Solar System Planets - Montessori EYFS
A hands-on solar system activity for EYFS and KS1. Children cut out nine planets and place them in order from the Sun onto a painted night-sky mat, then check their own work.
What children will explore
Order of the planets - which body comes next as you travel outward from the Sun
Distance from the Sun - that each planet sits further out than the last, and the order never changes
Naming and vocabulary - every planet named, read and matched independently
Relative size - Jupiter the largest and Mercury the smallest, in the correct order of size
Self-correction - each position on the mat is labelled, so children check their own work rather than waiting to be told
Meet the planets
The Sun - the star at the centre of it all
Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars - the four small rocky planets
Jupiter and Saturn - the gas giants, one of them ringed with ice
Uranus and Neptune - the ice giants, one pale green and one deep blue
The Moon - included as Earth’s own satellite, for the word as much as the body
What’s inside - 9 pages
Two ordering mats: A4 for table work, A2 for floor work
A printer-friendly version of each mat, using a fraction of the ink
Cut-out planets in two sizes, one set scaled for each mat
A how to use page covering printing, cutting and assembly
Why teachers and parents love this pack
Every target circle on the mat is identical, so the activity cannot be solved by matching a shape to a hole. Children have to know the order.
The printed names make the material self-correcting, which frees the adult to observe rather than mark
Planets are painted from the real thing, with correct colours and features and no cartoon faces
The A4 mat suits one child at a table; the A2 mat suits a pair or a small group on the carpet
It grows with the class: start with placing, move on to naming, then to ordering from memory
Reusable. Add hook-and-loop dots once, laminate if you like, and it lasts for years
Scissors are the only thing you need
Instant PDF download, 9 pages. A4, also fits US Letter. The two large mat pages are A2 and can be printed at a copy shop or scaled to fit at home. Print as many copies as you need for your class or family.




















