Learning About Orbit

To learn about orbit, we made orbit toys with yellow craft sticks {sun} and a metal washer decorated with glitter, attached with fishing line. Then the washer can be spun around the stick causing the planet to orbit.
Tips:

• Notch the craft stick between a pair of scissor blades to tie the fishing line around.
• First spray the washers with spray adhesive or smear with glue and then glitter. We used blue and green for Earth.
• Washers can also be decorated in other ways, like with paint, or markers.

Facts for preschoolers:

• The Sun has a family, called the Solar System. The Solar System has planets, moons, comets, rock, dust and ice that all swirl around the Sun.
• The sun is a star.
• The sun has a grainy surface, like an orange peel.
• The sun is very hot! On a hot summer day, it might be 100 degrees. The sun’s temperature is 10,000 degrees!
• The sun is very important to us. We need the sun to for light and warmth.
• The Earth takes on year to orbit the sun. January, February, March…