Craft a Hanging Planet Mobile

Many kids are fascinated by the planets, and this project only serves to increase their attraction. Help your child make his very own hanging mobile that can be proudly displayed in his room. Use recycled pieces of cardboard, along with tempera paints and glitter, to create a mobile version of the planets in the solar system. With the help of some heavy gauge wire formed into a circle, the planets can be hung around the central sun using fishing wire. Not only will he make a cool mobile and learn about balance, but he'll explore the planets and their characteristics, too.

What You Need:

• Cardboard boxes
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Circle shapes to trace around
• Tempera paint
• Hole punch
• Fishing line
• 20-gauge craft wire

What You Do:

1. Start by looking at pictures of the planets to help your child learn more about each planet and its order in the solar system.
2. Your child can use a sheet of paper to sketch out the planets and their order, along with interesting characteristics of each planet that will come in handy as he's creating them out of cardboard.
3. Find a cardboard box that your child can use for his planet mobile. Help him find and trace around circle objects, such as plates, bowls, and glasses to create the circles for the planets. Don’t forget to make a large circle for the sun!
4. Now your child can cut out the circles from the cardboard with scissors. This might be a bit challenging for some kids, so provide a helping hand as needed!
5. Invite your child to paint each planet with tempera paints, making them look like they really do in outer space! He can use his sketch as motivation to remember each planet’s interesting characteristics.
6. Once the planets are dry, punch a hole so he can thread with a piece of fishing line and tie a knot securing the cardboard planet to the end of the length of fishing line.
7. Now create the base for the mobile using a cut 2-foot length of 20-gauge wire formed into a circle and twisted together to hold it in place.
8. Position another length of wire across the circle, cutting it in half. Secure the wire by twisting it to the circle of wire. This piece will allow the sun to hang in the center of the mobile, and also hang from a hook in the ceiling.
9. Your child can tie the sun along the central length of wire, allowing it to fall in the middle of the circle. When your child ties the sun to the wire, he can leave an extra amount to loop and then tie for hanging the mobile.
10. Now, invite him to arrange the planets around the sun on the circle of wire. He can experiment with placement of the planets to create a balanced mobile that doesn’t fall or tip too far in one direction.
11. When your child is happy with the arrangement of the planets, help him hang the mobile somewhere he can enjoy looking at it and remember what he learned about the planets.