Solar System

About this resource

The Sun and eight planets, in order, for the table where children need different amounts of support. This kit starts with an anchor chart: the Sun, then Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, with the first four named the inner planets (small and rocky) and the last four the outer planets (giants with no rocky ground to land on). Children then circle planets, find the one that does not belong, count a tray of short facts, finish sentences from a box of words, put planets in order by name, read a fact and circle the true sentence, draw a planet on its path around the Sun, and cut and paste onto sort mats. The pictures are plain circles with the planet's name under each, and the facts are short sentences, so a child reads or looks and decides. It comes with a tracker, a class grid and a family update, so nothing has to be written from scratch.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (31 pages)

• 16 student pages in 9 page types: Anchor Chart, My Planet Mat, Circle It, Which One Does Not Belong?, Count the Groups, Fill It In, Circle the True Sentence, Draw the Planet, and Cut and Paste
• 67 scored items on 14 pages, every answer read from the planet and fact data, never typed by hand
• 16 short facts, two for each of the eight planets (8 inner, 8 outer)
• 24 cut-and-paste pieces on 3 sort mats (8 planet pictures, 8 short facts, 8 full facts), each into two labeled boxes
• 2 answer keys, generated from the same data as the student pages
• 1 tracker (page, page type, items right, date) and 1 whole-class progress grid
• 1 team note (a hand-off page between team meetings) and 1 home page
• 1 filled example (an invented student), 1 phrase bank (16 observable-language starters), 1 binder cover and 6 divider tabs with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here and a how-to-read-a-page page

The Page Types, Easiest First

1. Anchor Chart (starting): the Sun and all eight planets in order, numbered, then an inner card and an outer card, six words to know, and two lines for the child to write what each group is.

2. My Planet Mat (starting): the planets in order to keep beside the child, three planet cards, a sentence to finish, and two big boxes to draw the closest and the farthest planet.

3. Circle It, 2 pages (1 dot): four rows of four planets. Circle every inner planet (or every outer one), then write how many.

4. Which One Does Not Belong?, 2 pages (2 or 3 dots): four planets, one is in the other group. Set A circles it and writes its number; Set B uses short facts and also writes what the other three are.

5. Count the Groups, 2 pages (2 dots): eight short facts in a tray. Count the inner and the outer, then draw one of each.

6. Fill It In, 3 pages (2 or 3 dots): Set A reads a fact and writes inner or outer; Set B finishes a sentence from a box of eight words (three are not used); Set C names a planet by its place in the order, from a box of all eight names.

7. Circle the True Sentence, 1 page (3 dots): a fact and three sentences about it; exactly one is true.

8. Draw the Planet, 1 page (3 dots): read a clue and draw the planet in a box that already has the Sun and a dotted path.

9. Cut and Paste, 3 pages (1, 2 or 3 dots): a big two-box sort mat and a block of 8 pieces that touch edge to edge, so cutting is a few straight lines. Paste 1 sorts planet pictures; Paste 2 sorts short facts; Paste 3 sorts full facts.

Plain Circles And Words, Nothing Else

There are no photographs or clip art. Each planet is a plain circle with its name under it, drawn as a shape (Saturn has its ring). The pictures show the order and which planets are bigger or smaller, but they are not to scale, and the chart says so. The facts stay on what is easy to check: the order from the Sun, which planet is closest, farthest, biggest, smallest or hottest, Earth's water, Mars's red look, and Saturn's rings. There are no moon counts, distances, temperatures or sizes in numbers.

Built For The Child Holding The Page

A big "My name" line, one short instruction, large rounded type, big answer boxes, and dots (not words or colors) to show which level a page is. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult. The drawing boxes are about two inches tall so there is room to work. The file prints clean in black and white.

No Guessing The Answer

Wherever a child picks among printed spots (which planets in a row are inner, which one is the odd planet, which lettered sentence is true, where a word sits in the box, the order of the pieces on the cut strip), the position of the right answer is checked so it does not sit in the same spot three times in a row. The wrong sentences on the true-sentence page sound sensible, so a child has to read the fact.

Type In, Or Print

The name line and every answer box are type-in fields in any PDF reader: click one, type, then save. The same goes for the tracker, the class grid, the team note and the home page. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

Primary and upper elementary classrooms, self-contained and resource rooms, and any teacher building a solar system unit into a center, a small group or a morning work folder. The reading is written at about a grade 2-3 level, and the teacher can read each fact aloud.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A solar system worksheet set with the record-keeping around it. It is not a timed test, a screener, a clinical tool, or a claim about any student's age or rate of progress. There is no IEP goal language or eligibility wording anywhere in the file.