Union Street fifth graders tour the solar system

Two classes of fifth graders at Union Street Elementary School were waiting excitedly for their bus tour of the solar system to begin.

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Union Street fifth graders tour the solar system By Nancy A. Cavanaugh ncavanaugh@eagletimes.com Devin Snide-Tufts (left) and Harrison Druen kneel next to the scale-model of Uranus, which was located at River Side Restaurant in Springfield. The fifth grade classes at Union Street Elementary School created a to-scale universe, which was spread throughout the town. — NANCY A. CAVANAUGH Devin Snide-Tufts (left) and Harrison Druen kneel next to the scale-model of Uranus, which was located at River Side Restaurant in Springfield. The fifth grade classes at Union Street Elementary School created a to-scale universe, which was spread throughout the town. — NANCY A. CAVANAUGH SPRINGFIELD — Two classes of fifth graders at Union Street Elementary School were waiting excitedly for their bus tour of the solar system to begin. The other two fifth grade classes had gone on their journey earlier Friday morning. According to the students, they did reports of the planets in the solar system and they created a model of the planets to scale, starting with a 36-inch sun in the center. Then, they had to find out how far away each planet was from the sun and placed the planets in different areas around town based on the scale. “Each student did a report and made their own planet,” said Vanessa Stern, one of the fifth grade teachers. They used plasticine, a waterproof modeling clay, for the planets. At the center of the solar system is the sun, which was located on the back corner of the school property. From there, the next four planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars — run along the back of the school. Once the students, teachers and parents were loaded on the bus, the first stop was Jupiter, which was on the porch of a Park Street residence. As they went along, they were tracking how many miles and tenths of a mile they had gone. The bus took them to Shaw’s, which was where Saturn was located. The students got off the bus and walked through the store, stopping to see the planet located at the customer service desk. The next stop — nearly two miles away — was Uranus, which was located at River Side Restaurant. The kids got to see the planet and were given candy canes by the owner. Neptune was about a half-mile away at the Springfield Coop. The final stop was for Pluto, which was three miles from the school inside the greenhouse at Woodbury Florist. They had to look at Pluto, which was on the top of a golf tee, through the window. As they looked at the smallest planet, the students told the story about how their teacher had dropped the blue planet on the floor, which was also blue, and had a hard time finding it. Back at school, the students returned to their classrooms for a small reception before recess, and the parents were taken on a tour of the sun and planets on the school property. The bus rental was paid for by the Rotary Club of Springfield for the morning tour and the Elks Lodge for the afternoon tour. Each of the businesses donated space for the planets and agreed to have the students visit.