Here is a fun and interactive way to teach children (and adults) about the solar system!

There's even a fun twist on the traditional spinner (and a bonus keepsake!) that takes it further than just "right hand on Pluto."

It's time for: Solar System Twister!

Step 1: What You'll Need

Here are the things you will need to begin your out-of-this-world adventure:

A large sheet, tarp, or item to be used as the base to your game (you will paint on this). I used an old queen-sized bed sheet because it's soft (less-slippery than plastic), and can be folded up tightly to take anywhere.
If you are using cloth (like a sheet), make sure to put a tarp or something under it (in the picture, you can see I used an old sleeping bag). If you don't put anything under it, the paint will seep through the porous fabric onto whatever is under it.
A large lid to a skillet, or other circular item that is the right diameter for putting feet on and the size of your base.
A ruler or tape measure (if you want to get technical about where your circles will go). I didn't use it, but you can if you'd like.
Paint in various colors. The colors you absolutely need are: red, yellow, orange, green, blue, brown, and black.
A sponge brush (if painting on cloth, otherwise use a regular paintbrush).
A thin-tipped brush (for writing words and outlining anything needed or painting details).
A poster board or other base for making the spinner.
A pen, pencil, crayons, markers, colored pencils, etc to draw the details on the spinner and color them in.
Glue (for adhering the facts to the spinner).
Computer with printer (or just have your kids write out the facts) for making the facts to put on the spinner.
Scissors
Split pins

NOTE: I had Tempera paint on-hand. The nice thing about this type of paint, versus acrylic paint, is that when used on cloth, it doesn't crinkle up and harden the fabric when dry (like acrylic paint does). It also has a kind of watercolor effect to it, which is pretty cool for this application. However, the downfalls to using this type of paint for this particular project are: it takes longer to dry (acrylic paint can be dried with a hairdryer very quickly), it isn't permanent and can't be washed (acrylic paint can be set by ironing it, and then becomes washable and permanent), and this paint bled when stepped on (when we played the game, it bled through on to the floor a bit--just the RED one though--and it got red on our feet and hands which transferred around the surface of the game a bit). However, it's all I had to use, so we made it work. :)

Step 2: Prep

OPTIONAL: If you are using fabric, lay down the protective barrier (mine was an old sleeping bag).

1. Place the game base down (mine was the sheet over the protective barrier).

2. Decide how many circles you need to fill up your game base. This will be dependent upon how many things from the solar system you want to include in your game and how that number can divide evenly. I used 10 total items repeated twice (one set of 10 on each half of the game base), for a total of 20 circles. I used: the sun, all eight planets, and Pluto. Basically, it's whatever you want to include facts about. I put my 20 circles into 4 rows of 5.

3. Using the skillet lid (or whatever you have on hand that's round and the right size), press down on the fabric game base OR use a pencil or permanent marker to trace around the circle onto the game base (if using a tarp or other material).

FUN FACT: If you are using fabric (such as a sheet), all you have to do is simply push down the lid into the fabric, and it makes the perfect circle imprint into your fabric that you can use as your outline for painting. No fabric markers necessary. :)

Step 3: The Sun

Contrary to the way the sun looks from earth--yellow--the sun is actually a giant orange-red-yellow mass. We wanted to reflect the way the things in our solar system look in real life, as if you were in outer space with them.

1. Using your foam or regular brush, outline the circle shape with your paint color choice.

2. Have your children paint the things you're including on the game...it makes it fun for them and less work for you ;)

3. Since we doubled everything on the game, we had to make 2 suns. My son decided to put the same star/planet/dwarf planet directly across from their same spot on the other side of the game base (so they were basically mirrored images of each other).

4. Label the sun with black paint and your thin headed paintbrush. NOTE: For labeling the items on the game, we mirrored the words so half the words were facing the long side of the sheet to the right, and half were facing the long side of the sheet to the left. That way they could be read from either side.

5. We took into account our paints, and in the effort not to waste them, we decided to do all the planets at the same time that used the red, yellow, or orange color scheme. Then we did the same thing for the cool tone planets (purple, blue, green). NOTE: The order I have them listed in this 'ible is not the same as the order we did them in.

Step 4: Mercury

Different pictures of Mercury will render different colors. Some look brown, while some look gray. Choose whichever you prefer. Knowing that the inner planets are rocky solids, we went with the brown-ish colored one.

1. Using your foam or regular brush, outline the circle shape with your paint color choice.
2. Have your children color in Mercury.

3. Repeat on the second half of the game.

4. Label the planet.

Step 5: Venus

Likewise, Venus looks different in different pictures. Some look more yellow, others look more brown. We used the image above that was a brilliant orange.