my thrd grader is working on a solar system project. how do i help him design an asteroid, comet, and star?

Question

Each of these are considered to five points each. We bought the Solar System kit at Michael's but it only provided the sun and nine planets. Any ideas would be apreciated. I know the asteroids fall between Mars and Jupiter, but what should we make it out of? Grey clay? A comet is ice, gas, and rock debris? A star is a ball of fire?

More info: The project is made of styrofoam balls cut to proportiante size orbiting the sun on wires that pop into it. I believe I could just a few wires with star, asteroids, and a comet attached to the end?

Answer 1

Blow up a balloon, paper mache. Flour, water & paper. You can make it whatever size you want by the size of the balloon you'll be using. The paper will determine the color. Have different colors at different stages of making your "pinata" like project. You could use food coloring for colors too, on tissue paper. Then layer it say -- yellow as the start then add darker colors letting some of the yellow show through or accept the color it makes by adding other colors on top. Or start with a darker color and go to lighter ones. This should be an easy way to get exactly what you're looking for.

Nasa has these wonderful papermodels of space ships. You might want to add one or some to your project. Take a look at this link, click on the picture of the space ship and up pops a pdf file of each one. They are printable, cut, paste projects.

Have fun and good luck.

Answer 2

It would help to know what the kit provided. An asteroid could be a potato - the uglier the better. A star could be a light bulb. Maybe a mini flashlight sorta thing. The comet will require a close up model made of poly resin unless you're satisfied with a ball of styrofoam with cotton pulled out from it, maybe with sand and dirt mixed in...

Answer 3

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroid Belt, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. (Note: Pluto isn't a planet anymore, it is been demoted). Not counting the asteroid belt, there's a practical option to consider the order: Take the primary letter of every planet: MVEMJSUN. This abbreviates this: My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nachos.

Answer 4

technically the kit is wrong since pluto is no longer considered a planet....
clay would be good for the comment
how about buying the glow in the dark stars I actually just saw them at a drugstore in the toy section for under $
but i guess you would have to hang them depending on what the base is for the actual project