The Sun, Earth and Moon are approximately spherical: like balls, not flat circles. A page circle stands for a three-dimensional body. The eight planets orbit the Sun. Earth’s Moon orbits Earth while Earth and Moon also travel around the Sun. A simple diagram can show these relationships without showing true sizes or distances. Safety: Paper labels only; no small balls needed and no Sun viewing. Stop: Stop at the model relationships. No exact orbit period, size calculation or ninth-planet search is required.

Materials: Paper; Pencil; Nine paper labels and one smaller Moon label 1. Make labels for Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Add a smaller Moon label. On the page draw eight nested paths around a Sun dot. Label schematic: not size or distance scale; actual paths are slightly elliptical. 2. Put one planet label on each path in this exact inner-to-outer order: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. All labels can sit at different angles; the planets need not form a straight line. 3. Near Earth draw a separate small Moon path and place the Moon label on it. Draw a broad arrow following Earth’s path around the Sun. Move both Earth and its Moon label together a short way along that path, without pretending to reproduce their real speeds. 4. Draw three sphere symbols for Sun, Earth and Moon: circles with a curved centre line to suggest roundness. Say what each circle represents and why a real body is not a flat disk. 5. Adult names Neptune, Mars, Earth and Jupiter. Learner locates them, retells the eight-planet order and explains the Moon’s linked movements. Done: Finish eight correctly ordered planets, the nested Moon path and three sphere symbols. Proof: Keep the labelled model. Note whether the learner used the supplied order while placing or retelling names. Stop: Stop at the model relationships. No exact orbit period, size calculation or ninth-planet search is required.