Modelling the Solar System

This term, the Owls are studying Earth and Space in Science. In one memorable lesson, we took our learning outside to try to make a scale model of the solar system. We used a football to represent the Sun and selected other spherical objects, ranging from a sprinkle to a small ball to represent the relative sizes of the planets compared to the Sun. To capture how far away from the Sun the different planets were, we used toilet roll to measure! Each sheet represented 50 million kilometres. The children worked together really well to work out what to use to represent each planet and how many sheets of toilet paper to use for each. It was a really effective way of helping the children to understand the relative sizes and distances of the planets in the solar system.

Share This