How can you tell they’ve got it: Planet Features?

If they’ve got it, you’ll see things like: State one distinctive feature for at least six of the eight planets; Compare at least two planets (e.g. Jupiter is much bigger than Earth, Venus is hotter than Mercury); Explain why Mars appears red (iron oxide/rust in its rocks). Or just try it together: If you named a planet, could your child tell you one interesting fact about it — like Saturn's rings or Jupiter's Great Red Spot?

Science Space Exploration Ages 7–9

Planet Features

Your child can share a fact about each planet. Saturn has rings, Jupiter has a Great Red Spot, and Mars looks red because its rocks are rusty.

In curriculum terms

Describe a key feature of each planet: Mercury is smallest and closest, Venus is the hottest, Mars is red with rust, Jupiter is the largest with a Great Red Spot, Saturn has rings, Uranus tilts on its side, Neptune is the farthest and very cold

Ages are typical, not deadlines — follow your child’s pace. How to help at home →

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

State one distinctive feature for at least six of the eight planets
Compare at least two planets (e.g. Jupiter is much bigger than Earth, Venus is hotter than Mercury)
Explain why Mars appears red (iron oxide/rust in its rocks)

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Try this together

If you named a planet, could your child tell you one interesting fact about it — like Saturn's rings or Jupiter's Great Red Spot?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on

The Eight Planetsages 7–9Must know the planet names before learning features of each

Planet Featuresthis skill · ages 7–9

Unlocks

Space Robots & Roversages 7–9Knowing Mars features provides context for understanding what rovers are exploring

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Where this fits in the official school curriculum — our best automated guess, not yet checked by a person.

Show candidate curriculum codes · 1 ACARA · 1 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9S2U01low confidenceYear 2 · Science understanding

recognise Earth is a planet in the solar system and identify patterns in the changing position of the sun, moon, planets and stars in the sky

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2S2U08low confidenceScience · Foundation to Level 2 · Science Understanding strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

Asteroids, Comets & Dwarf Planetsages 7–9 Earth's Spin & Orbitages 7–9 How Telescopes Workages 7–9 Space Robots & Roversages 7–9

All Space Exploration skills →