On this particular morning Nixie woke up and wanted to do a project about the solar system so we decided to make our own DIY solar system diorama. It's funny how a topic that hasn't been mentioned really in months can all of a sudden come back with such a vengeance! There was a very long period where all she wanted to do was learn about the planets, listen to planet songs and watch anything to do with planets and our solar system. Maybe it was reignited by all the constellation stuff we've been doing lately.

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Since she didn't give me much time to think of a project I had to think of something super quick and something easy. I did my usual scroll of looking through pinterest for ideas and came across this idea of a solar system diorama. I was excited to be able to use our LED lights which we had used for our constellation project.

Materials Needed

  • cardboard box
  • back acrylic paint
  • solar system cut outs (I just bought these off of Etsy and then cut them out and laminated them and printed the sun bigger to fit on the side of the box)
  • Led Lights
  • tape (I used masking tape)
  • wide double sided tape
  • tin foil

First all you need to do is paint your box black. The kids loved doing this and it was something that Forrest could easily help with too.

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Next glue your sun to the left side of the box and take your planet cut-outs and attach string to them and make holes in the top of the box with a sharp scissor to where you want them to go.  Again this was something Forrest could help out with which made him so happy! Then place pieces of tape on top of the string to hold it in place.

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Next poke lots and lots of holes into the back of the box for the LED lights. Then begin putting each individual light into the holes and tape the string down as you go along. At the end make sure the battery pack is towards the edge of the box so it doesn't show up when you light it up and tape them down.

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This last step isn't really necessary but we liked the way it looks with the tinfoil. I used double sided sticky tape to hold it in place and then just bent it to fit around the edges. And then that's it! You solar system diorama is complete and it even works as a brilliant night light! 

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