Comparing Planetary Distances...with toilet paper???

They say teachers will go to any length to create an image that their students can hold on to in order to grasp a concept. Did they have in mind the length of 305 squares of toilet paper? Today we headed outside to compare the distances between each of the planets in our solar system (we included Pluto because we just feel sorry for it). Students represented the sun and all the other rocky midgets and gas giants. As we slowly unrolled the toilet paper and counted each square, we quickly realized why some planets are so hot, some are just right, and some are way too cold (does that sound like a familiar fairy tale?). Today starts the beginning of our space science unit and we are already going to "great lengths" to learn more about not only our lovely planet, but the universe around us!