Solar System: Planets & Moons
📋 What it is
Eight planets and their moons orbit the Sun — four small rocky worlds, four giant gas/ice worlds.
🗣️ Coach says
The Sun’s family lines up in order: the four inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) are small and rocky; the four outer ones (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) are huge balls of gas and ice, many ringed and moon-rich. Gravity keeps every one looping the Sun.
🧠 Memory hook
Inner = small & rocky · outer = giant gas/ice. All held by the Sun’s gravity.
😂 Giggle
Why did the Sun go to school?
To get a little brighter!
😲 Whoa!
Jupiter is so massive you could fit about 1,300 Earths inside it — and it has at least 95 known moons.
✅ Quick check: What’s the main difference between the inner and outer planets?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
Inner planets are small and rocky; outer planets are giant balls of gas and ice.
The rocky/gas-giant split is the key structure of the solar system.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Order 8 objects by size and group them: rocky ones near a "Sun", giants far out.