The eight planets
1Read
Our Sun has eight planets going around it. In order from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Many students remember them with a sentence: ‘My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles’.
The first four — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars — are small and rocky. You could stand on them. Mars is called the red planet because its soil is full of rusty iron.
The outer four are giants made mostly of gas. Jupiter is so big that all the other planets could fit inside it. Saturn has beautiful rings made of ice and rock.
Pluto used to be called the ninth planet. In 2006, scientists decided it was too small and now call it a dwarf planet. So the answer today is eight.
2Words to learn
3Check your understanding
4Explain it
Speaking challenge
Say the eight planets in order from memory, then describe one of them.
Say it out loud. Nobody is listening — that’s the point. Mistakes are allowed.