The Planets activity
I would start with a story on Aliens and see if the children could name a few planets. I would then introduce : ‘The Plants Song’. There are many cross curricular links for this theme, art, oral language, drama etc,
The children would engage in planet quiz using picture cards to guess which planet comes next throughout the song. They would learn about the planet through online apps and select pictures from a picture bank to collect information on their planet. Each group would have a planet (cutout or card) and arrange the planets in the correct order from the sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) after the duration of the lessons, only when familiar with the song.
There is a nice book called “There’s No Place Like Space: All About Our Solar System” which could be read and discussed. The children could select a planet in groups and with the help of teacher and other available staff construct their planet using paper mache, over time. This would give them a sense of how the planet really looks.