Printable guide · ages 6–8

Piko’s Space Models

Ask the child to say the clue or the reason before choosing: who goes around whom, which half is lit, how far along the ring. Each lesson has four short explanations, three activities and a separate showing task. The pictures are simple models of space. They are not drawn to scale unless a picture says so, and they do not replace looking at the real sky. Every closed task has one accepted end state.

Materials: The screen is enough. Optional: a ball and a torch in a dim room with a grown-up, to see that a lamp lights only the half of the ball that faces it; a ruler or a 30 cm strip of paper; a calendar page. Never shine a torch at anyone’s eyes, and never look at the real Sun. No telescope, night outing, photo, recording, account or timer is needed.

Open the lessons

What to notice

Notice whether the child uses what is in the picture, such as which body is in the middle, where the golden dot is or which side of the Moon is bright, instead of remembering an earlier answer, and whether they can say why. Pointing, speaking and moving cards are all fine.

Ask “What in the picture tells you that?” or “What does this model leave out?” A star records this lesson task on this device; it does not assess development, diagnose or certify mastery.

Lesson 1

The Sun, Earth and Moon model

Goal: Say what goes around what in the Sun, Earth and Moon model: Earth goes around the Sun, and the Moon goes around Earth.

Use the pictures as models. In the real Solar System everything moves. Strictly, Earth and the Moon circle a shared point that lies inside Earth, but “the Moon goes around Earth” is the right level here. The pictures are not to scale. Ask the child for a whole sentence, such as “The Moon goes around Earth.” Nothing needs to be seen in the sky.

Starting point: Show the first picture and ask the child to find the body in the middle of the dotted ring.
A helpful phrase: “Which body is on the ring, and what is it going around?”
A common mix-up: Children often think the Sun goes around Earth, because it seems to move across the sky. The pictures show Earth going around the Sun; leave the sky-watching for the day-and-night lesson.
Notice the transfer: Give a new pair, such as Mars and the Sun, and ask the child to tell the story with the same words.

Show: A new place: Mars, with its two small moons. Put each body in its place.

Lesson 2

Earth spins on its axis

Goal: Show that Earth spins around its own axis, a line through the North and South Poles, and tell this spin from the trip around the Sun.

Earth’s axis is an imagined line, and it is tilted a little compared with Earth’s path around the Sun; the picture shows the tilt. The tilt and the seasons can wait. The two ideas to keep apart are spinning in one place and going around something. Turning the child’s own body is not needed; a toy top or a coin spun on a table with a grown-up is enough.

Starting point: Show the Earth picture and ask the child to point to the line it turns around.
A helpful phrase: “Does it stay in one place while it turns, or does it travel somewhere?”
A common mix-up: Children use “turn” for both. Ask “around what?”: around itself is a spin, around the Sun is a trip.
Notice the transfer: Show a toy top or a spinning pencil and ask the child to say whether it spins or makes a trip.

Show: Mars and Earth both move in two ways. Sort each picture: a spin in one place, or a trip around another body?

Lesson 3

How day and night happen

Goal: Tell, from a picture, whether a marked place on Earth is in day or in night, and say that Earth’s spin carries the place from one to the other.

The pictures show a simple model: the Sun is far away, so it lights the whole half of Earth that faces it. At the edge between light and dark it is sunrise or sunset; in the picture the dot at the edge is leaving the light, so it is evening. Do not point a lamp at anyone’s eyes. Mars spins too, so it also has day and night.

Starting point: Ask the child to find the Sun first, then the golden dot, and to say which half the dot is on.
A helpful phrase: “Which half faces the Sun? Is the dot on that half?”
A common mix-up: Some children say night comes because the Sun goes away or the Moon covers it. Bring them back to the picture: our place turned away from the Sun.
Notice the transfer: Ask the child to tell the story of one place over a whole day: light, evening, dark, and back to light.

Show: Mars spins too, so it has day and night. Touch every picture where the golden dot is in the dark.

Lesson 4

Orbit: a trip takes a year

Goal: Say that Earth’s orbit is its path around the Sun, and that one whole trip along it takes one year.

Earth’s orbit is nearly a circle, and the real year is about 365 and a quarter days, which is why we add a leap day every fourth year. This lesson only needs “one trip around the Sun is one year”. Planets farther from the Sun have longer paths and move more slowly, so their years are longer.

Starting point: Point at the flag and ask the child what the flag marks.
A helpful phrase: “How far round the ring is Earth now? How much of the year is that?”
A common mix-up: A day and a year both involve Earth moving. Ask “around what?” again: a day is a spin on its axis, a year is a trip around the Sun.
Notice the transfer: Ask the child to say how long the same trip would take for a planet with a bigger ring, and why.

Show: Piko drew three planets, each on its own orbit. Which planet takes the longest to go once around the Sun?

Lesson 5

The eight planets in order

Goal: Put the eight planets in order from the Sun, from Mercury to Neptune, and say that Pluto is a dwarf planet and not one of the eight.

Each planet picture has a listen button where the name matters. A short sentence the child makes up is a good way to remember the order. Pluto was counted as a planet until 2006; scientists now call it a dwarf planet. The pictures are simple drawings and are not to scale.

Starting point: Say the order together, pointing along the row, and stop at Earth.
A helpful phrase: “Which planet is just before this one? Which is just after?”
A common mix-up: Children may say that Pluto is the ninth planet because older books do. Say that scientists now call it a dwarf planet.
Notice the transfer: Ask the child to make up their own short sentence for the order, and to say it twice.

Show: Piko says there are nine planets. Which of these is not one of the eight?

Lesson 6

Rocky planets and giant planets

Goal: Sort the eight planets into the four small rocky planets near the Sun and the four giant planets farther out.

Rocky planets are also called terrestrial planets. The four giants are the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. A giant has no hard surface to stand on. Sizes in the pictures are not to scale, except in the Jupiter and Earth picture. Nothing needs to be seen in the sky.

Starting point: Show the row of eight planets and ask the child where the rocky planets end and the giants begin.
A helpful phrase: “Is it small with hard ground, or huge with none? Where is it from the Sun?”
A common mix-up: Rings or heat may lead the child astray. Venus is very hot and rocky; Saturn has rings and is a giant.
Notice the transfer: Name a planet and ask the child to say its family and the reason, in one sentence.

Show: A new group of planets. Touch every rocky planet.

Lesson 7

The Moon’s changing looks

Goal: Say that the Sun always lights half of the Moon, and name four looks of the Moon, new moon, crescent, first quarter and full moon, by how much of the lit half we can see.

The Moon is always half lit by the Sun. At full moon the whole lit half faces us, and at new moon the lit half faces away. Seen from the northern half of the world, the bright part of a growing Moon is on the right, as in the pictures. Earth’s shadow is the reason for a lunar eclipse only. Watching the real Moon from a window with a grown-up is optional, and the real Sun is never looked at.

Starting point: Show the first picture and ask where the Sun is and which half of the Moon is bright.
A helpful phrase: “Which side of the Moon faces the Sun? How much of that side can we see?”
A common mix-up: Many people think Earth’s shadow makes the Moon’s looks. The looks come from how much of the lit half we see.
Notice the transfer: Ask the child to move a finger along the four looks in order and say what changes each time.

Show: The Sun is on the left of the Moon. Touch every picture where the Sun lights the Moon the right way.

Lesson 8

When a model is not to scale

Goal: Say that a picture of the Sun, Earth and Moon is a model that is not to scale: it shows the order and who goes around whom, but not the real sizes and distances.

A model is useful because it leaves things out. Ask: what does this picture get right, and what does it get wrong? The real figures are for reading, not for remembering: the Sun is about 109 Earths wide, and the Moon is about 30 Earth-widths from Earth. The planets are far apart, and their gaps are very different from each other.

Starting point: Show the first model and ask what the child thinks it shows well.
A helpful phrase: “Is this true in real life? How could we find out?”
A common mix-up: A clear, bright picture can look real. Remind the child that a picture can be useful and still not be to scale.
Notice the transfer: Ask the child to name one thing a model can tell us and one thing it cannot.

Show: Piko lined up the Sun and the eight planets with equal gaps. Put each fact about this picture in its place.

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