Here’s a quick and cute way to show the scale of the planets (roughly speaking) for kids who are learning about the solar system. Set out an assortment of pom poms in as many sizes and colors as you have, and find the perfect one to represent each of our 8 planets!

I dumped a big bag of pom poms into a craft tray, which immediately created excitement.

Travis loved searching through this “universe” for each planet. One by one, he located the following:

A small tan one for Mercury

A small pink one for Venus

A small blue one for Earth

A small orange one for Mars

A large orange one for Jupiter

A large purple one for Saturn

A medium green one for Uranus

A medium blue one for Neptune

Note: Your colors and sizes might be slightly different, depending what you have on hand. Gray works equally well for Mercury, and yellow equally well for Saturn. Obviously we wished we had a red one for Mars, but our pack didn’t contain small red.

We then wrapped Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune with belts of pipe cleaners to make the rings.

Next we cut 8 pieces of yarn, making sure they were roughly the same length. Tie or glue these onto each pom pom.

It was time to build the solar system. As I tied each one to a wire hanger, I had Travis tell me which planet should come next, working from Mercury to Neptune. This was great review for a topic we haven’t covered in a while!

I had originally intended to make a star decoration along the top of the hanger, but Travis was adamant that we couldn’t have a solar system without the sun. He colored in a paper plate with yellow marker, and it was soon proudly affixed atop the hanger.

It looked perfect against his star lamp!