Lesson video

Hi everyone.

It's great to have you here with me today.

I'm Mrs. Horan and I'm really looking forward to exploring this lesson together.

Today's lesson is part of the Earth, Sun, and Moon unit.

This lesson is called the Planets in our Solar System, and we'll be finding out about and naming the planets in our solar system.

We're going to learn a little bit about the planets together and then carry out some research of our own to find out even more.

Our lesson today builds on what you already know about the shape and size of objects in space.

Today's learning is part of our big learning question, how does the Earth fit into the universe? Our keywords for today are solar system, sun, planets, research and secondary sources.

Here are some explanations of our keywords.

I will explain these words as we go through the lesson, so we don't need to look at this now.

It's just a helpful reminder that you might want to come back to later on if you aren't sure about anything and need a quick check.

Here are the parts of our lesson today about the planets in our solar system.

We're gonna start with the first of two parts, what's in our solar system? Solar system is the name for the sun and the eight planets which travel around it.

You can see the sun and the planets in this picture.

Here we can see the planets are different sizes and they look quite different from each other.

This picture is not to scale though, which means the sizes in the picture aren't completely accurate.

In reality, the distances between the sun and the planets is much, much further.

Too far in fact, for us to show in a single picture.

Take a moment to think, what do you know about the sun? The sun is a star at the centre of our solar system.

It is right in the middle.

It looks a little different to the other stars we see in the sky because it is much closer to us.

Our next closest star is so far away that it would be impossible to travel to it in one human lifetime, even using the fastest rocket we have.

The sun does not move around the solar system.

It stays in the same place.

Let's do a quick check for understanding of our first view points today.

First question, what is the sun? Is it A, a planet? B, a star? C, a satellite? Well done, the sun is a star.

It just looks different to the other stars in the sky because it's much, much closer to us than they are.

Next question, where is the sun? Our solar? Is it A, it is in the middle and does not move? B, it is on the outside and does not move? Or C, it is sometimes in the middle, but it moves around? The answer is A, it's in the middle and does not move.

Great job answering those two questions.

Now we know about the sun, let's take a look at the planets that orbit it in more detail.

A planet is a very large object in space made of rock or gas that travels around or orbits a star.

Our planet is made of rock.

We would not be able to stand on the planets made of gas because they are not solid.

The planet that we live on is called Earth.

It orbits the sun.

The sun is our star and the Earth travels around it.

Do you know anything about the other planets in our solar system? You might have read about them in a book or online or seen something about them on TV.

Maybe your family or friends have told you something interesting about the other planets.

You might want to pause the video here and share your ideas with a partner.

There are eight planets in our solar system, including Earth.

Some are made of rock and some are made of gas.

Starting with a planet that is closest to the sun, their names are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Apart from Earth, the planets are each named after ancient Greek or Roman gods.

For example, Neptune is named after the Roman god of the sea because of its blue colouring.

Scientists used to think that there were nine planets in our solar system.

The ninth planet was called Pluto and it is further away from the sun than all the other planets.

Because this is the furthest away, Pluto was discovered quite a while after the other eight planets in 1930.

As it is very far from the sun and very cold, it was named Pluto after the Roman god of death.

In fact, it was an 11 year old girl called Venetia Burney Phair who chose this name.

She suggested it to her grandfather, and then he shared the idea with his astronomer friends, who all thought it was perfect.

And the planet was officially given the name Pluto.

We know that ideas and science change over time as we gain new evidence and understanding, just like the way people in ancient times thought the Earth was flat because that was what their evidence suggested.

Now we have a lot more evidence, including photos of Earth from space.

We know that the Earth is approximately spherical.

In 2006, scientists discussed the similarities and differences between Pluto and the other planets and decided it did not have enough similarities to be classed as a planet.

So it is still out there in space orbiting the sun, but now it's classified as a dwarf planet or small planet, rather than a planet like the others in our solar system.

In 2023, scientists recognised five dwarf planets in our solar system, including Pluto.

But this number is likely to change as we gather more evidence and more are discovered.

The planets you can see in this picture are not to scale.

This means that their sizes and distances from the sun are not shown accurately.

In reality, the planets are actually much, much further away from the sun and each other than they appear here.

This is because they're so very big and far apart from each other that we just cannot show their size and the distances between them accurately in a single picture.

The picture to be very, very big and the planets would look too small to see.

This picture shows the planets' relative sizes more accurately.

Relative size means their size in relation to or compared to each other.

So you can see that some planets are much larger than others.

And that the sun is much, much bigger than all of the planets.

In fact, you could fit all of the planets inside the sun many times over.

However, this picture still doesn't show us how far away from each other the planets are.

In reality, Earth is around 150 million kilometres away from the sun.

It's quite hard to imagine how far 150 million kilometres is, isn't it? It's about 1.

6 billion football pitches laid end to end.

We can use mnemonics to help us remember things like the names and order of the planets.

Mnemonics are memory devices or tricks that are easy to memorise and give us clues to help us remember more tricky things.

For example, my very easy method just speeds up names.

Can you see how the first letters of each of those words matches the first letters of each of the planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

In this mnemonic, the first letter of each word matches the first letter of each planet.

It is easy to remember the sentence, my very easy method just speeds up names.

And it is to remember all of the names of the planets, especially in the right order.

The initials in that sentence give us clues, and this can help us remember the names of the planets and their order.

Let's do a quick check to see how we're doing with our learning so far.

How many planets are there in the solar system? Is it A, eight? B, nine? Or C, 10? There are eight planets in our solar system.

Next question, which of these is not a planet in our solar system? Is it A, Venus? B, Saturn? C, Neptune? Or D, Pluto? Well done if you said Pluto.

We know that that is a dwarf planet, not a planet.

Time for you to apply your learning to a practise task.

Your job is to create your own mnemonic to help you remember the names of the eight planets and their order.

The words should begin with the letters M, V, E, M, J, S, U, N, and they must be in that order.

You could make your mnemonic as silly or as sensible as you would like as long as it helps you to remember the names and the order of the planets.

When you have done, practise your mnemonic with a partner until you can remember it and all the names of the planet in the correct order.

Post the video here and have a go at making your mnemonic.

Welcome back.

How did you do? Did you find it easy or quite difficult to come up with your mnemonic? Did it help you to learn and remember the names of the planets and the order they come in? These children have been having a go as well.

Jun's mnemonic is my very elegant mother just served us nachos.

Izzy came up with most vultures eat mango jelly until night.

Was yours anything like theirs? Now, let's move on to the second part of our lesson.

How do we find out about planets? So far, astronauts have been able to travel to the moon and the International Space Station, also known as the ISS.

You can see the astronauts working in space here, one on the moon and another couple carrying out repairs on the outside of the ISS.

It must be very strange for them to be experiencing gravity that is very different to ours on Earth.

But it is not just astronauts that are involved in exploring and travelling through space.

What other types of scientists do you think are needed for a successful mission to space? Think about all the elements of the mission, the planning, the rocket, the communication, the equipment, even things like what the astronauts are going eat, the tea need to be thought about.

It takes the work of thousands of people to send one astronaut into space.

Working on every space mission, there are lots of engineers, technicians, medics, and astronomers.

They all play a part in carefully planning a mission, designing, building, and maintaining all the equipment, including the rocket, and making sure the astronauts stay healthy and safe while they are in space.

We can't go into space ourselves today, but we can still learn about our solar system by carrying out research using secondary sources.

I've got a couple of keywords to take a look at here.

To research something is to find out about it or investigate it carefully.

Secondary sources are sources of information that have been gathered by someone else.

We can use them when we are not able to do an investigation ourselves.

They can include nonfiction books, articles, the internet, or even factual television programmes.

It is important that we evaluate these sources of information carefully to make sure they're reliable.

Always think about who created the source you are using.

Sometimes information, particularly on the internet, might have been created by someone who doesn't have all the information themself or who hasn't checked their facts.

Let's do a quick check on our understanding.

Take a look at this statement and decide whether you think it's true or false.

Astronauts are the only scientists involved in space exploration.

That statement is false.

Now, can you justify your answer? Is it false because astronauts need the help of other scientists to build and launch the rocket? Or is it false because astronauts are not scientists? That's right, astronauts need the help of lots and lots of other scientists to build and launch the rockets, not to mention making sure that the rest of the mission runs smoothly and the astronauts are able to return home safely.

Now have a go at completing the sentence.

Even if we cannot travel into space ourselves, we can still find out about it by looking at sources.

What word do you think goes in that gap? Even if we cannot travel into space ourselves, we can still find out about it by looking at secondary sources.

We cannot travel into space today, but we can look at secondary sources created by others who have or who have worked on space research and exploration.

Time to get stuck into our second practise task.

Choose one of the planets in our solar system other than Earth and carry out some research to find out more about it.

You can choose whichever planet you are most interested in.

When you're doing your research, you could find out the size of the planet.

its distance from the sun, what it looks like, what it is made of, how it got its name, who discovered it, and when, or anything else about that planet that you are interested in.

Pause the video here and carry out your research.

Come back when you have found out lots of interesting information about your chosen planet.

Welcome back.

Did you find out any really interesting facts about the planets? Did you share your findings with your friends? Here is what I found out about the planet Mars.

Mars is a rocky red planet about 240 million kilometres away from the sun.

It has a diameter of around 6,779 kilometres, and is about half the size of Earth.

It was discovered by Italian scientist Galileo Galilei in 1610 and is named after the Roman god of war.

Did you find out similar information? Did you find out anything different? So we've had a great lesson today.

Here is a summary of our key learning.

The sun is at the centre of our solar system.

It has eight planets travelling around it.

The planets in order from the sun are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

We can learn about the planets by carrying out research using secondary sources of information.

Thank you so much for coming to learn with me today, everyone.

I've really enjoyed finding out about the planets in our solar system with you.

And thank you for your concentration and your diligent researching skills.

See you again next time.