Zodiac signs explained for kids

The short answer: tell a child that the Sun takes a long walk around the sky every year, past twelve groups of stars, and that each group has a name. The group the Sun was walking past on the day they were born is their sign. Then take them outside and show them real stars. Everything else, the animals, the elements, the “you are a Leo, so…”, can wait until the first idea has landed.

Children aged three to seven love the zodiac for the same reasons adults do. It is about them. It has animals in it. It says the sky was paying attention on the day they arrived. Your job is to give them the true shape of it in words they can hold, and to make sure they come away feeling that their sign is a good one, and so is everyone else’s.

The one idea to give first

Before any traits, a child needs the picture. Here it is in its simplest form.

The Sun walks a path. From where we stand, the Sun seems to travel slowly across the background of stars over the course of a year. It goes all the way round in twelve months and starts again.

Along that path are twelve star pictures. Long ago, people joined the stars into pictures, and twelve of those pictures sit along the Sun’s path. A ram, a bull, two twins, a crab, a lion, a maiden, a pair of scales, a scorpion, an archer, a sea goat, a water bearer and two fishes.

Your sign is where the Sun was on your birthday. That is all a Sun sign is. When you were born, the Sun was in one of the twelve parts of its path, and that part is yours for life.

The word “zodiac” itself comes from Greek and is usually explained as “circle of little animals”. That is a gift to a parent of a four year old. Most of the twelve are animals, and a child who hears “circle of little animals” will remember it after one telling.

What to say at each age

The same idea grows with the child. You do not need to say everything at once, and you should not try.

At three

Keep it to the picture and the feeling. Three year olds understand birthdays, animals and the Sun. That is enough.

• “When you were born, the Sun was standing next to the lion stars. So you are a Leo. Leo is a lion.”
• “Grandad was born when the Sun was next to the bull stars. He is a Taurus.”
• “Everybody has one. You have one, I have one, the baby has one.”

At this age, a child will mostly want to know their animal and do the noise. Let them. A roaring Leo or a pinching Cancer is learning the most important thing, which is that the sign is theirs and it is something to be pleased about.

At five

Now you can add the path and the year. Five year olds can follow a sequence, and the zodiac is a sequence.

• “The Sun goes past all twelve, one after another, every year. It starts with Aries in the spring and ends with Pisces at the end of winter.”
• “Your sign is decided by the time of year you were born. That is why your friend whose birthday is near yours might have the same sign.”
• “Each sign has its own way of being. Leo is warm and likes to shine. Virgo notices small things. Pisces feels what everyone else is feeling.”

Five is a good age to introduce one kind word for each sign (there is a table below) and to start the sign book.

At six and seven

Children of six and seven can take the next layer: the four elements, and the idea that people are made of more than one sign.

• “The twelve signs come in four families: fire, earth, air and water. Fire signs like to go. Earth signs like to hold and build. Air signs like to talk and ask. Water signs feel things deeply.”
• “Your Sun sign is the big one. But the Moon was in a sign too when you were born, and that one is about what makes you feel safe and cosy.”

You can stop there for years. A seven year old who knows their Sun sign, their element and that the Moon has a sign too knows more astrology than most grown-ups, and knows it properly. Our guide to the four elements has the fuller picture for you, and Sun, Moon and rising explains the three big parts of a chart when a child is ready for the second and third.

A short script you can borrow

This is written to be said out loud at bedtime, at a window, or on a walk home in the dark. Change the signs to your own family’s.

“Do you know that the sky has a path in it? The Sun walks along it, very slowly, all year. On the way it passes twelve pictures made of stars.

“There is a ram, and a bull, and two twins holding hands. There is a crab, and a lion, and a lady holding a sheaf of wheat. There are scales for weighing things, a scorpion, an archer with a bow, a goat with a fish’s tail, a person pouring water, and two fishes swimming.

“On the day you were born, the Sun was walking past the lion. So you are a Leo. Leos are warm. They light up a room, and they love the people who really look at them.

“On the day I was born, the Sun was walking past the scales. So I am a Libra. Libras like everyone to be friends.

“Every sign is a good one. Each one has its own special job. Tomorrow, shall we find out what everyone else in the family is?”

The last line matters. It turns the zodiac from a fact about one child into a game the whole household plays, which is where it is happiest.

The twelve signs in kid-sized words

Here are the twelve with their dates (they move by about a day from year to year), their picture, and one line a small child can understand and be proud of. Each sign has a full reading on its own page for the grown-ups.

Sign	Around	Picture	In kid words
Aries	21 March to 19 April	a ram	“You like to go first and try new things.”
Taurus	20 April to 20 May	a bull	“You love cosy, lovely things and you never give up.”
Gemini	21 May to 20 June	two twins	“You ask the best questions and love words.”
Cancer	21 June to 22 July	a crab	“You love your home and take care of people.”
Leo	23 July to 22 August	a lion	“You are warm and bright, like the Sun.”
Virgo	23 August to 22 September	a maiden with wheat	“You notice the little things everyone else misses.”
Libra	23 September to 22 October	scales	“You want everyone to be fair and friends.”
Scorpio	23 October to 21 November	a scorpion	“You feel things deeply and you are very loyal.”
Sagittarius	22 November to 21 December	an archer	“You love adventures and big questions.”
Capricorn	22 December to 19 January	a sea goat	“You work hard and you climb high.”
Aquarius	20 January to 18 February	a water bearer	“You have your own ideas and do things your way.”
Pisces	19 February to 20 March	two fishes	“You have a big imagination and a kind heart.”

Notice that every line is something a child would be happy to hear about themselves. That is deliberate, and it is the whole of the next section in miniature.

If a birthday falls right at the edge of two signs, the table cannot settle it on its own. The exact time and place of birth decide it, and our page on being born on the cusp explains why. With a small child, simply say: “We checked carefully, and you are a Cancer.” They do not need the arithmetic.

Explaining the little pictures

Children ask why the signs are those particular things. Some of the pictures need a word of explanation, because they are not obvious.

• The twins (Gemini) are two children together. A child with a sibling, or a best friend, will like this one.
• The maiden (Virgo) is usually drawn as a young woman holding wheat, because Virgo’s season is harvest time, when the grain is gathered in.
• The scales (Libra) are the old kind of scales, with two pans that balance. If you have kitchen scales with a pointer, show how two equal things make it sit still. That is Libra: things being even.
• The sea goat (Capricorn) is a goat at the front and a fish at the back. Children find this hilarious and often draw it better than adults.
• The water bearer (Aquarius) is someone pouring water out of a jar for everyone. Aquarius is an air sign, not a water sign, which is a lovely trick question for a seven year old.
• The scorpion (Scorpio) can worry a child who has heard scorpions sting. Tell them the scorpion in the stars is a guardian: it keeps its own space safe and is fiercely loyal to its friends.

None of these needs a long story. A child wants to know what the picture is and why it is a good one to have.

Go outside: the stars are real

This is the part children remember. The signs are named after real star patterns, and many of them can be seen from an ordinary garden, balcony or park on a clear night. NASA’s children’s site and the International Astronomical Union both describe these star patterns, called constellations, and you can show a child that the sky really is divided up this way.

Some honest tips before you go out:

• You will not see your child’s own stars on their birthday. Around a person’s birthday, the Sun is in that part of the sky, so those stars are up in the daytime, hidden by sunlight. They come out at night some months later. Children love this. “Your stars are with the Sun on your birthday” is a fine thing to tell them.
• Some patterns are bright and some are faint. In a town with streetlights, Cancer, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces are hard to see, because their stars are dim. Leo, Taurus, Gemini and Scorpio are much easier.
• Where you live changes what you see. Scorpio’s stars ride high in the summer sky in the southern half of the world and sit low on the horizon from Britain. In the north, winter is the time for Taurus and Gemini.

Easy ones to look for with a child:

• Leo in the spring evening sky in the northern half of the world. Part of it looks like a backwards question mark, with a bright star called Regulus at the bottom.
• Taurus on winter evenings. Look for a bright orange star called Aldebaran, the bull’s eye, and nearby a tiny misty cluster of stars called the Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters.
• Gemini on winter and early spring evenings. Two bright stars side by side, called Castor and Pollux, are the heads of the twins.
• Scorpio in the summer. A curving line of stars with a bright reddish star, Antares, at the scorpion’s heart. Astronomers write the name of the star pattern as Scorpius.
• Sagittarius on summer evenings, low in the south from northern countries. Part of it is shaped like a teapot, and children spot the teapot far faster than the archer.

You do not need a telescope. A free star map app on a phone, held up to the sky, will name the patterns for you. Dress warmly, give your eyes a few minutes to get used to the dark, and let the child be the one who finds it first.

On a cloudy week, draw the star patterns with chalk on the path, or stick glow stars on a sheet of dark card in the right shape. A child who has drawn Leo’s question mark will find it in the real sky the first time they see it.

Make a sign book together

A sign book is a small homemade book with one page for each person in the family, and it is the single best way to make the zodiac stick for a child of four to seven.

What you need: a few sheets of paper folded and stapled, or a cheap notebook. Crayons, pencils, star stickers.

What goes on each page:

1. The person’s name and birthday.
2. Their sign’s picture, drawn by the child.
3. The star pattern, copied as dots and lines.
4. One kind word about that sign (use the table above).
5. One thing the child has noticed that fits. “Mummy is a Taurus and she loves her garden.” “The baby is an Aries and he always wants to go first.”

That fifth line is where the real learning happens. The child starts to look at the people they love and notice what each one is like. That is what astrology is, at any age: paying close, loving attention to a person.

Add pages as the family grows: grandparents, cousins, the dog if the dog’s birthday is known. Older children can add the element of each person and colour the page to match: red or orange for fire, green or brown for earth, yellow or sky blue for air, blue or sea green for water. Later still, a seven year old can add a second line for the Moon sign where you know it.

Keep the book somewhere they can reach. It will be read again and again, and corrected, and added to, for years.

“Why is my sign different from yours?”

This is the question almost every child asks, usually with a hint of worry, as if being different from a parent might mean something has gone wrong. Here is a simple, true answer.

“Because we were born at different times of the year. The Sun was in a different part of its path on your birthday than on mine. Your sign belongs to your birthday, and mine belongs to mine.”

Then add the warm part, because the question underneath is usually “do we still belong together?”

“That is one of the best things about our family. You bring a way of being that I don’t have. I’m a Capricorn, so I like plans. You’re a Sagittarius, so you find the adventures. We need both.”

If a child shares a sign with someone, that is lovely too: “You and Auntie are both Pisces. You both love the sea.” Neither situation is better. A family with many signs has lots of different strengths in it. A family with a shared sign has a special link.

For the grown-ups, the full picture of what it means when a parent and child are very different signs is in when you and your child are nothing alike, and every pairing of parent and child is read in the parent pages.

Keeping it kind: no sign is better

This is the most important thing you will teach a child about the zodiac, and it needs saying more than once.

Every sign has gifts. The tradition does not rank the twelve. Aries is not better than Taurus. Fire is not better than water. Each sign does one part of life especially well, and a world with all twelve in it works.

A sign is never a reason to tease. Children pick up phrases quickly. “You’re such a Scorpio” said with a laugh at home can become an insult in the playground. Gently stop it when you hear it, and give the better version: “Scorpios are loyal. That’s why she was cross: she was looking after her friend.”

A sign is never an excuse, either. “I’m an Aries, so I have to go first” is a clever thing for a five year old to say, and worth a smile. Then: “Aries are brave and quick. A brave Aries can also wait for their turn.” The sign describes how a child feels the pull. It does not decide what they do with it.

Describe the strength, not the struggle. When you talk to the child about their own sign, lead with the gift. A Virgo child can hear “you notice the little things” long before they need to hear anything about worrying. A Leo can hear “you are warm and bright” without hearing about wanting attention. The fuller readings are for you, the adult, to understand them. The child gets the part that helps them like themselves.

Make room for the child who doesn’t feel like their sign. Some children will say “but I’m not like that.” That is a very good observation, and it has a real answer: “You have more than one sign. The Moon and the rising sign have their say too.” A child who learns early that a person is made of several parts has learned something true about astrology and about people.

Questions children ask, and simple answers

“Can I change my sign?” No. Your sign is fixed from the moment you are born, like your birthday. That is part of what makes it yours.

“Which sign is the best?” None of them. Each one is good at something different. If everyone were the same sign, the world would be very strange.

“What is the baby going to be?” If the baby is not born yet, you can work out which sign the due date falls in, but babies choose their own day. Many families enjoy waiting to find out. Our guide to the baby’s sign by birth date has the details for the grown-ups.

“Do animals have signs?” Yes, if we know their birthday. Every living thing born under the sky was born while the Sun was somewhere on its path.

“Why is my friend’s sign the same as mine?” Because your birthdays are in the same part of the year. About one person in twelve shares your sign, so in a class of thirty there will often be two or three.

“Is my sign my lucky colour?” Each element has colours that suit it, and children enjoy that. Fire is warm reds and oranges, earth is greens and browns, air is light and airy colours, water is blues and sea greens. Let them choose a favourite from their element.

“Are the stars alive?” The stars are huge, very far away suns. Our Sun is a star too, just much closer. The star pictures were made by people joining the dots, the way you join dots in a puzzle book.

Bringing it into everyday life

Once a child knows their sign, it becomes a small, happy thread through the year.

• Birthdays. “Happy birthday, little Taurus” on a card, or a cake decorated with the sign’s picture, makes the birthday feel like it belongs to the sky as well as to the family.
• The change of sign each month. Mark on a calendar when the Sun moves into the next sign. “Today the Sun has walked into Scorpio. It’s Grandma’s sign now.” Children like knowing whose season it is.
• Stories and play. Ask, “What would a Leo do in this story?” when reading together. Children get very good at it, and it teaches them to imagine how other people feel. Our guide to how each sign plays is full of ideas for the grown-ups.
• Kindness. “Your brother is a Cancer, so he really misses home when we’re away. Shall we bring his blanket?” This is the zodiac at its best for a child: a way of noticing what other people need.

A child who grows up with the zodiac this way does not learn a list of labels. They learn that the sky was there when they arrived, that they have a place in a big, old pattern, and that everyone around them has a place in it too. That is a fine thing to give someone small.

Sources and references

• NASA Space Place: What is a constellation? A children’s page on how star patterns are named and seen.
• International Astronomical Union: The constellations The official list and names of the star patterns, including Scorpius and Capricornus.