While watching the Planets Song (Animated Music Video), students learn about the order of planets in our solar system as well as cool facts about each planet.
Our sun worksheet for 3rd grade: students sort eight facts into what the Sun is and what the Sun does, then find both inside four sentences. Answer key included for quick, no-prep science practice.
Students use the Earth Planet Worksheet to read a six-fact file about our planet, complete word-bank sentences, and write full-sentence answers. Built for 3rd Grade with an answer key included.
This Mercury Planet Worksheet gives 3rd graders a fact file about the first planet from the Sun, then four word-bank sentences and three written answers. Answer key included for fast, no-prep solar system practice.
A Saturn planet worksheet for 3rd grade that pairs a short Saturn fact file with word-bank sentences and two written questions. Answer key included, so students can check their own solar system facts.
This solar system activity is a Space Race game where 2nd to 5th Grade students spin, write and color the eight planets in order. Includes trivia cards, practice and answer key.
This Venus Planet Worksheet gives 3rd Grade students a short fact box, fill-in-the-blank sentences, bubble questions, and a written response, with an answer key included, so learning about Venus feels clear and doable.
This Mars planet worksheet hands 3rd graders a kid-friendly fact file, then asks them to name Mars facts and explain one in writing. Answer key included for confident, no-prep science practice.
This Solar System Crossword Puzzle gives 3rd graders ten clues about the Sun, the planets, orbits, and telescopes to solve with no word bank. An answer key is included, so space vocabulary practice takes no prep.
In this solar system sequencing planets activity, kindergarten to 5th grade students put the eight planets in order from the Sun and match their names. Answer key included.
Space flash cards with bright pictures of the sun, moon, planets and more help kindergarten to 4th grade students learn space words and facts. An answer key is included.
These Space Shuttle Cut Outs will quickly give you templates for classroom decoration or student activities.
UsingIts Just a Phase Phases of the Moon Activity, students put the phases of the moon in order so they can understand the pattern of the moon.
Eight planets and one very big star
Third graders learn that our solar system has the sun at the center and eight planets traveling around it in orbits. They put the planets in order (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) and compare them: the four inner planets are small and rocky, the outer four are giant and gassy. They learn the sun is a star, the moon orbits Earth, and Earth's spin gives us day and night. The click moment is when kids realize the sun only looks small because it's so far away.
Space is huge and hard to picture. These moves bring it down to kid size.
Play the planets song daily for a week and have eight kids line up holding planet cards as each is named. A song plus a living model makes the order stick far better than a memory trick.
Why it works: words set to a repeating melody are easier to recall than the same words spoken (Wallace, 1994).
Try it withPlanets Song (Animated Music Video)SongsOpen it →Kids cut out and sequence the planets, then glue them in order from the sun. Have them color inner rocky planets one way and outer gas giants another. Sorting while sequencing builds two ideas at once.
Why it works: kids understand an idea best when they touch it, then draw it, then write it, the order the U.S. Department of Education recommends for elementary math.
Try it withSolar System Sequencing Planets ActivityActivitiesOpen it →Start with a planet kids know best, Earth, and fill in a fact page: size, place from the sun, what it's made of. Then each group studies a different planet and compares it back to Earth. Comparisons make the facts meaningful.
Why it works: pairing a picture with each word gives kids two ways to remember it, a well-tested principle of how people learn (Mayer, 2009).
Try it withEarth Planet WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →Out-of-this-world activities your third graders will love.
WorksheetsSolve solar system clues and fill in the crossword. Great for reviewing new words.
Open Solar System Crossword Puzzle →
WorksheetsLearn surprising facts about the sun and why it's so important to life on Earth.
Open Our Sun Worksheet →
WorksheetsDiscover Saturn's famous rings and design a planet with rings of your own.
Open Saturn Planet Worksheet →Teacher favorites right now: Planets Song (Animated Music Video), Our Sun Worksheet and Earth Planet Worksheet.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. A popular way to remember: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos.
In 2006, scientists decided Pluto is a dwarf planet because it hasn't cleared its orbit of other objects. It's still part of our solar system, just in a different group.
The inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) are small and rocky. The outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) are giant and made mostly of gas and ice.
Make a scale model with fruit or balls, from a peppercorn to a watermelon, to show size differences. Look at the night sky and find bright planets like Venus or Jupiter.
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