• The first person to go to space was a Russian man named Yuri Gagarin, in 1961.
• The sun is a big ball of gas that pulls other planets in towards it!
• There are 8 planets in our solar system and they all follow a pattern moving around the sun.
• Have you ever heard of a shooting star? That's actually a comet, flying very fast and close to earth which makes then burn up.
• All of our planets, except from Earth, are named after Greek or Roman Gods and Goddesses.

This topic appears in Block 5 of our vocabulary curriculum and is recommended for learners aged between 8 - 11 years old. The content of this non-fiction topic is aligned to the KS2 National Curriculum.

During this topic learners will encounter lots of challenging tier 2 vocabulary and many multi-modal activities that encourage them to identify synonyms and antonyms, associate vocabulary with images, use the vocabulary within sentences and free writing activities.

The KS2 Science curriculum includes a topic called ‘Earth and Space’. Learning about the solar system through Bedrock’s curriculum is a great way to either pre-teach vocabulary and cultural capital around space, or to recap on vocabulary and knowledge already learned within classroom lessons.

Did you know that every planet, except from Earth, got their names from Greek and Roman gods or goddesses? This is because early astronomers who discovered the planets wrote in Latin. This topic about the solar system can provide learners with cultural capital around ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.