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Description

Think about the solar system we live in, it’s so vast that it takes years for spacecrafts to reach the furthest point. We have the sun, eight planets and one dwarf planet plus a variety of moons and distant stars that make our skies light up at night. This game will help put into perspective how big our solar system is by working as a group to map the planets on a picture of the United Kingdom.

Resources

Pens or pencils
Stickers in nine different colours, or sticky labels
Craft materials, including paper, string and chalk (optional)
Nine different-sized balls or ball-shaped items (optional)

Instructions

Everyone should split into groups of no more than four. Give each group a map of the UK and their stickers or labels.
See who can name the one star and nine (named) planets and dwarf planets in our solar system. Find out if anyone knows what order they’re in, from innermost to outermost.
The correct order is Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.

Everyone should use their blank map of the UK to demonstrate which planet goes where. Start by placing the ‘Sun’ sticker at Land’s End, the south-westernmost tip of the UK. Check that everyone’s done this.
Now, place the remaining planet stickers on the map, where they go in relation to the sun and each other. If your groups are drawing pictures of the planets on labels, give them an extra few minutes (and pens and pencils) to do this. Everyone should have ten minutes to place all their stickers.
Check that groups work together to decide where their stickers should go. Encourage everyone to think before they stick, as some planets are more distant than others.
When all of the stickers are on all of the maps, everyone should sit in a line in their groups and put their maps out in front of them. Compare the maps. See if anyone has put their stickers in different orders, or different distances apart.
Show everyone the 'Mapping out the answers' image attached, so they can see which planet and dwarf planet should go where.

Tags

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Badge Links

• Astronomer - Model