Solar System Mat

Exploring our Solar System together!

One day my friend Riya came to my home and asked me if she could also play with my Musky buddy. Why not, I said! I opened my Solar System Mat and asked her, what if we explore space today? Happy and excited, we placed my Musky buddy on the Start block. Suddenly, we went into an imaginary world thinking how cool it would be if we were in a rocket traveling to space.

I told Riya, let’s explore the Solar System together. First, we saw a huge yellow star. It’s the Sun that gives us light and heat, Riya told me. You know, Sun is the head of the Solar System family. It was too hot near the Sun. We moved a bit far away from the Sun and who did we meet? Mercury, the smallest planet and closest to the Sun.

We moved further and met Venus which is the hottest planet in the solar system. It is the second brightest object in space other than the Moon. We saw Earth too. Riya told me that it is known as the blue planet as it is filled with 70% water. It’s beautiful I said! I got super excited and wanted to see more planets.

Traveling in our rocket, we went near a red planet. It’s Mars, I said. It consists of red salt and rocks. It has two Moons. We also saw a really big planet, Jupiter which is the largest planet made up mostly of gasses. Planet Saturn has beautiful rings around it. Its rings are made up of ice particles, rocks, and dust. Then we saw Uranus, it was very cold out there so we didn’t stop there for a long time and moved to Neptune which is farthest from the Sun. Riya told me that it takes 164 years to finish an orbit around the Sun. That’s how exciting our journey to space was!

Coming back to the real world, we started coding our learning Buddy, Musky and made it move from one planet to another. We kept clapping and joyfully played with Musky.

I am sure you learned a lot with your cute little learning buddy, Musky. Check if you can answer these questions.

Q1. Is Earth also a planet?

Q2. Which planet is nearest to the Sun?

Q3. Which is the smallest planet in our Solar System?

Q4. What is the path of the planets called?

Q5. How many planets are there in our Solar System?

Teachers Note

Teachers in classroom setup can teach a lot about the Solar System to children in a playful manner. As a teacher, you can discuss all the planets, stars, Sun, Moon, orbits, comets, etc. Tasks can be given to children depending upon the learning we want to drive from the class. Age-appropriate learning outcomes can be achieved by asking simple questions from kids that they can answer by giving the right commands to Musky. Also, after the achievement of a task, you can play a rhyme for kids to learn and enjoy along with conceptual learning.

There are two mats that you get to play with. The first mat shows all the planets which are placed in different orbits. Once the child gets a basic understanding of the Solar System, we can take a step forward and make kids learn more about them using the gamified ‘Solar System’ thematic mat and let them play a puzzle in which they learn to coordinate with team members, they understand the importance of teamwork and they get competitive spirit other than learning about the Solar System and different planets in our Solar System.