Students sort and compare the eight planets on this 3rd grade solar system sheet. Page 1 is a two-column chart, inner planets and outer planets, with a word bank of the eight names. Page 2 gives eight fact cards to place in a Venn diagram, such as rocky surface, made mostly of gas or ice, have rings and orbit the Sun. Page 3 is the answer key for both parts.
“Sort the eight planets into inner planets and outer planets.”
Part 1 splits them four and four.
“Describe how inner and outer planets differ in size, surface, moons and rings.”
The cards small, rocky surface and few or no moons go with the inner planets, and very large, gas or ice and rings go with the outer ones.
“Use a Venn diagram to show what two groups share.”
Orbit the Sun and are planets belong in the middle.
Students write Earth, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Venus in the correct column of a chart with four rows for each group.
Eight cards from small to have few or no moons. Students write each fact in the inner circle, the outer circle or the part where the two circles overlap.
The sorted chart with Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars on one side and Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune on the other, and the three Venn lists.
Draw the line first
Before page 1, put a dotted line on the board between Mars and Jupiter and tell students the asteroid belt lies there. It gives them a reason for the split.
Cards out loud
Read each fact card aloud and ask where it goes before anyone writes. Disagreements about rings and moons turn into good talk.
The overlap check
Ask what belongs in the middle once the circles are filled. Only two cards do, and students who put more there have usually missed that they describe all eight planets.
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