1. Before doing this activity you might like to give the children some idea of the relative distances of the planets from the Sun. The table below gives distances scaled down although they may still be beyond the bounds of the playground!

Using a scale of 1 metre = 100 million kilometres, the distances the children must be spaced in the playground are -

Sun at the start.

Mercury - 0.6 m from the Sun.

Venus - 1.0 m from the Sun

Earth - 1.5 m from the Sun

Mars - 2.3 m from the Sun

Jupiter - 7.8 m from the Sun

Saturn - 14.3 m from the Sun

Uranus - 28.7 m from the Sun

Neptune - 45.0 m from the Sun

Pluto - 59.0 m from the Sun