In this post I will be sharing my new free printable solar system educational poster for kids, perfect for your homeschool space or kid’s room decor.
First of all, my homeschool space is chaos
You know those totally adorable homeschool spaces shared on Instagram? I love those, don’t you? Well, mine is not like that, at least not right now.
Do you want to know what my homeschool space is? Chaos. Utter chaos!
The Back Story:
No matter how I try, we can’t homeschool in our perfectly good basement space. We always homeschool in the kitchen and do morning basket in the living room (unless we are outside!). That is what works for us since I am always cooking from scratch and “out of sight, out of mind” is accurate when it comes to me and something on the stovetop.
I have decided to just go with it and incorporate homeschool storage into our kitchen and dining area. No problem, until…
This Christmas break we started a kitchen renovation!
I am super thrilled that our budget allowed us to begin our kitchen renovation earlier than expected, however it started because our dishwasher was leaking under the floorboards so I wasn’t actually ready and I didn’t have things planned out and ordered yet.
This process may be a bit slow! Does anyone want to see my ideas? Let me know in comments if you do!
Making free printables is theraputic
Since I am trying to accept that we will have months now of slightly-or-completely chaotic kitchen, dining, and homeschool space, I am comforting myself with designing adorable educational posters for you all to use.
Studying the Solar System
Inspired by this beautiful Usborne book, we have been really interested in the Solar System.
It also happened to be Winter Sky Week in our Exploring Nature With Children curriculum so that timing happened nicely!
One thing led to another, as it does with home educating (am I right?!) and during “quiet time” (ask me how that’s going…) I designed a Solar System poster.
Why you should use educational posters in your homeschool
1. Print Posters are Effective
There is a reason you still see posters in doctor’s offices and on buses, even in the digital age. Posters are statistically significant in relaying information. And they have a long history! In ancient Rome the daily news was posted in public places and even painted onto whitewashed boards to be displayed on walls. For more on the modern poster, checkout this article.
2. Print posters increase print awareness
Print awareness is one of the five critical pre-reading skills for early literacy. Essentially it means that you want young children to understand that print represents words and communication. Adding more print around the home helps this to occur naturally.
3. Print posters increase visual literacy
Visual literacy has been around since the era of cave paintings, but the ability to synthesize information from images has never been more relevant for education than it is today. Visual information is transferred faster than print, and it is retained better. Exposure to photographs, paintings, graphic design, infographics, charts, graphs and other types of media are an essential part of education.
Solar System Poster Details
Medium Educational Poster Size
This free printable solar system poster is a medium size 18×24 digital download poster that I think would work really well for decor in a kid’s bedroom or playroom in addition to a homeschool or classroom educational setting. I initially had it in a 24×36 size but I realized that would be way too large for most people’s spaces. Let me know in comments what poster size you prefer!
Poster with bold colours and dark background
I wanted this poster to appeal to kids so I made sure to make the colours bold and high contrast with the dark background. These are not to scale (of course) but I did try to make the planets generally scaled so kids can easily recognize which planet is which!
Solar System Labels for literacy
All the planets and major celestial bodies are clearly labelled on this poster for increased print awareness for young children. Young children are exposed to fewer capital letters so I made the design choice to use block capitals on this poster for added “big letter” practice.
Cute Details
I think it is pretty cute! The kids requested an alien so that added a little whimsy. I decided to add a couple more delightful details to increase interest without detracting from the educational aspects. For instance, kids could discuss their favourite colour planet and whether or not the planets really appear these colours or not. -+
I love making free printables
As I was making it I really wanted to keep going and do a moon phase wall chart too! I will keep you posted if that becomes a reality. Let me know if that is something that interests you!
Be sure to check out my other free printables while you’re here.
Come check out our new group, Kindling Wild Community, where we can connect!
Get your free printable solar system poster here
Drop your email in the box below to subscribe and your printable PDF poster of the solar system will be emailed to you. If your kids love the solar system, please check out my Free Printable Solar System Colouring Pages while you are here!
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Ohhh I love this! I am a homeschooling mama of 6 (only one left at home though!) and studying the night sky was always one of our favorite things! Your printable is sooo cute. Maybe one of constellations–actually, you’d need to do several, for the different seasons–would be a nice addition to your fine collection of printables!
What a great suggestion. Thanks Amy!
This blog was… how do you say it? Relevant!! Finally I have found something that helped me. Thanks!
Glad to hear it Allison! Thanks!