Need some helpful images for your astronomy unit? Check out a slide show that hosts several pictures of planets with their names. 

How did the earth become the mass that it is now? Your young scientists explore this question through the concept of density. Their inquiries consider the impact of gravity on the formation of planets. The culminating activity of the...

Studying what you can't see can be challenging. Discover how scientists use indirect measurements to prove the existence of planets and estimate their sizes. The introduction explains the symbiotic movement of planets and stars during an...

Young astronomers travel through the solar system in the pages of this printable book. With clear pictures and simple sentence structure, this is a perfect resource for exploring the planets in the early elementary grade levels.

In this everyday editing worksheet, students correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about the planet Pluto. The errors range from punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and grammar.

Get to know our little part of the vast universe. Learners read about the common and not-so-common facts about each of the planets in the solar system. The interactive lesson includes a large amount of information as well as a quiz to...

Add a visual aid to your solar system lessons. Enthusiastic astronomers create a model depicting the nine planets and their distance from the sun. 

Not everything revolves around the sun! Believe it or not, there are planets, called exoplanets, that orbit stars other than our sun. Learners use an interactive online resource to research several of these planets. They learn about the...

Kepler decided to think outside the box and discovered that planets orbit in elliptical patterns. An engaging activity demonstrates the elliptical orbit pattern in relationship to the area of a planet to explain Kepler's Second Law....

Planetary atmospheres vary greatly from planet to planet. Explore these variations by experiencing the motion of the atmospheric molecules through an engaging simulation. Pupils discover that temperature and mass contribute to...

Why does it take Pluto 90,000 days to orbit the sun, but it only takes Mercury 88 days? An interactive lesson helps pupils find a connection between the speed of orbit and distance a planet is from the sun. The simulation allows for...

Young scholars calculate the escape velocity of planets in our solar system and use that knowledge to calculate the escape velocity for NGC 2300 group. They then suggest reasons for the escape velocity to be higher than possible given...

Earth is sick and needs our help! Read the children's book Planet Earth Gets Well to explain the various problems facing the planet, discussing what young conservationists can do to heal the planet along the way. A great Earth...

Common sense says that the farther a planet is from the sun, the longer the orbit. Kepler turned common sense into his third law by quantifying this relationship. Classes explore Kepler's Third Law through an interactive tutorial. They...

Create your own solar system using a simulation. Young scientists explore the components of a stable solar system through trial and error. Using the simulation, they place planets and watch as they orbit safely or cause fatal collisions.

If you feel like you're standing still, you're wrong! The Earth is constantly rotating and orbiting under our feet. Demonstrate the Earth's movement within the solar system with a collaborative activity. With a candle or lamp in the...

What would a baseball game look like on the moon? Probably a lot of home runs! A creative activity explores the motion of a projectile on the surface of different bodies in the solar system. Participants adjust the angle and...

You may not be able to take a field trip to the moon, but that doesn't mean your class can't study moon rocks. Using graham crackers as the moon's bedrock and powdered donuts as micrometeorites, young scientists simulate...

Model how the sun's energy strikes the planet and help your class relate it to a climate map. Assign small groups an individual climate zone to discuss. They reflect on and research how humans survive in the assigned climate and write a...

How many of your students know that even today new species are being found all over the globe? Introduce them to the amazing diversity our planet houses with a creative activity about animal variation and classification. They'll use a...

Teach young environmentalists to protect their planet's resources with a set of interactive experiments. Kindergartners and other youngsters learn about watersheds and the water cycle, while older elementary learners focus on fertilizer...

Sometimes explaining an argument can lead to confusion and miscommunication. Narrow down the details in written arguments with a group activity in which learners pretend to be aliens from another planet, struggling to understand each...

Winter, spring, summer, and fall—take the learning of the seasons beyond the elementary level to the middle school classroom. Curious learners begin by watching videos about the seasons and the rotation of planet Earth. Then,...

Many people don't realize that all people on the planet are entitled to certain inalienable rights. Scholars discuss the subject with the first of four lessons in the Introduction to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights series....