Hugo's Solar System in the classroom

A free, ad-free space journey for Key Stage 1 and 2, with the facts checked against NASA and dated so you can trust them.

Open the journey Browse every body

Classroom mode

Open the journey, press the gear button at the top right, and under Classroom mode untick Dwarf planets, Voyager probes, or Belts, the heliopause and interstellar space. Hugo then only stops at the eight planets (and the Sun), which suits a first lesson on the solar system. The choice is remembered on that computer. The same panel has separate volume controls for the music and the narrator, and a Pause motion button for a calmer screen.

The arrow keys, or the on-screen buttons on a tablet, move Hugo from stop to stop. Tap any planet, moon or belt for its fact window, and press Read all about it to open the full page.

Three reading levels

Every body page has the same facts written three ways: Little explorers (4 to 7), Space cadets (8 to 11) and Grown-ups and teachers. Switch with the buttons above the text; the site remembers the level. The grown-up version carries the figures and dates you might want for your own notes, and every page ends with its sources.

Quizzes

Each page ends with a three-question quiz. Nothing is recorded or sent anywhere, so children can try as often as they like. Sounds can be switched off with the button beside the quiz, and the whole site respects the reduce-motion setting on a device.

Moon counts you can date

Astronomers keep finding moons, so every count on this site carries the month it was checked against NASA and the JPL Solar System Dynamics table, and the counts refresh themselves monthly. The How many moons? pages are made for the question a class will ask next. The full table is free to download as moons.json.

Distances are given in miles first, then kilometres and astronomical units, on every page.

The picture book

Hugo's Journey Through Space is the rhyming bedtime story the journey is based on. It reads aloud in about ten minutes and makes a good opener for a topic, with the site as the follow-up. It is coming to Amazon soon as an ebook, a paperback and a hardback (ISBN 978-1-0369-2940-4).

Printables and puzzles

Free, printable, no sign-up, and free to use in any classroom anywhere. Everything is generated from the same checked data as the journey.

Daily PlanetOne mystery body a day, six guesses, clues that point the way. A five-minute starter on the board. Weekly challengeTen questions, the same for everyone, new every Monday, with a result code you can verify on the class results page. Flashcards (41 cards)Nine per A4 page: picture, name, type, size and a fact. Tick boxes blank the names for a test set. Quiz worksheetsTwenty questions on the planets, the moons, or everything beyond, answer key on the last page, a new set every click. Planet of the week sheetOne A4 page per body: picture, key facts, three things to know and three questions to answer. Solar system posterEverything Hugo visits in order from the Sun, with distances in miles. A4 handout or A3 wall poster. Ten flashcard gamesPlanet Snap, Human Solar System, Who Am I, Sort Relay, Solar Bingo, Moon Match and more, with timings. Three lesson plansSixty-minute outlines for ages 5 to 7, the Year 5 Earth and Space unit, and beyond the planets.

Posters and licensing

A printed poster set of Hugo's planets is in preparation. Schools, libraries, museums and publishers who would like to license the illustrations or the text are welcome to get in touch through the book page.

Privacy, in one line

No accounts, no cookies, no adverts, no analytics and no third-party trackers, which makes the site straightforward to use under a school's safeguarding and data policies. The privacy page lists the two outside servers a page contacts.