Science: Space

Year 5 have now started their second science unit: Space! This week, we have learnt about our Solar System.

Here are some key facts we learnt:

• The Solar System is made up of the Sun, celestial bodies, eight planets and their moons.
• The Sun, Earth, Moon and other planets are approximately spherical bodies.
• The Sun is a star which releases heat and light and is at the centre of the Solar System.
• All of the planets in our Solar System orbit the Sun.
• The first four planets have solid surfaces whilst the last four planets have gas surfaces.
  • Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars all have solid surfaces.
  • Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune have gas surfaces.
• Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet.

Then, we carried out research using secondary sources (a form of scientific enquiry). We used this information to create posters about the order of the planets and wrote down more key facts about each one.

Finally, we made mnemonics to remember  the order in which the planets orbit the sun.

Help at home: Come up with a new mnemonic to remember the order of our solar system. Here is an example:

Mercury          My

Venus              Very

Earth               Epic

Mars               Marvellous

Jupiter            Jumper

Saturn            Suits

Uranus          Unique

Neptune        Neil

Or why not watch the ‘we are planets’ song.