How To | Solar System Mobile

Anyone else have a Space lover in their house? I talked earlier this summer about the great book we found called 13 Planets: The Latest View of the Solar System by David Aguilar. My son is still loving this book and it inspired us to create a planet mobile together. I found this great kit at a Michaels store that had all the Styrofoam balls in it and also included the ring for Saturn. I used this kit as a great start for making our mobile.

Supplies:

• Creatology Solar System Kit from Michaels
• Long piece of wire
• Fishing Line
• Acrylic Paints
• Paintbrush
• Paper Plate
• Scissors

How To:

We created our mobile over a series of days. We had to let our planets dry before we could assemble the mobile.

1. Lay out all the Styrofoam balls from the kit. You will not need to use the sticks that are included, but save the longest one for poking holes. The side panel of the box tells you which size ball represents what planet. It also tells you what color each planet should be.
2. Use acrylic paints to paint your planets the appropriate colors. To create the swirled paint effect, say for the Sun, I squirted red, orange and yellow acrylic paint all in one spot on a paper plate. My son used the paintbrush to slightly swirl the three colors together and then he started painting the Styrofoam ball for the Sun. The swirl effect of the paint transferred to the brush and created a cool look when painted on the ball. This was actually his idea!
3. Continue to paint all the planets. We poked a toothpick in the bottom of each planet as it was done being painted and poked the other end of the toothpick into the extra Styrofoam flat ring that came in the box.
4. After the planets are completely dry, use one of the long sticks to poke a hole through each planet.
5. Cut a long piece of fishing line for each planet (decide beforehand how far you want your planets to hang). For each planet thread the fishing line through the hole and run the line up the outside of the planet and tie a knot at the top.
6. Bend your wire into a slight spiral shape. Tie the Sun in the center of the spiral and then each planet in its appropriate spot, vary the heights of the planets when you are tying.
7. When all the planets have been tied onto the spiral wire use four more pieces of fishing line to create a way to hang the mobile. Tie the pieces of fishing line to the spiral in evenly space increments so that the mobile will be balanced when hanging. Join all the pieces at the top and tie them off in a knot leaving a small loop for a hook.
8. Hang your mobile in a bedroom and admire your work.