Solar System Happy Families

I am pleased to announce the release of my card game Solar System Happy Families.

Available

• here as a Google Doc (which will allow for editing of a copy) and,
• here as a PDF (which will eliminate any pagination or font problems).

Scope

Designed with the Australian Curriculum year 5 descriptor clearly in view

The Earth is part of a system of planets orbiting around a star (the sun) - ACSSU078

The game uses play to introduce various elements of the solar system, planets, moons of various planets, phases of our own moon, asteroids and trans-Neptune plutoids. It also allows students to get a feel for some of the types of space missions that have been launched, manned lunar landings, Mars rovers and missions to the outer solar system, and missions to interstellar space, there are 11 families of objects in total.

There are 44 playable cards in a deck, when we consider that the the solar system has over 180 moons and several thousand asteroids, and that we only listed Pioneer 10 and none of it predecessors it is clear that the game is a taster and not a definitive guide.  There is room for an educator to set the creation of 'expansion packs' as an enrichment tool, for example orbiter missions, Chinese missions, trojans, centaurs, craters on the moon, or moons of Uranus - all just suggestions.

Rule systems

The game can work with normal happy family rules, i.e. deal all cards to start and then call for the card you need.  I have preferred to use a hybrid of the rules of happy families and go-fish, that is start with five cards each and have a draw pile left over.  These rules are explained on one of the cards in the deck.  House rules will emerge if the game becomes popular and this is fine.

I have trialled this in a year 5-6 composite class and when asked for feedback I received the following.

"... Solar System Happy Families was a fun and educational game, because I didn’t know some of the moons, ... and planets, like Europa, existed until I played this game.  I liked the fact that it can be a calm, enjoyable and competitive game all at once.”  

The printable file gives 4 colours of cards backs to allow for multiple decks in one classroom, printing instructions and the source information for all the images used in the deck. All images are from Public Domain or Creative Commons sources.