6th grade · Science · Unit 1 of 10
Our Solar System
Planets, moons and the asteroid belt
What your child practices
The planets in order, rocky versus giant planets, reading a table of planet data, moons, dwarf planets, comets and the asteroid belt.
Alabama Course of Study content standard: 6.1; 6.4 · models of the motions of the sun, Earth and moon, and the scale of the solar system
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- The planets in order from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
- The asteroid belt lies between Mars and Jupiter.
- A moon is a natural object that orbits a planet.
- The farther a planet is from the Sun, the longer it takes to orbit once.
Example: Which takes longer to orbit the Sun: Mars or Saturn? Saturn is much farther from the Sun than Mars. Farther planets have longer orbits. Answer: Saturn
Our Solar System in Alabama
In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 1 of 10 in 6th grade Science, before Solar System Tour.
Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
Put these in order, starting with the one closest to the Sun.
- Saturn
- Earth
- Mars
- Jupiter
- Venus
Venus → Earth → Mars → Jupiter → Saturn
Hint: Try: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune). The asteroid belt lies between Mars and Jupiter.
Question 2
Which planet in the table is the smallest?
Planet data Planet Diameter (km) Distance from Sun (AU) Year (Earth years) Mercury 4,879 0.4 0.24 Earth 12,756 1.0 1 Jupiter 142,984 5.2 11.9 Uranus 51,118 19.2 84 - Mercury
- Earth
- Uranus
- Jupiter
Mercury
Hint: Compare the diameters. The smallest number is the narrowest planet.
Question 3
A comet's tail always points…
☄️- straight down
- toward the Sun
- away from the Sun
- toward Earth
away from the Sun
Hint: Sunlight and the solar wind push gas and dust off the comet, away from the Sun.
Question 4
How many moons does Earth have?
🌙- 2
- 4
- 0
- 1
1
Hint: We call it “the Moon”.
Question 5
What is a moon?
- a star that orbits the Sun
- a planet with rings
- a cloud of gas between planets
- a natural object that orbits a planet
a natural object that orbits a planet
Hint: Earth has one moon, Mars has two, and the giant planets have dozens each.
Question 6
Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt. What is it classified as?
- a comet
- a star
- a gas giant
- a dwarf planet
a dwarf planet
Hint: Like Pluto, Ceres is round but shares its orbit with lots of other objects.