The solar system for kids : printables to color

Here are five free pages of the solar system printables for kids to color. Our children always loved anything to do with space ever since they were very young.

solar system coloring page showing the sun in the upper left corner and all the planets in orbit

How do you explain the solar system to kids in simple terms?

“Our solar system consists of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it by gravity – the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; dwarf planets such as Pluto; dozens of moons; and millions of asteroids, comets, and meteoroids.” – NASA

“The Solar System is made up of the Sun and all of the smaller objects that move around it. Apart from the Sun, the largest members of the Solar System are the eight major planets. Nearest the Sun are four fairly small, rocky planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.” – European Space Agency

How do you introduce a child to the solar system?

Make it fun! There are tons of age appropriate books to look at together, such as National Geographic Readers: Planets. There are other cute books out there, but I like this one the best the photographs of the real planets are so stunning. It sparked lots of questions from our kids, which made for a fun conversation.

You can also explore the moon, with a telescope, and these phase of the moon printables.

There are great videos on Youtube to watch together, such as this one from Storybots.

You can do stargazing in your backyard, or visit the planetarium. Don’t forget to try the astronaut ice cream!

A little outside the solar system, but still space related – Star Wars is always a favorite among kids. They’ll love building an Ewok catapult from this Star Wars science activity.

How to use these solar system printables:

Simply click the link below, download, and print out at full page size. The individual planets are fun to color, cut out and hang up, Turn your room into outer space!