Circuits for Kids: Totally Fun Squishy Circuit Constellations

If your kids love constellations and looking at the stars, they will love making Squishy Circuits constellations. Making constellations from circuits are a fun way to to work with circuits for kids and they also help solidify the basics of astronomy as well! After making the Squishy Circuits version of the night sky, go out one night with a telescope and see if you can spot the constellations you made in real life!

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Circuits for Kids: Totally Fun Squishy Circuit Constellations

What you’ll need for Squishy Circuits constellations:

2 Squishy Circuits Kits
Insulating Dough (Modeling clay works great)
Conductive Dough (Play dough works great)
Blue paper (just for contrast)

We used two Squishy Circuits kits for this project because, try as much as we could, my kids (and I as well), could not figure out how to light up the entire constellation string with just one battery pack. My kids tried for about an hour to get one kit to light up the entire constellation, but they couldn’t figure out a good way. So, we used two kits. We decided that the lights were the brightest stars in the constellations, while the smaller stars were represented by yellow play dough.

Use black modeling clay as the lines between the constellations. Use a layer of blue modeling clay placed between two layers of blue play dough to act as the circuit system for each star light.

Connect the black wand to the short side of the light’s wire and the red wand to the long side. Take care not to touch the wires directly or you’ll give yourself a little shock and burn out the bulb.

Arrange the dough and lights into the desired constellations, then turn on the lights! If the circuits are wired properly, the lights will turn on and shine brightly just like real stars.

What Kids Learn by Making Squishy Circuits Constellations

I can’t say enough good things about Squishy Circuits. Thanks to this kid-friendly circuit kit, we’ve learned so much about circuits and the basics of electrical engineering. This constellations twist also adds another learning element because it teaches kids what constellations look like up close, which they can use to find them in the real night sky.

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