Week 3: Our Solar System
Lesson 3: Size & structure of our solar system
For this lesson you will need a set of spherical objects and teacher instructions for creating the scale model - these will be organised and ready to use on Monday 21st Oct.
Learning Intention: We are learning to understand the size and structure of our solar system.
Success Criteria: I can use concrete materials to represent the relative size of the planets, and the relative distance between them.
Learning Intention: We are learning to understand the size and structure of our solar system.
Success Criteria: I can use concrete materials to represent the relative size of the planets, and the relative distance between them.
Explicit Teaching:
The information from the above clip is summarised in this infographic:
It can be hard to visualise just how enormous the planets are, and how vastly different they are in size. Today we are going to explore these size differences.
I am going to place a variety of different sized spherical objects at the front of the classroom. Each object represents a planet in our solar system, and its relative size compared to the other planets.
Turn and talk: discuss which object you think represents each planet.
Share predictions, then discuss answers.
We will now head outside with a trundle wheel to measure the relative distance between each of the planets.
Reflection:
What did you find most surprising or interesting in today's lesson?
Let's watch this short song:
Lesson 4: The movement of the planets
Learning Intention: We are learning to understand how the planets in our solar system move.
Success Criteria: I can explain how the planets orbit the sun, and research how long it takes for each planet to complete one orbit.
For this lesson students will need this printed worksheet.
Explicit Teaching:
Let's have another look at the different sizes of the planets.
1. Click on the small spinning solar system icon, at the top of this NASA website.
2. Click on a planet’s name to view more info.
3. At the bottom left, click “compare size”. This will allow you to compare the size of your selected planet to any other planet, object in space, or the sun.
Today we are going to focus on the movement of the planets in our solar system, and particularly how long they take to orbit the sun. Let's have a look at this animation of our solar system:
Success Criteria: I can explain how the planets orbit the sun, and research how long it takes for each planet to complete one orbit.
For this lesson students will need this printed worksheet.
Explicit Teaching:
Let's have another look at the different sizes of the planets.
1. Click on the small spinning solar system icon, at the top of this NASA website.
2. Click on a planet’s name to view more info.
3. At the bottom left, click “compare size”. This will allow you to compare the size of your selected planet to any other planet, object in space, or the sun.
Today we are going to focus on the movement of the planets in our solar system, and particularly how long they take to orbit the sun. Let's have a look at this animation of our solar system:
Learning Task: Using this website (QR code is on your worksheet), research how far each planet is from the sun and the length of one year on that planet (how long it takes to complete one orbit of the sun). Find at least one unique feature for each planet! Record your information on your printed worksheet.
If you finish early, glue your sheet into your Discovery book, then either watch the clip below or read some articles from the Learn More page.
Reflection: We will go through the answers together, then I will call on some non-volunteers to share some of the unique features of the planets that you read about.