Relative Size of Planets using 3 Pounds of Play-doh (11-3 thru 11-9)

Work through the attached pdf to explore creating all of the planets (including Pluto) to scale using Play-doh.  When you are done, you will have a ratio of planets of

PLANET                                              RELATIVE SIZE

Jupiter                                                 1,200,000

Saturn                                                    718,000

Neptune                                                   40,000

Uranus                                                     40,000

Earth                                                         1,000

Venus                                                          900

Mars                                                              90

Mercury                                                            9

Pluto                                                               1

The Sun                                        1,960,000,000

Yes, the Sun is 1,960,000 times bigger than Earth and the Sun is 1,633 times bigger than Jupiter

What can you do at home this week to reinforce these concepts?

Buy three pounds of Play-doh at Toys r Us for $6 and do this activity with your parents and siblings.

Use the Play-doh to practice cutting up wholes into different parts such as one-half, into thirds, fourths, fifths and so on.

Now for the real fun stuff. Every meal you eat can be a fraction fantasy. Cut up a hamburger, chicken, or other solid food into a certain number of equal parts. You can even use your Halloween candy.

I used to cut up a piece of steak at a restaurant ($10 back in the '70s) into 10 pieces (each $1) and then each piece into quarters, nickles, etc. Name the fraction each time you do this.

Rectangular food is cut up differently than circular food like pizza.