A Tour of the Planets Objectives: The students will be introduced to the planets in our solar system. The students will learn that there are nine planets in our solar system. The students will learn the order of the nine planets from the sun. The student will use the Internet to find information about the nine planets.

 

Materials: Big Book: A Tour of the Planets or similar book  about the planets Large planet cut-outs Construction paper strips divided into nine sections Computer with Internet access and desktop publishing Activities: Show the cover of A Tour of the Planets to the students and ask: What are planets? Where can we find them? Discuss the fact that planets are out in space and that we can see some of them through a telescope from where we live. Tell the students that we will be taking an imaginary trip through our solar system. Ask: Why our trip needs to be imaginary? and discuss. Have students pretend to put on space suits and climb aboard our imaginary space shuttle. Have students count down to take off. Read A Tour of the Planets to students. Have students name the planets they visited on their trip. Ask: Where did we start our trip? Discuss the planet we live on. Use large planet cut-outs to place in order. Have students visit Virtual Solar System  and Discovery.com  (click on Galaxy Tour, then Milky Way) to view pictures of the nine planets and get some information about each and answer some questions.  Examples: Which are the four planets closest to the sun? (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) Which are the four gas planets? (Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune) What is the galaxy we call home? (The Milky Way) Extension Activity: Space Shape Book Have students use above information and information collected from other lessons to create a Space Shape book Using the draw/paint application, have students draw the shape of a rocket, moon or planet or other space object. Have students print out multiple copies for pages of book. *If students are too young, the teacher can create a template and print out multiple copies for pages of book or there are Primary Grades Outline Books with outlines of many objects Type information and add clip art and graphics Edit Proof read Print pages Laminate Use hole puncher and yarn to connect pages Evaluation: The students will verbally name all nine planet in our solar system. The students will draw a picture of each of the nine planets in order, according to pictures seen on the Internet, and name each on a large strip of construction paper. Homework: Go outside at night to observe the planets and stars; draw a picture of what you see.  Then visit Astronomy for Kids and click on Sky Maps. The site will tell you about each planet for a specific date in the current month. Scroll down to phases of the moon for the current month. What phase is the moon in this evening?