Violet has been obsessed with all things solar system ever since she started reading this book so I thought it’d be fun for us to attempt this project.

We had everything on hand. We set it up in about five minutes, worked for about an hour, and clean up took about five minutes. As craft projects go – ideal.

First we splatter painted our black construction paper with white acrylic paint to make the background. Violet wanted to make her stars with her fingers instead of splattering paint and that’s the fun of crafting with kids – letting them use their own creativity.

Once that was done, we drew our planets on watercolor paper using a circle template I had from my scrapbook days and then painted them in. This was a blast. Everyone worked so hard and Violet peppered us with Solar System factoids. For example, Jupiter is so large that all the other planets combined could fit inside of it. Pluto used to be considered a major planet but it’s really just a part of the Kuiper Belt. The gases on Venus make it the hottest planet in the solar system because it traps the suns heat and doesn’t let it escape back into the atmosphere. Basically, she made me feel stupid.

When we finished painting, we set them out to dry and had lunch. Then we cut them out and used a glue stick (I love glue sticks) to attach them to our “star paper”

Violet’s

Abram’s

Mine

Some how a few of my planets were stolen to finish out Violet and Abram’s systems, but that’s okay. I probably wouldn’t have used them all anyway. It was a great, simple project.