How to teach the solar system

Grade 1 to Grade 5

The solar system is the Sun and everything that orbits it: eight planets, their moons, and smaller bodies like asteroids and comets. Start young students with what they can see (the Sun, the Moon, stars) and build up to the order of the planets and why they stay in orbit.

How to teach it

1. Begin with the familiar: the Sun gives light and heat, the Moon orbits Earth, and the tiny lights at night are distant stars.
2. Teach the eight planets in order from the Sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune), a mnemonic like 'My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming' helps.
3. Sort the planets into the four small rocky planets (closest) and the four giant gas and ice planets (farthest).
4. Explain that gravity is the pull that keeps each planet moving along its orbit around the Sun.
5. Correct the common myths: Pluto is now a dwarf planet, and Venus (not Mercury) is the hottest because of its thick atmosphere.

Common mistakes

• Thinking Mercury is the hottest planet, Venus is, because of its heat-trapping atmosphere.
• Still counting Pluto as the ninth planet (it is a dwarf planet).
• Mixing up a star (like the Sun) with a planet (which does not make its own light).
• Getting the planet order wrong, especially swapping the outer gas giants.