As well as teaching English, I love painting and art projects, so I was excited to hear that my middle school-aged students shared my passion. We had been studying the solar system – the planets’ names and cool facts about them. Together we decided that we’d create a miniature solar system.
During one class, we painted different sizes of foam balls – reddish pink Jupiter, bright blue Neptune, and a golden sun, which needed lots of sparkly glitter (of course).
In another class, over Zoom, my students cut and folded paper stars and little comets to add to the solar system. Finally, we hung the planets in their correct order from a round piece of cardboard we had painted as a starry sky. It looked beautiful!
My students loved the project and had fun while they learned science vocabulary. And now the beautiful little solar system has a place of honor hanging in their room at home!