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21. Edible Solar System

Materials

• 8 inch paper plates (inexpensive ones)

• Compass

• Different sized hard candies to represent the planets

(butterscotch for the sun; red hots, Skittles, mints, etc.)

• Colored, large crystal, sugar (for the asteroid belt)

• Canned frosting

Procedure

  1. Using the compass, draw 9 concentric circles on the paper plate to represent the orbital paths of each planet.
  2. Using canned frosting, attach a "candy planet" on each path around a "candy" sun. *A butterscotch candy be used for the sun. The smaller planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Pluto should be represented with smaller candies, while the larger planets should be represented with larger candies. *Red spot on Jupiter, dark spot on Neptune, etc. can be shown by attaching smaller candies onto a larger candy. *String licorice can be used to depict the rings on the larger planets of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. *Colored sugar crystals should be sprinkled on between "Mars" and "Jupiter" to depict the asteroid belt.

Order of planets from the sun

Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto (At this time, Neptune is actually farthest, but normally Pluto has this distinction.)

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