Resources

Solar System Reader

Produced by NASA, this resource contains five activities, teaching tips, fun facts and short narratives in which the sun and each planet introduce themselves. They can be used to help students improve their reading as well as learn about the solar system.

Solar System Scale Model

From NASA, this activity helps students see the relative distances from the sun of the planets in our solar system. Astronomers refer to the distance from the sun to the Earth as one 'astronomical unit' or AU. This activity demonstrates an easy way to calculate the distances of the other planets from the sun and...

Solar System Simulation Activity

This activity introduces children to simulations - modelling or acting out real-world, or maybe imaginary, situations. Linking to the teaching of space, it asks what factors need to be considered when simulating the solar system. Out of these, the children then decide what the most important things to include in...

A fun activity book for 5-8 year olds, this exciting sticker book is full of awesome images of the planets and galaxies. With over 150 reusable stickers the book is a perfect introduction to the ever popular topic of the planets and intergalactic space.

Bestselling author Marcus Chown leads us on a grand tour through the incredible diversity of planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and spacecraft that surround the Sun in our cosmic backyard. Illuminating his insightful...

Solar System: Images of Individual Planets

From NASA, these high resolution images show separately the planets of our solar system. Images in this resource include: Sun, Earth, Moon, Mars, Venus, Neptune, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and the dwarf planet Pluto.

Solar System: Relative Size of the Planets

From NASA, this image presents the approximate sizes of the planets relative to each other. Outward from the Sun, the planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. The planets are not shown at their relative distances from the Sun.

Questions posed on each spread help children learn about the solar system in a bright and modern way. Concise text combines with fantastic photography and illustrations in a book that will challenge children to...

Solar Thread

This short film from the Technology Enhancement Programme (TEP) is one of a series of clips which were produced to demonstrate the properties and use of a range of smart materials. These active threads change from one colour to another when exposed to sunlight, and then revert to their original colour when out...

Solar Tornadoes

This resource uses the context of tornadoes in the solar atmosphere to investigate circular motion and energy changes. A hole is drilled in the bottom of a washing up bowl and orange pith can be used to track the motion of the water when draining through the bottom and creating a vortex. The Key Stage Three...