Choose one task, model or clip within the current lesson stage. These resources support the existing two separate 40-minute lessons; they do not add another lesson or extra time.

Week 6 · Monday: Put the planets in order

Name: ____________________ Date: ______________

Worksheet PDF

Include worked explanation when printing

We Do · think together

Build the order together

Arrange the planet names from the Sun outwards, then explain one placement.

A model helps explain an idea. It does not measure real planetary motion or prove an observation. Label any given numbers as reference values.

Neptune · Earth · Mercury · Jupiter
Venus · Saturn · Mars · Uranus

Discuss, point, draw, write or dictate a first explanation. Choose one example first; extend only if there is time.

Our first reason

Reveal a worked explanation after an attempt

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. The first four are rocky planets. The diagram’s gaps and planet sizes are not to scale.

One change to our explanation

Give a smaller support cue

Start Sun → Mercury → Venus → Earth → Mars. Use an arrow from Earth towards the Sun.

Writing stays in this open page only. It is not saved or sent. Copy any record you want to keep before leaving.

Apply it

Use the current workshop

Order the eight planets, or the inner four with the remaining names provided. Add a Sun–Earth sketch with a gravity arrow and explain what an orbit is.

Teacher model · compare with the pupil’s evidence

Earth is third from the Sun. An orbit is the curved path an object follows around another. The Sun’s gravity pulls inward while Earth keeps moving along its path; the pull changes the motion’s direction.

I Do · explain and model

Look, explain, check

A simplified teaching model. Distances, sizes and arrow lengths are not measurements unless explicitly stated.

The eight planets orbit the Sun. Earth is the third planet from it.

Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are the inner rocky planets.

Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants; Uranus and Neptune are ice giants.

Connect the ideas

Draw a gravity arrow from Earth towards the Sun.

Draw a motion arrow along the path, not directly away from the Sun.

An orbit is a curved path. Classroom drawings simplify its size and shape.

Quick check

Does “there is no gravity in space” explain why Earth stays in its orbit?

Check the explanation

No. Gravity acts in space. The Sun’s gravitational pull continually changes the direction of Earth’s motion.

Model and still

Rotation is not an orbit

Question: The globe turns. Is that rotation, an orbit, or evidence of both?

Open the corrected rotation and orbit controls in the lesson’s We do

Use the corrected SVG model in the lesson to compare rotation with orbit. The still scenario below works on paper.

Reason from the still scenario

This still identifies the globe. Use the described scenario to reason about motion; one frame cannot show rotation direction or speed.

Imagine this globe turning about its axis while staying in the same position. Is this rotation, orbit, or both? The still itself cannot show movement.

Teacher explanation for the still scenario

Turning about an axis is rotation. Travelling around the Sun is an orbit. A still globe cannot show either movement; the described scenario and the corrected SVG controls distinguish them.

Use the corrected model or the still scenario within the modelling time. A model is not evidence that pupils completed a practical.

For the adult

Preparation and a likely misconception

Print the name cards and use counters or pointing. Public walking is optional. Use the still diagram; do not look at the Sun. The missing uploaded Block 2 is not assumed to have been reviewed.

Watch for: Do not draw an outward “motion force” balancing gravity. Motion is along the path; gravity changes its direction.

Exit question and model answer

What does the inward arrow represent?

Reveal a worked explanation after an attempt

The Sun’s gravitational force on Earth, directed towards the Sun.