Solar System Mobile

What You'll Need

An old umbrella
A book or chart showing the solar system and where each planet is positioned
Different sized polystyrene balls
A set of paints

Silver spray paint (or tin foil will do)
Cardboard
Clear fishing line or white thread
Tape

60 mins

Ages 6 - 8

Inside

Very Messy

The earth is third rock from the Sun
Mercury’s much nearer,
A model Solar System
Will make it all much clearer!

Getting Started:

The first thing to do is to remove the cloth from the old umbrella. Be very careful as those spikes can be very sharp and you could get one in your eye!
Now paint the largest polystyrene ball yellow, one of them red and one green and blue. Spray the rest silver (or if you’re using tinfoil, simply wrap them in foil).
Draw star shapes and moons on the cardboard and cut them out.
Using the chart or book for reference, decide where each planet should go and hang them from the umbrella by attaching them to the thread or fishing line with sticky tape.

Tips!

The advantage of fishing line is its clear which makes the balls look like their floating in the air. The trouble is fishing line is harder to work with so you might want to stick with thread.