Roll Out the Solar System

6th grade students found a very unusual use for a very common household item. They used toilet paper to help create a model of our solar system. Students carefully unrolled approximately 500 squares of the cottony white stuff down and around the floor of the hallway. Students placed a large cutout, representing the sun, at the start of the roll. Then they placed models of each planet a proportinal distance from the sun, using the squares as a guide. They learned that Earth should be placed only 9 sheets away from the sun, while Pluto landed 365 sheets away! The model gave students a good idea of just how large our solar system is.
The sixth grade demonstrates the distance between the planets using toilet paper. Math, science and reading are taught all in one lesson.