How big are we?

In grade 6, one of our inquiry questions in our space unit is: What models are appropriate to show how the planets behave? I really enjoy considering the size of our solar system and doing some activities with kids to illustrate this. We are lucky to live in Sweden where a group of people have created a scale model of the solar system using Globen. It's fun to travel to some of the closer planets around Stockholm. 

We had a lovely fall day where we used planet models to get in the right order. We were able to talk about the strength and weakness of different models. These planets on sticks were fun to wave around but they were flat and not at all to scale. 

We went on a little walk where we made the sun the size of a basketball. Only the first four planets would fit in the confines of the church yard in that case. 

We watched a film about the scale of the solar system: 

We reflected on what was in between all the planets...space.

From Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson