Mary,
making a human orrery is a great learning activity, particularly if you include some comets (they have much bigger orbits, and some go much closer to the Sun) to show the various different shape orbits. If you try to be slightly to scale you will need a large field.
The mnemonic I learnt was this rather old fashioned one:
Man Very Early Made Jars Stand Upright, Nearly Perpendicular – which one would you use as the “traditional” one? (see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_mnemonic)
By including nine planets, would you discuss dwarf planets and how Pluto was reclassified in the light of the dwarf planet Eris (and the others) found beyond its orbit?