GRADE SIX SCIENCE

Hello Boys and Girls, How have you been coping with your work? Remember to pay attention in class, do your homework and to constantly revise. Ask questions, too, when you are not clear about something.

This week we will begin to investigate our great big Solar System. We will see how vast and exciting it is. We will see how we are a part of the Solar System and how it operates. Look at the diagram above. Can you tell what the Solar System is made up of?

Study the picture above. You can see that it is a picture of the Solar System. The word solar comes from the spanish word for sun, sol. Solar means having to do with the Sun. Can you think of any thing that has the word, solar in front of it? How many did you think of? Check with a friend. The Solar System is one of many in our universe. Do you know the poem entitled, The Solar System? It is found in Book 3 of the Easy Path Series – Science Around Us. You may also find out who wrote it. Here’s the poem for you:

The Solar System How many planets in the Solar System? Count and you’ll find eight of them In the middle you’ll see the sun Shining her light on everyone Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, too Jupiter, Saturn, to name a few Uranus, Neptune but not Pluto With their moons around they go

This poem has been changed a bit in order to include a (fairly) new finding - that Pluto is no longer considered a planet of the Solar System.

I hope that you enjoyed this poem.

The Solar System is indeed very exciting to find out about. It is overwhelming to think about our being part of such a vast system. Go out in the yard, especially at night, and just look up into the sky. Don’t you find yourself feeling like just a drop in the wide ocean? That’s almost what each of us is. We live on Earth, which is just one planet in the Solar System. The planets go around the sun which is a star just like the other stars in the sky. Are there planets going around each of those stars too? Do people live on those planets? Isn’t that quite a lot to think about …? Let’s return to Earth and our Solar System! How did the Solar System get its name? “Sol” is the Spanish word for sun, as we saw earlier. Solar is the adjective formed, so when the word solar is used it tells that the object has some connection to the sun. Do you remember? Two examples of this are solar energy and solar cooker. Were those two examples any that you listed? Do try to name a few others. The Solar System is about the family of the Sun. Look again at the diagram of the Solar System and answer the questions which follow.

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Name the planets of the Solar System in order from the sun outwards. Which planet is the third from the sun? Which planet is (a) furthest from the sun? (b) closest to the sun? 4 In which part of the Solar System is the sun found? 5 Which planet is the largest? 6 On which planet do you live? (These questions are easily answered from the diagram and the poem.)

There are eight known planets in our Solar System. The word, known, is important to note here as the planets were not all discovered at the same time. They were discovered over a number of years. Perhaps YOU might be the scientist to discover another planet or two. Wouldn’t that be great?

Mercury is the planet that is closest to the Sun. Very high temperatures are experienced there. It is also quite a small planet.

Venus is known as the Morning Star or the Evening Star. It is often seen as a very bright object in the sky early in the morning or in the evening at certain times of the year.

Earth is our home. It is the third planet away from the Sun. we will explore our home planet later.

Mars is the planet after Earth. Of all the other planets it is the one most “similar” to Earth. Note that it is not like earth really; but when compared with the other planets, it is the one that is most similar. Long ago we used to joke about the big-headed men from Mars.

Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System. It is the largest of the giant planets, the others being Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Besides Earth, there seems to be no life as we know it on the planets. We know that all the planets go around the Sun at different speeds and in different orbital paths. Isn’t it amazing that they never do collide? Most of the planets have a moon or moons going around them. Do you know how many moons go around Jupiter? For next week find out the number of moons that revolve around each planet.

Wasn’t it fun learning about the Solar System? We will find out more about the Earth and the Sun next.

Until next week, goodbye Boys and Girls!