DIY Solar System Model

In the summer I found this tutorial from The Crafty Homeschool Mama for making our own paper mache model of the planets.  I was immediately sure we’d make it this year while we learned about the solar system.  Why?

1. It will help us learn the names and characteristic features of the planets.

2. It’s creative work that we can keep and put on display.

3. It’s fun!

We did a few things differently than the tutorial, so I wanted to share them with you.  First, we used the instructions in the back of the Foundations guide (p.122, 3rd edition) to make a semi-proportional solar system.  I was really just concerned with getting them either small, medium, or big.  Thankfully, the graph in the Foundations guide recommended easy shapes to follow, like marbles, golf balls, tennis balls, and soccer balls.  For the marble size planets, we simply crumpled newspapers and taped them into ball shapes.

Next, we followed the recommendation of the tutorial to paper mache all the planets at one time.  In one night, I did the first coat, hooked up a fan to blow near them, and left them to dry for about twelve hours.  A few days later, I repeated the same steps again.  Because I only used two balloons and the rest were solid materials – rolled up newspaper, golf balls, and tennis balls, I thought two coats would suffice.  Crossing my fingers that proves true.  For the rest of the directions and more details, read Joanna’s easy-to-follow tutorial (with lots of pictures!).

Here are our most of our planets primed and ready for acrylic paint. A little at a time, we’ll paint each planet based on images found in books and online. I wanted to share it now, before we’re finished, so if you’re interested, you can start your own model.

If you make one, I’d love to see pictures of your models!