Solar System Model -Walking Amongst the Planets!

Super Hero, Roberto and I reproduced the solar system model to scale by taking an interplanetary hike at our own back yard on a rather chilly January morning. If you’re looking for an easy, enjoyable, let’s-get-outside solar system activity to do with children with restless little feet, this is it! Super Hero had a ball, pun intended, with the counting of steps –and even hoping– and placing the planets in their positions. Although our back yard is quite spacious, it wasn’t long enough to include Pluto. I guess a park with the length of at least a football field would do. This was such a simple activity, and yet it allowed us to really appreciate the distances among planets within our solar system. We could see how “close together” the rocky planets, and asteroid belt, are; and how far apart the gas giants are from one another.

Many thanks to HomeschoolScience.com for the idea. Fun “hike”, highly recommended! 😉