The Planets of our Solar System
by Sarah House, SWOSU Teacher Candidate
as part of the NASA OSGC MTPE Mentorship 2017/2018

This lesson plan that I created for 2nd grade ELA/Science was fervently inspired by 2018 SEEC "Wonders of the Universe" presented by Jeanne Smith and Brittany Board of Lakewood Montessori School.

Engagement video "Planets Song": https://youtu.be/noiwY7kQ5NQ

Solar System display for SmartBoard after video: https://goo.gl/images/EdPV5j

Here, I have student assistants helping to point out the planets as they are called out in the poem, "Planet Roll Call."


"Planet Roll Call" Poem: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ba/7e/c4/ba7ec481ed93078d9b9...

I had all of the students gather on one side of the room while I read the book, "Planets," aloud to them.

(When I would read a page and explain in more detail the vocabulary and information about the planets, the students could not contain their excitement and questions. I had to stop after a couple of pages and improvise a way to get them to be quiet yet still be heard. So, I told them to get a piece of paper and a pencil and write down their questions as I read. They did fabulous! Their questions were out of this world!

This took a lot longer than expected! If I were to do this again, I would have my students ready with a pencil and paper for questions and explain to them my expectations before I read the book. This would save a lot of time.)

Focal Literature: "Planets" by Elizabeth Carney

Extension books: Dr. Seuss "There's No Place Like Space" by Tish Rabe,
"Solar System" by Gregory Vogt,
"Astronaut Living in Space" by Kate Hayden,
"Intersteller Cinderella" by Deborah Underwood,
"Secrets of our Earth" by Carron Brown and Wesley Robins

Here, the students began to create the art for their Planet Accordion Books. I gave each group 2 extension books to look through and get ideas from, as well as having the solar system displayed on the SmartBoard and the body pillow to look at.

In this picture, they were working on 1 worksheet of planets to color, and 1 worksheet of planet names to unscramble.

(This took longer than I had anticipated, too! Next time, I will set a timer that they can all see and give them interval warnings about how much time is left.)

This student followed directions perfectly and in a very timely manner! He colored, cut out, and pasted a title page, sun, and planets to his Planet Accordion Book.

(I pre-cut and folded all of the accordion books to save time. I used black poster board cut 4 times on the long side. I taped 2 of the 5 short strips together and then folded them accordion style about every 4-5 inches.

Pre-assembling the books did save time. But, I had several students glue the title page and the planets on the wrong side of the book, opposite sides, even though I modeled exactly what to do and showed them all the finished product. In the future, I will glue the title page on as part of the pre-assembly party. I will also include an indicator, like an "X," so they will know better which side of the book to glue their planets on.)

Here they are! They are so proud! Oh, one more detail of the book: I had them write one "Fantastic Fact" about any one of the planets (or our sun) on a sticky note to put on the last page.




Title page:
https://www.timvandevall.com/wp-content/uploads/list-of-planets.png

Planets coloring sheet: http://www.bestcoloringpagesforkids.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Planet-C...

I made the "Solar System Scramble" worksheet, so it is not published yet.

Elaboration time! Let's get up and get moving! The students got to role play outdoors and demonstrate how to "orbit." They each drew a card with either the name of a planet, the Sun, or moons belonging to respective planets. 1st, we had Mercury orbit the Sun by holding onto the end of a piece of yarn while the Sun's helper held the other end close to the Sun. Mercury "orbited" the Sun (walked around the Sun in a circle the length of the yarn). (The "Sun" is on the far right in a red shirt holding a yellow poster board of the Sun. His helper is in the black shirt.) We practiced orbiting with Venus next. Then came Earth, with its moon! This was the fun part. The moon orbited the Earth, while the Earth orbited the Sun! In this picture, the boy on the far left in the blue shirt is "Mars" and the two running around him are Mars' two moons! We continued until we got through all the planets. (I had about 4-5 moons each for Saturn and Uranus and we did not use the string.)

Things I would do differently: WOW! Get these kids outside and they are whole different creatures! I would assign the roles BEFORE we go outside and have very clear instructions and assigned spots for them to sit while watching and waiting for their turn. I would NOT have moons made out of paper. The moons went flying and the kids scattered repeatedly. I had to get super strict and we almost ran out of time.