This year 2024 is a very special year because this year has a total eclipse in it. On April 8, there will be a total eclipse. An eclipse is when the sun, moon and earth are all lined up to where the moon covers up the sun. This creates a shadow on the earth. And if you are in that shadow the moon will look like it is blocking out the sun.

The path of the moon’s shadow that makes the eclipse will be in America, but the total eclipse, also called totality where the sun is completely covered, will only be in a few states like. Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

Path of Totality

The total time of the eclipse is about 2 hours and 40 minutes, but the totality of the eclipse will last about 4 minutes. And it will start at different times depending on where you are in the United States. Earlier for Texas and later for Maine.

There will be millions of people from all over the United States and even some people form other counties as while to which the eclipse because the next total eclipse want be until the Year 2045 that’s in 21 years.

The total eclipse is going to be really cool, and you are going to want to look at it but looking at the sun can be really dangerous because it can permanently damage your eyes. You might think wearing sunglasses would work but they aren’t good enough for looking straight at the sun. So how can we look at the sun safely?

By wearing specially made eclipse glasses that will block out all the harmful UV light. 

The eclipse glasses are all you need to safely look at the eclipse but we can turn our eclipse glasses into custom eclipse masks. Here is how.

First gather all the materials you will need. Eclipse glasses, paper plate, colored paper, popsicle stick, scissors, tap, and anything you wish to decorate you mask with like crayons, markers, stickers.

Steps 1-5 Using the Scissors

1 Cut the ends of the glasses off. The part that goes over your ears.

2 Cut out a rectangle in the plate slightly smaller than the size of the front of the eclipse glasses.

3 Cut a rectangle slightly larger than the sizes of the eclipse glasses out of the colored paper.

4 Cut eye holes out of the colored rectangle.

5 Cut a slit near the bottom of the plate for the popsicle stick.