We made a Yarn Solar System Project to kick off our solar system unit. This is a simple, fun to make science projects kids will love!
Hands on Solar System Unit
- The Sun
- The Moon & Astronauts
- Inner Planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars)
- Outer Planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune)
- Pluto, Asteroid Belt, Comets, and Stars
Yarn Solar System Project
Making your own Solar System is the best way to kick off a solar system unit. We decided to make this Yarn Solar System Project, but here are 18 creative solar system projects to pick from. No matter what project you pick, kids will learn:
- Names of the Planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
- Order of the planets
- Where & what the asteroid belt is
- Planets orbit the sun
- Moons / Dwarf Planets
Supplies Needed for Yarn Solar System Project
To make this fun, simple to make solar system project you will want to download the free planets mini book and get the following yarn:
- Mercury – light grey
- Venus – medium orange
- Earth – llight blue / light green
- Mars – mauve
- Jupiter – dark orange, brown, and white/cream
- Saturn – sunflower yellow and light orange
- Uranus – cobalt blue and light blue or cream
- Neptune – royal blue
Hint: For planets with more than one color you will wrap the yarn at the same time.
How to Make Yarn Planets
Now, one by one you will wrap the yarn loosely around books of various sizes. The kids loved this part! Here is what we used:
- Mini baby board books for: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars
- Large Atlas for: Jupiter and Saturn
- Chapter Book (like magic tree house size) for Uranus and Neptune
Once you have about 1” in girth for the smaller planets and 1-2” thickness for the larger planets, carefully slide the yarn off the book.
Note: It goes quickly, but you will use lots of yarn for the larger planets.
Using scissors cut the center of both loops to create a large pom pom planet.
Continue until you’ve made all the 8 inner and outer planets. We also made the asteroid belt out of squished up black/grey construction paper. We choose not to do Pluto which has now been classified as one of the dwarf planets.
For Saturn, we added some construction paper cut into an oval with the center cut out and slid it over the planet.
We hung the planets from our ceiling. It was fun for the kids to practice figuring out which one was which and look at them to learn their names and positions in the universe.
Hint: You will want to use a thumbtack to hang the larger, heavier, outer planets.
Free Solar System Printables
- Solar System Worksheets (Kindergarten, 1st-6th grade)
- Solar System Pack (Toddler, Preschool, Kindergarten, 1st & 2nd grade)
- Astronaut Coloring Pages (Toddler, Preschool, Kindergarten)
- Solar System Coloring Pages (Preschool Kindergarten, 1st-6th grade)
- Constellations Mini Book (Preschool Kindergarten, 1st-6th grade)
- Planets Mini Book (Preschool Kindergarten, 1st-6th grade)
- Moon Phases Mini Book (Preschool Kindergarten, 1st-6th grade)
More Space Activities for Kids
- Free Printable Solar System Subtraction Activity by Life Over C’s
- Star Gazing by iGame Mom
- Marshmallow Constellations by Schooling a Monkey
- Planet Hop by Still Playing School
- Yarn Solar System by 123 Homeschool 4 Me
- Build the Solar System with Spielgaben Toys by Living Life and Learning
- {FREE} Moon Phase Tracking Printable by Preschool Powol Packets