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Online 3D simulation of the Solar System and night sky in real time - the Sun, planets, dwarf planets, comets, stars and constellations ______________________________________________________________________ This website provides a 3D simulation of the Solar System including everything from the plants to comets and stars. Students can use this simulation to learn everything they want to know about the Solar System. This simulation allows students to click on each individual planet to learn more information and also allows students to locate the major stars and constellations found in our solar system. Students can also watch the planets orbit around the sun (in real time) and go to any day of any year to see where each planet was at that time. All for free! I selected this resource because I think it will really benefit visual and hands-on learners. Giving students the opportunity to research the Solar System on their own gives them a feeling of independence, even while they are learning. I think this resource is very valuable in the classroom because it provides a lot of information about everything there is in the Solar System. This resource could be used during a lesson about the Solar System. Students could each be given an individual planet, star, or constellation to research, and students could create a poster with information on their individual planet, star, or constellation. This resource would benefit in their researching.

The Children's University of Manchester produces this page. It is absolutely fabulous! The website is interactive, teaching students about a variety of different subjects in a way that is appealing to children. The brief lesson could be used as a quick introduction to a topic, or a quick recap over a topic. The site I have linked to is about the phases of the moon. The children can see a short animated clip showing the sun with the earth and moon orbiting around it. The clip has facts throughout, and a brief quiz at the end. I would highly recommend incorporating this site into your classroom!

The Solar System is a very abstract concept for elementary age children. This activity was designed to show children the idea of both revolution and rotation. This activity will also allow children to understand the vast size of the solar system, the students can be taken outside where a "solar system" has been drawn with chalk and scaled down. Students can line up in order and orbit around the sun.

This activity steps out of the normal lesson in the classroom, but I think it would keep the students entertained because of the candy that is involved. Each student would have a paper plate and would glue different pieces of candy on the plate representing the sun, each of the planets, and the asteroid belt. I really like that this activity steps out of the comfort zone that most teachers have and allows the students to do such a hands on activity that involves something that they like!

This activity allows the students to make their own mini solar systems out of different sized/shaped pieces of candy. The class can discuss the planets size, their color, and even how far away they are from each other through this activity, and using candy will make it a hard lesson to forget.You can either draw your orbits on black construction paper or a paper plate. Sun- butterscotch, Mercury- orange jujube; Venus- Nestle's sno caps; Earth- blue Skittle; Mars- red Skittle; asteroid belt- candy sprinkles; Jupiter- peppermint with red hot stuck on top; Saturn- lemon drop with twizzler wrapped around; Uranus- green Jujube; Neptune- aqua Skittle; Pluto- tart n tiny. I chose this lesson because I think it would be a great activity to help the class remember this important topic. Often times it is hard to recall which planets are next to which and so on, but by the use of candy we can build representations that are sure to stick with the. All of the small candy pieces listed are also easy to find and inexpensive! I would use this activity after learning the basics of the solar system, maybe as a review a few days before an assessment.

SC.E.1.2.3 Students know that our Sun is a star and that the energy of the Sun can be captured as a source of heat and light on Earth (e.g. plants, solar panels) Students will have a basic understanding of the vocabulary words sun, solar system, star, planet, asteroid, comet, orbit, axis.