Montessori Inspired Solar System Introduction - Mama's Happy Hive

Identifying the Planets – Solar System Introduction

The first activity that we did was to learn the names of the planets by using the Solar System 3-part cards for matching work. The 3-part cards almost match the Safari planets perfectly. I did alter Neptune by coloring it with a light blue magic marker to help it match the card. The other planets matched the cards well.

Little Bee has always enjoyed matching work for hand-eye coordination. We discussed how Jupiter is the largest planet, Saturn has a ring, Earth is the planet we live on, and Mercury is the smallest planet (well it used to be Pluto). These descriptions helped Little Bee to match most of the planets correctly.

Order of the Planets and Galaxy Play Dough

Next we learned the order of the planets (starting from the sun outwards) by using a Solar System Diagram as a guide, the play dough. I created the galaxy dough by making no-cook play dough, adding black food coloring, and gold/silver glitter to represent the night sky. Little Bee followed the pattern from the Solar System Diagram as he smushed the planets into the galaxy dough.

Here is a fun song for helping children learn about the Solar System.

Sensory Play Solar System Art

Last year, Little Bee finger-painted the earth, moon, and sun as part of a fun post called, Sensory Play for Earth Day. I simply put a glob of green and blue paint on a piece of paper for the earth, yellow and orange for the sun, and yellow, white, and table salt for the moon. Little Bee swirled the colors around and then when the art was dry, I cut them out into various sized circles.

I taped sticky contact paper on the sliding glass door and Little Bee helped to place the cut out sun, earth, and moon onto the sticky surface. Then he had fun filling in the open spaces with star stickers.

Sun, Earth, and Moon Revolving Model

Little Bee is beginning to learn that the earth revolves around the sun and the moon revolves around the earth. This wonderful hands on sun, earth, and moon model helps a child understand this concept. I created this model using construction paper, glue, and three “brad” clips. For a free sun, earth, and moon model printable – please visit here.

Montessori Birthday Celebration

One more hands-on way of teaching a young child about the revolution of the earth around the sun is with the Montessori Birthday Celebration. This beautiful Montessori Year Cycle felt mat (pictured below) is sponsored from the Etsy shop, MontessoriHandmade. There is so much learning that can be utilized with this gorgeous year cycle felt mat and bead chain. The child can learn about the seasons, the number of the days of the months, and it is a wonderful mat to use for the Montessori birthday celebration.

Even though it is not officially Little Bee’s birthday, we practiced “revolving” around the sun with our

Here is a short video showing how a Montessori birthday celebration is performed.

Revolve versus Rotate Chart

For an older preschool or kindergarten aged child, this “Revolve vs. Rotate Chart” is a wonderful printable that explains the difference between revolving and rotating. It explains that the earth takes 365 days to revolve around the sun and it takes the earth 24 hours to rotate. The earth revolving around the sun causes the seasons and the rotation of the earth causes day and night. I laminated the printable so that the fill-in-the-blanks could be erased and used again.

APRIL: ASTRONOMY

Moon Activities – Montessori Inspired Astronomy (Free Printables) | Natural Beach Living

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