| Category | Activities |
| Badge | Skies |
| Time to allocate (mins) | 30 |
| Outcome | To create a model of the solar system |
| Resources | Play dough in different colours Black paper or black dustbin bags if making a large model Yellow paper for making the sun Tape Sosatie sticks and toothpicks Orange (optional - to act as the sun if making small individual models). Play dough - 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 cup water and food colouring Optional: glitter, sand, pipecleaners, small rocks or beads |
| Instructions | Directions: 1. Look at a picture of the planet and look at the color, size, and texture and select what color play dough to use, as well as what other additions you may want to use (glitter, rocks, sand…) Form a ball and decorate. They should consider scale as well. 2. Make some asteroids, comets, moons and stars as well if you like. 3. Place the models on the bags/paper to lay out our solar system model. Alternatively, stick the planets into the orange using sticks/toothpicks. Things to discuss" What is a planet? A large object shaped like a ball in space that orbits a star. Some planets are solid and some are gas. Some have rings and others don’t. What planet do we live on? Earth What is the largest planet? Jupiter What is the smallest planet? Mercury (Pluto is no longer considered a planet-poor Pluto) What is a moon? A moon is an object that orbits a planet. How many moons does earth have? 1 Do other planets have more than one moon? Yes. What is an asteroid? A space rock. What is a comet? A ball of ice and snow. What is a star? A hot ball of gas, the closest one being the sun. They are not really shaped like stars.What does orbit mean? To travel around an object. |
| Printout | SolarSystemPrintablePreview.jpg |
| Printout | SolarSystemPrintablePreview__1_.jpg |