Solar System

NSTA Standards

The solar system has a sun, moons and eight planets. Earth is the third planet from the sun. Our earth has one moon; other planets have none or more than one. Planets are in constant motion of rotation on an axis and revolution around the Sun. Gravity and energy affect our solar system. Smaller objects such as asteroids and comets are in our solar system.

Key Concepts

A “year” is one revolution of a planet around the sun. A “day” is one rotation of a planet on its axis. The length of “years” and “days” can vary greatly from planet to planet.

Teaching Ideas and Tip #1

Children often have difficulty understanding the movements of objects in the solar system. Try this quick and easy activity to clarify the movement of the earth:

Have every child pull his or her chair away from the desks. Tell them that their bodies are the planet earth and their chairs are the sun.  Have children twirl slowly (rotate) so that they alternately face the chair and have their backs to the chairs. This simulates the rotation of the sun. Students will soon realize that when their back is to the sun, their faces would be in darkness. It may help to have them say the words “day” and “night” when they are facing toward and away from their pretend suns. Be sure to use the word “rotate” to describe the action and “rotation” to describe one complete turn.

Now have children walk around the chair to demonstrate that the earth revolves around the sun. Have students pause as you say, “summer, fall, winter, spring” as they move around the chair. (You can get to the tilt on the axis later!) Be sure to use the word “revolve” to describe the action around the sun and “revolution” to describe one complete trip around the sun (orbit).

Next have them twirl (rotate) WHILE they are walking around the sun. This will make them dizzy, and may cause some disruption of the class, so make sure you have a “stop signal” such as a whistle or chime to tell them to listen for the next directions.      

Teaching Ideas and Tip #2

NOTE: Before you teach this lesson, make sure you have completed Tip #1, which explains what a “day” and a “year” are in solar system terms.

Make sheets of paper that say the word “sun,” “asteroid belt” and the names of all eight planets. Take the class outside to a large area on the playground. If you have a baseball field, it is ideal to use for this activity. Have the whole class stand at the pitcher’s mound, or a specific spot that has a wide expanse of land in front of it. Tell the children that this is the sun. Have one child hold the paper that says “sun.” Then move out to home plate. Give one child the paper that says “earth.” Have the “earth” child walk in a big circle around the “sun.” One complete revolution is a “year.”

Now place a child with “Mercury” pretty close to the sun. Now have both “Earth” and “Mercury” walk around the sun. The class should be able to see that a “year” on Mercury is shorter than a “year” on Earth. Now add Venus between Mercury and Earth. Again have the students walk around the sun and compare the length of their “years.”

Finally, add Mars, beyond Earth at about first, second and third base, then Jupiter out in the outfield, with Saturn almost to the fence. (Choose a VERY responsible child for this job!) Explain that Uranus and Neptune would be in the neighboring yards. Have all the rest of the class become the asteroid belt. These children should be relatively close together between Mars and Jupiter. When you give a signal, have all of the children begin revolving around the sun. Students will get a clearer understanding of a “year” and why a “year” is different amounts of time on different planets.

Classroom Management

We suggested you have students twirl and walk around the desks to demonstrate the rotation and revolution of the planets. If your students are immature or you fear that this activity will get out of hand, simply have one or two students demonstrate the concept.

If you are concerned about the noise level in your classroom, take this project outside.

Ask students if they can guess how fast they are rotating right this very second! If there are 24 hours in a day and the earth is 24,000 miles around (It is not – it is more than that!) then how fast are they traveling? (One thousand miles an hour – plus the speed around the sun!)

If you have students write their own parent letter, try to make sure that the introduction and conclusion are separate from the items that the students actually learned about. Each paragraph should be at least three sentences long. Be sure to use this activity as a writing lesson and as writing and/or conventions of print grades!

Vocabulary

Orbit – An orbit is the path a planet or moon follows around a larger celestial body.
Revolve - When a planet orbits the sun one time, we say it will “revolve” around the sun.
Revolution – A planet will move around the sun in one year. That is one revolution.
Rotate - To move on a central axis (like twirling a basketball on the end of a finger).
Rotation - A rotation is one spin around on an axis.

Use this Solar System Vocabulary list as a start—add more of your own—and use Make Your Own tools to create your own flash cards!

Solar System: Lesson 1 Flash Cards

Printables Resources

Bulletin Boards
Our Solar System chart

Developing Science and Reading Skills
Cursive Writing Practice
Write the Names of the Planets
Solar System Bingo
Stars and Planets Bingo
Planet particulars
Stars and Planets Word Search

Developing Math Skills
Plotting Coordinates - Solar System

Lesson Plans and Smart Board Activities
Note: to use a resource with your interactive whiteboard, click on the "VIEW FULL SCREEN for use with interactive white boards" button below the preview window.
Grammar Tales: The planet without pronouns

Stationery for Send Home Letters or Student Illustrations
Outer Space Stationery

Clip Art
Outer Space

Art or Homework Project
The Rocky Planets
My Planet Report

Flash Cards and Learning Games
Crossword Puzzle
Bingo
Flash Cards
Word Search

Assessment

KidsAstronomy.com – Solar System
Solar System: Information Page

On your classroom computer, go to one of the sites listed above or have students the check their classroom science textbooks for information about the length of days and years on every planet.

Challenge students to list the planets in two columns:

1. The shortest to longest DAY
2. The shortest to longest YEAR

Optional: Solar System: Lesson 1 Crossword Puzzle

Send Home Letter

Here are two versions of a parent letter that could be sent home. By the fourth or fifth grade students should be able to create a five-paragraph essay about their solar system studies. We have provided topic sentences for each paragraph. Assess the ability of your students and decide if you should write the letter for them, if you can write it as a whole group activity and make copies to go home, or if you want students to each write his or her own letter.

Try printing this send home letter on Space Stationary. Or you can also print this letter on your own - copy/paste the letter below into a Microsoft Word document. You can add or remove text and customize the letter to your liking.

Dear Family,

Today’s letter will be about our science class.  We have been learning about ________.

The most exciting part was _________.

Please help me remember ___________.

We also learned __________.

We enjoyed learning about __________.       

_________

(child’s name)

Try printing this send home letter on Space Stationary. Or you can also print this letter on your own - copy/paste the letter below into a Microsoft Word document. You can add or remove text and customize the letter to your liking.

Dear Family,

Today’s letter will be about our science class. We have been learning about the solar system. We learned about revolution and rotation and the real meaning of the word “year.”

Please help me remember the difference between rotation and revolution.  The earth rotates on its axis every day. One rotation takes 24 hours and we call that a day. The earth revolves around the Sun. It takes 365 earth days for it to go all the way around. We call that one earth year.

We also learned that not all “years” are the same! We did an activity outside to show that it takes much longer for the outer planets to orbit the sun one time. A year on Mercury is only _______ earth days. A year on Neptune is _____ of our earth years!!

We enjoyed learning about the solar system. I hope you enjoyed reading my letter to you today.

_______

(child’s name)

Homework

Send this homework letter home with students and have them use the provided chart to answer the questions.

Try printing this homework letter on Space Stationary. Or you can also print this letter on your own - copy/paste the letter below into a Microsoft Word document. You can add or remove text and customize the letter to your liking.

Dear Family,

Our class has been studying the solar system. We learned about the length of time it takes for the inner and outer planets to complete one revolution of the sun. Each revolution is called a year. Use the attached chart to answer these questions.

Which planet had the shortest year? _____

Which planet had the longest year? ______

Which planet has a year closest in time to a year on planet Earth? _______

This chart includes information about the length of a “day” on different planets. Please remind your child that a “day” is the time it takes for the planet to rotate one time on its axis. Now use the attached chart to help your child complete the following questions.

Which planet has the longest “day?” _____

Which planet has the shortest “day?” ______

Which planet has a “day” that is closest to a “day” on earth? ________

Which two planets have a “day” that is almost the same length?________ (Not planet earth)

BONUS: The Egyptians built the pyramids about 4,000 years ago. That is about ONE YEAR on which planet? _________

This paper is due back at school on _____.

The following information was found on Aerospaceguide.net

Try printing this chart on Space Stationary. Or you can also print this chart on your own - copy/paste the chart below into a Microsoft Word document. You can add or remove text and customize the chart to your liking.

Planet	Length of Day	Length of Year
Mercury	58 earth days	88 earth days
Venus	243 days	225 earth days
Earth	24 hours	365 earth days
Mars	24 hours	687 earth days
Jupiter	9 hours, 55 minutes	4332 earth days
Saturn	10 hours, 13 minutes	10, 759 earth days
Uranus	17 hours	30, 684 earth days
Neptune	16 hours	60, 190 earth days

Optional: Solar System: Lesson 1 Crossword Puzzle

More to Explore

Instant Internet Activities

Solar System Kids Videos
Videos of students that have made models of the solar system.
Astronomy Quiz
Quick astronomy quiz - fun for students in grades 3/4/5.
Astronomy Jokes
Silly astronomy jokes for students.
Wacky ad-Libs
Like “Wacky Mad-Libs” for students in grades 3/4/5.

Follow-Up Activities:

Got some parents that are eager to provide their children with extended activities to go with the solar system? Provide them with this list! Of course some of these suggestions, such as actually visiting a NASA center may be impossible, but most of these ideas can easily be completed by visiting a library or by searching the internet.

Try printing this list on Space Stationary! Or you can also print this list on your own - copy/paste the list below into a Microsoft Word document. You can add or remove text and customize the list to your liking.

• Visit a science center planetarium to view the deep space exhibit.
• Visit the space center to see the launch pads – even attend space camp – ride the simulated space shuttle launch.
• Build a model of the shuttle.
• Learn about the suits the astronauts are wearing while they repair the telescope.
• Find out about future planed space missions – to the moon, to Mars. What are the problems with space travel?
• Go on line to read about the discoveries of the Hubble telescope over the last 19 years.
• Read about the history of the telescope.
• Learn the parts of a telescope and how Hubble is different from a telescope.
• Read about deep space and view the galaxies that Hubble has discovered
• Find out – Who was Hubble???
• Create art projects that show the most beautiful galaxies
• Have a Perseid meteor shower sleepover! Make it an “out of this world” party and stay up late enough to see the meteors. Have glow in the dark decorations and a craft activity.