Ideas
Looking for some more outer space play & learn activities? Â Here are some shared by the Love to Learn Linky crew of bloggers.
- Starry Night Electric Collage from Left Brain Craft Brain.
- Alien Planet Sensory Painting and Smashing ABC Moon Rocks from Stir the Wonder.
- Solar System Play Dough from a Little Pinch of Perfect.
- Moon Pie Moon Cycle Activity from JDaniel4’s Mom.
- Under the Stars Gross Motor Activity from Growing Book by Book.
- Glow in the Dark Moon Rocket from Left Brain Craft Brain
And here are this week’s posts from my Love to Learn Linky co-hosts!
20+ Humpty Dumpty Inspired Activities from One Time Through
20 Learning Activities with Q-Tips from Totschooling
15+ Fun Alphabet Learning Activities from A Little Pinch of Perfect
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Now it’s time for some more links! I hope you’ll join me and a few of my friends for a fun and educational linky party. Bloggers, share your posts every Thursday and watch as we round them up and share them all over the place. Almost anything goes, we’re just hoping your activities teach kids (or us!) something (science, art, cooking, behavior, crafting, parenting etc…). The Love to Learn Linky is hosted by:
Left Brain Craft Brain (leftbraincraftbrain.com): Anne is an ex-engineer, current stay-at-home mama writing about crafty ways to encourage creativity (and brain power!) in our kids. Each of her projects gives kids the chance to learn about a new subject and do something crafty at the same time.
Totschooling (totschooling.net): Viviana is a blogging mom to a toddler and a preschooler, sharing ideas and resources for early education. She specializes in unique, hands-on printable activities that are educational, fun and inspire creativity in young minds.
 A Little Pinch of Perfect (alittlepinchofperfect.com): Katie combines creativity, play, and learning for the perfect mishmash of fun activities that keep kiddos entertained throughout the day. She wholeheartedly believes in the power of play and feels that all activities naturally provide a fun way to learn.
One Time Through (onetimethrough.com): Sue is an Elementary School Teacher currently on leave to be at home with her preschooler son. She shares ideas for connecting and learning with kids through meaningful, play-based activities that nurture curiosity and creativity, as well as positive parenting tips.
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Such a neat idea Anne! My son has been obsessed with all things space lately – we just picked up a cardboard box from Home Depot the other day to make a “rocket ship” at home. We will have to try this for sure! Thanks for the great idea!
Awesome Sue! I need a picture of the space ship for sure :)
I love the constellation activity and printable! We haven’t talked about constellations yet, so this will be perfect. Thanks for including our play dough activity in today’s post.
Love your planet play dough! It’s been fun introducing space stuff to my daughter this month.
How fun! What a great idea, and the printable is so helpful! :)
Thanks Viviana :) Glad you like the printable :)
This is such a cool snack activity! Thanks for featuring our space themed activities!
Thanks Samantha! I love your space stuff. It was too hard to choose just one :)
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