This northern lights art project for kids is so fun and easy as your child learns the science behind why they are formed. Plus we’ll use art and music to explore together to create our very own Aurora Borealis.
Come join us as we have our first Science Lesson about Sweden. While we explored the globe we discovered that Sweden is located in the Arctic Circle, a great place for watching the Northern Lights.
Here’s a fun way to learn about Science using both Art and Music.
Learning about Northern Lights with Kids
Before you start take a moment to read this online book with your child: Auroras: Mysterious Lights in the Sky. Your child will gain so much background information about Northern Lights.
The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, are the fluttering and bright lights that can be observed in the sky over the northernmost parts of the world. The best viewing areas in Sweden are above the Arctic Circle between September and March. As the phenomenon is caused by energy from the sun carried towards Earth on the solar winds.
Since we can’t all see the Northern Lights every day from anywhere, I found a few videos for you to observe!
Videos of Northern Lights for Kids
Here’s a fun way to experience Northern Lights on the Earth and from Space too!
Make your Own Northern Lights!
This project is so much fun to explore with kids and it just takes a few materials to set up. See how your child can recreate the Northern lights that they saw in the video.
Materials:
- Paint
- Paper
- Toothbrush
- Pencil
- Music
Directions for Painting Northern Lights
After watching the videos have your child paint their very own Northern lights. There is no right or wrong it’s just the experience of what your eyes observed as the lights move and dance across the skyline.
We listened to music while we were painting which made it so much for fun and also helps with expressive painting.
The song “Above the Northern Lights” by Mannheim Steamroller was really fun to paint with and also created more imagination with my daughter.
Add a Silhouette
When you are done painting you can add silhouette of animals located in the Artic Circle made from black paper or a tree or house to create the illusion of a horizon.
Here’s where my inspiration came from Northern Light Painting from Kids Artists.
How Northern Lights are Made
Northern Light Resources and Crafts
Auroros from Exploratorium.edu
Northern Lights Craft from About.com Family Crafts
What are Northern Lights
Disclosure: this post contains Amazon Affiliate links
Books about the Northern Lights for Kids
The Lights That Dance in the Night by Yuval Zommer
SkySisters by Jan Bourdeau Waboose
Northern Lights by Martha E. H. Rustad
Aurora: A Tale of the Northern Lights by Mindy Dwyer
Glow in the Dark: Nature’s Light Spectacular by Katy Flint
Rory: An Orca’s Quest For The Northern Lights by Sarah Cullen and Carmen Ellis
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
If you liked this activity you may also enjoy these STEM Activities for Kids…
If you do this, we’d LOVE to see a photo of it. Email it to us or post it on our Facebook page
What a fun way to learn about Northern Lights! I especially love the painting to music activity. Thank you so much for sharing in the Discover & Explore linky. I'm featuring this post today.
Thanks Rebekah! My daughter had so much fun with the project and truthfully we mad quite a few Northern Lights pieces of artwork. She knows most certainly knows where the Artic Circle is now on the globe too.
I hope you'll join us, we have some really fun things planned for Russia!
What a great way to tie science, geography, and art together! Love the idea of using toothbrushes for painting.
Very cute craft. I might join you on Russian leg of your journey 🙂
Stopping over from UBP…and I love your blog! I am an educator turned stay at home mommy, and you have some great ideas for bringing the two together 🙂
Thanks Amanda! Glitter would be a fun addition and glow in the dark glitter would be even more fun! Hope you guys have fun with this one too.
Thanks Jessica! I know what you mean my litte one just turned one and we do have to keep a close eye on her. You might enjoy this little project we did with edible finger paint just in case https://theeducatorsspinonit.com/2012/01/baby-time-edible-finger-paint.html It's fun to start art when they are young!
Thanks Susie for pinning and sharing, I really had fun with my daughter teaching her this lesson and she couldn't wait for Daddy to come home and share it with him as well.
Very neat! I think I may have some glow in the dark glitter that could be sprinkled over the wet paint. Never actually used it, but may be a fun addition =)
I really love this activity! I wish my girls were little because I would do it with them today! I'm giving it a pin on Pinterest! xoxo susie
I really enjoyed this post. I can't wait until my sweet baby is big enough for art projects this involved. We are working on not eating crayons right now (pretty successfully so far!)