The Best of the Solar System (Grades 4-7)

A brief reading comprehension exercise, this instructional activity covers the characteristics of the outer planets. It still considers Pluto a planet and Charon its moon. It is therefore a little out of date, but this fact can be...

Everyone loves learning about the solar system. Learners choose a planet to do research on and are evaluated on a precise summary of the planet they chose. They work in small groups to do this activity and post the summary on...

Have your class explore space with this resource. Learners identify the different planets in our solar system and watch a video on the topic. They design posters about meteors, asteroids and comets. This is a motivating way for learners...

Introduce basic Earth and space science to your budding astronauts. This handout works in two ways, the first part provides information about the sun, moon, eclipses, and Earth to be read to or by the class. The second part is composed...

All of the gas giant's atmospheres consist of hydrogen and helium, the same gases that make up all stars. The third in a series of 22, the activity challenges pupils to make scale models of the interiors of planets in order to...

Explore the solar system in detail, from it's origins to its components.  Visual data gathered by actual space missions has been used to create the images and animations on each page of this stellar electronic book about the solar...

Travel through space as you learn about the galaxy, solar system, planets, and much more. An extensive resource for studying astronomy in upper-elementary and middle school classrooms.

Pair earth scientists up to use an amazing online arctic portal mapping tool and Google Earth to analyze permafrost changes. They compare changes to data on atmospheric concentrations of methane to see if there is a correlation. Then...

Do other planets experience night, day, and the seasons like humans do here on Earth? Examine planetary motion using real images of the planets through a simulation from PBS's Space lesson series. After observing the motion of each...

Students make several models of the solar system to learn the positions of the planets in the solar system as well as relative distances and sizes. Creation of these models will help them identify the planets by size, shape, color,...