📖 ReadingGrade 2Lesson 23
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Read About the Earth and Space

Lesson preview: the Mini Lesson and Vocabulary are open to everyone. Guided practice, exercises, the parent checklist and the printable PDF worksheet come with full access (free 7-day trial or membership).

Learning Objectives

  • 1Read a nonfiction text about Earth and space
  • 2Recall key facts about our planet and the solar system
  • 3Explain what was learned in my own words
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Mini Lesson

Look up at the night sky and you can see hundreds of stars. Our planet Earth is part of a huge family of planets — and there is so much to discover about it!

Planet Earth — the basics

  • Earth is the third planet from the sun in our solar system.
  • It is the only planet known to have liquid water on its surface and to support life.
  • Earth has three main layers: the crust (the rocky outer surface), the mantle (hot, slowly moving rock), and the core (the very hot center, partly molten iron).
  • Earth takes 365 days (one year) to travel once around the sun, and 24 hours (one day) to spin once on its axis.

The solar system

  • Our solar system has eight planets that orbit the sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
  • The sun is a star at the center. It gives off light and heat that make life on Earth possible.
  • A helpful trick to remember the order: "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos."

The moon and space exploration

  • Earth’s moon is a large ball of rock that orbits our planet. It causes ocean tides by pulling on Earth’s water with its gravity.
  • In 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon during NASA’s Apollo 11 mission.
  • Today, scientists use telescopes, satellites, and space probes to continue exploring the solar system and beyond.
The eight planets of our solar system in order from the sunThe sun on the left followed by eight planet circles in order: Mercury, Venus, Earth (highlighted), Mars, Jupiter, Saturn with rings, Uranus, and Neptune, along a dashed orbital line.The Solar SystemSunMerc.VenusEarthMarsJupiterSaturnUranusNeptuneMemory trick:My Very Educated MotherJust Served Us Nachos
The eight planets in order from the sun, with the memory trick shown below.
Earth's three main layersA cross-section circle showing Earth's three layers from outside to inside: the green-blue crust, the orange mantle, and the red core at the center, each labeled.Layers of the EarthcrustmantlecoreFast Fact:Earth is about 4.5 billion years old!
A cross-section of Earth showing its three layers — crust, mantle, and core.
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Ask yourself: "What is one fact about Earth? What is the order of the planets? What has space exploration achieved?"

Vocabulary
Planet
A large round object that moves in a path around a stare.g. Earth is the third planet from the sun.
Orbit
The curved path one object takes around another in spacee.g. The moon orbits Earth once every 27 days.
Solar system
The sun and everything that moves around it — planets, moons, and other objectse.g. Our solar system has eight planets.
Crust
The thin, rocky outer layer of Earth that we live one.g. Mountains and oceans sit on the crust.
Gravity
A force that pulls objects toward each other; Earth’s gravity keeps us on the grounde.g. The moon’s gravity causes the tides.
Astronaut
A person trained to travel and work in spacee.g. Neil Armstrong was the first astronaut to walk on the moon.
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