Activities & Resources

Earth Yay!
Story Summary
When Earth gets a bit lonely, it decides to visit its
friends in the solar system. They’re all talented in
their own, special ways: Mercury is crazy fast, racing
around the sun four times faster than Earth. Uranus is
super cool, with sweet shades and temperatures that
can reach -371° F. Jupiter is not only big, but also light
on its feet when it dances.

So, what makes Earth special? It’s not the biggest,

Book Information or fastest, or coldest. Does that mean it’s the most
boring? Or is there something else that makes Earth
Run Time 9:36
a special place—even if it looks like just a tiny blue
Author Jonathan Sundy marble to everyone else?

Illustrator Jonathan Sundy

Lesson Focus
Narrator (Earth)–Natalie Lane; (Mercury)–Violet The Solar System
Zeremba; (Sun)–Ivo Stimpson; (Facts, Mars,
Jupiter)–Ryan Philbrook; (Venus)–Aria Nice;
(Saturn)–Lileina Joy; (Uranus)–Zachary
Stimpson; (Neptune)–Maggie Dinger
Activity Ideas
Publisher Vooks, Inc. Fact Cards
Create fact cards using the information from
Ages 6–8/K–2/410L–600L
Earth Yay!.
Genre Narrative nonfiction
Matching
Text Structure First person narrative
Create a matching sheet with the following
Themes & Ideas Solar system, friendship, self esteem information:
Language & Dialogue ● Mercury—the fastest planet
Literary Features
● Venus— the hottest plant
Sentence Simple sentences
● Mars—the reddest plant
Complexity
Vocabulary planets, zooms, churned, raddest, iron
● Jupiter—the lightest planet
oxide, rust, hydrogen, helium, abundance, ● Saturn—has rings
graceful, electrifying, boring ● Uranus—the coldest planet
Special Earth, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, ● Neptune—has the best view
Vocabulary Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, sun, moons,
surface temperature, asteroid belt, solar ● Earth—is full of life
system, universe, Kuiper belt
Illustrations Cute colorful illustrations depict the planets Additional activities can be found in the following
as lovable characters.
pages of this document.

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 Book Chat
NAME

Earth Yay!
While visiting the other planets, Earth learns its friends are all good Discuss the story and write your
at something. But what’s special about Earth? answers together.

What is Earth Yay! about?

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Have you ever felt like Earth felt when it thought all of the other
planets were better than it was? Who/what made you feel better?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

How are you special?

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you have a favorite planet? What makes it your favorite?

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Name the planets in the solar system.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

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 Vooks Pause & Ponder

Earth Yay! Pause at the indicated time

stamps and discuss the story

1:21 Is this a fair race? Why or why not.

2:24 What is the constellation the stars form?

7:42 How is Earth feeling here? What clues did you use?

7:49 Who is this? How do you know?

8:23 What makes Earth special?

8:28 How is Earth feeling here? What clues did you use?

After viewing the Book:

1. What facts did you learn from the story?

2. Which planet is the fastest? The biggest?

The coolest?

3. What are some things that you can do to make

Earth feel special?

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 Coloring Sheet NAME
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 Drawing and Writing NAME

Write a story about an adventure the planets might have.

Draw a picture of the story.

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________ .

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 Solar System KWL Chart NAME

Make a KWL chart about the solar system.

1. Write down what you already know about the

solar system.

2. What do you want to learn about the solar

system.

3. Research to find the answers to your questions

and write down what you learned.

Topic

The Solar System

What I Know What I Want to Know What I Learned

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 Solar System

Materials needed
• Paint Stirring Stick
• Paintbrush
• Paint (Black, Grey, White,
Blue, Red, Orange, Yellow,
Purple)
• Clothespins (8)
STEP 1
• Black Marker

Instructions
1. Paint the paint stirring stick
black and let it dry.

2. Paint the top of the stick STEP 2

yellow to represent the sun.

3. Paint the 8 planets in this

order and color:
● Mercury — Grey
● Venus — White
● Earth — Blue
● Mars — Red
● Jupiter — Orange
● Saturn — Yellow STEP 3
● Uranus — Blue
● Neptune — Purple

4. Write each planet’s name

MERCURY

NEPTUNE

on the clothespins. One per

URANUS
JUPITER

SATURN
VENUS

EARTH

MARS

clothespin and match up the

name with the planet. Now
you know which planets are
closest and furthest from
the sun!
STEP 4

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 Earth Yay!

Materials
● Paper Plate ● Paint or ● Scissors ● Sun and Planet
● Hole Punch Coloring ● Paintbrush Template or
● White Yarn Utensils Construction
Paper

Directions
Part 1: Paint Your Solar System

1. Start by painting the paper plate 2. Use a little bit of yellow and white
black and give it a minute to dry. paint to paint on some stars and
meteors.

Part 2: Make the Sun and Planets

1. Use provided planet template at
the end of this document and color
or paint the sun and planets. Then,
cut out the sun and planets.
2. If you are not using the provided
planet template, you will need an
assortment of colored construction
paper to make the sun and 9 planets.
Using different sized round items,
trace out your sun and planets on the
colored construction paper. Then, cut
out the sun and planets.

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 Part 3: Make Your Mobile

TOP VIEW SIDE VIEW

Punch holes

1. Get the dry galaxy plate and start
about 2” in and cut a spiral.
2. Punch a hole in the very center
of the spiral, the punch will be for
the hanger. Then, punch 9 more
holes, spaced out as the spiral
goes downward.
3. Punch a hole in the top and
bottom of the sun.
4. Cut about 1 yard of white yarn and
fold it in half. Then, weave it into the
holes you put in the sun leaving extra
on the end to hang the mobile.
5. Weave the ends of the yarn into the
very middle hole on the plate and
knot it.

Part 4: Put the Planets in Orbit

1. Line the planets up in order and
punch a hole in the top of each
planet.
2. Cut a piece of white yarn for
each planet. Then using the
yarn tie each planet to the holes
punched in the mobile, starting
with Mercury at the top and
Pluto at the bottom.

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 Sun and Planet Template

MERCURY
VENUS

SUN

EARTH MARS

JUPITER

SATURN URANUS NEPTUNE PLUTO

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