Can you say anything about the North Star Polaris for a 3rd grade student?

Polaris would NOT be a nice star to visit.

Polaris is the brightest star in the constellation of the Little Dipper which is actually a pattern of stars (constellation ) by the name of the Little Bear ( Ursa Minoris). It is actually quite an impressive star because it is classified by astronomers as a supergiant star.

This means that the power it produces every second is something like 10,000 times what our own sun produces. A planet orbiting this star at the earth's distance would be receiving 10,000 times as much heating and lighting as the sun provides the earth!

Also, it is one of the closest supergiants to our sun even though it is at a distance of 780 light years. This puts it about 180 times farther from the sun than the closest star Alpha Centauri.

Polaris is also a binary star, which means that astronomers can detect a companion star to it which orbits the star every 30 years at about the same distance from Polaris that Jupiter is from the sun.