I made a scaled model of the sun, the moon, and the Earth.
The goal is to create some curiosity to make learning easier later. The size of the sun (1.3 million Earths) and the distance to the sun (91 million miles) is really mind-boggling and should create a strong impression.
Benny and his cousins moved the "sun" (a 4-foot beach ball) out to the scaled distance from the Earth (a 1-cm painted ball) in order to demonstrate just how big the sun is and how far away it is.
The sun was white (because the sun is white from space), the Earth was mostly blue (because most of the Earth's surface is Ocean). I also emphasized that gravity makes the moon go around the Earth and the Earth go around the sun.
Results:
Good. Benny and his cousins seemed to enjoy it, especially playing with the sun. It's hard to tell how much an impression it made on the kids. The adults spent the evening talking about science so at least it made an impression on them.
