Solar System Craft

About this resource

A solar system craft for PreK to 2nd grade: a smiling sun with eight name strips that fan out from it, and eight planets to color or cut out and glue on their strips. One print-and-go unit with the planets in order, a small or big sort, planet fact pages and writing about a favorite planet.

Each planet is drawn to be told apart at a glance: Mercury is gray with craters, Venus is pale gold with swirls, Earth is blue and green, Mars is red-orange, Jupiter has bands, Saturn has a ring, Uranus is pale blue and Neptune is deep blue. Children cut a planet out along its dashed edge and glue it in the square at the end of the matching strip. The square on the fan is exactly the size of the planet piece, so it fits.

Choose the pieces that fit the child. The colored planets are ready to cut (two full sets, so there is a spare for a mistake). The outline planets are for children who want to color their own first. Then an order page has eight planet cards to cut and glue in numbered boxes, from the sun outward, and a small or big sort has eight planet cards to cut and glue into two mats. Every student page has a "My name" line and one short instruction with a picture.

What'S Inside

• Start Here: how the fan works, the planet order, the three levels and a five-day plan
• Meet the planets: the sun and eight planets in order, each labeled 1 to 8, with a trace-and-write line
• Words to trace: sun, Earth, moon and star, each with a picture, on handwriting lines
• How to make it: four picture steps with one short sentence each
• The sun fan: a smiling sun with eight name strips and eight dashed squares to glue the planets into
• 16 colored planets to cut (two sets of eight) and 8 outline planets to color and cut, with a picture of the finished fan to copy
• Put the planets in order: 8 order cards to cut and 8 numbered boxes to glue them in
• Small or big: a sort with 8 planet cards and two mats
• Planet facts: 8 short facts (one per planet) to read, trace and write, on two pages
• Writing on three levels: trace and draw, finish two sentences from a five-word bank, or write freely about a favorite planet
• A class page, a family letter and a credits page (font and clip-art notes)

19 pages in all, 14 of them for students.

Cutting Built For Small Hands

Every cutting page has its pieces in a grid, edge to edge with a dashed cut line, so each cut is one straight line through the grid. The planets are 1.15 inches square and the order and sort cards are 1.8 inches wide. 40 pieces to cut in all (16 colored planets, 8 outline planets, 8 order cards and 8 sort cards). You will need pencils, crayons, scissors and glue sticks.

Three Skill Levels

A small shape beside the name line marks each leveled writing page (circle, square or triangle). Easier: trace and draw (circle). Harder: finish two sentences from the word bank (square), or write freely (triangle). The fact pages ask children to read one short sentence, trace it and write it.

Who This Is For

PreK to 2nd grade classrooms, self-contained special education classrooms, and paraprofessionals who want a space craft with writing attached, ready to print.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A printable PDF (print and cut). It is not Google Slides, Docs or PowerPoint, and it has no fillable fields. The planets are simple drawings made for children to color and glue; they are not to scale. The unit does not score or measure anything, and it makes no claim about any student's age or rate of progress.