Hi, my name is Dympna and I have been teaching Junior and Senior Infants for the last few years. My favourite fact about space is that the sunset on Mars is blue.
One inquiry-based activity I have used in my classroom with Junior Infants is an investigation into strong and light materials using the story The Three Little Pigs as a prompt and to engage and interest the children. A question I would ask would be “I wonder what other materials the pigs could have chosen to build their houses…/The wolf could have blown down…” The children think of other materials or items around the room or from the nature table or Junk Art box etc. such as paper, cardboard, a wooden jaggo block, a feather, a metal spoon, a plastic pot, a plastic straw, a rock, a shell, pom, etc, naming the item and what it is made from. The starter question would be Could the wolf blow it down? We begin the investigation; first discuss what we will use as the wolf’s breath / air/ wind – and how to make sure it’s a fair investigation – a child could be picked to blow through a straw; a hairdryer at a low setting, a battery fan etc. (I have used all of these). We go through the items; first predicting yes or no and record each result by placing the item in the yes or no section of the investigation table like a 3D data chart/display. More interpretation and discussion of the results is done after; discussing why the wolf could blow – light or strong; was anyone surprised by this etc, making connections where applicable e.g. I used that for my Junk Art bird feeder but it blew away etc. Lots of reflection opportunities arise for me after when the children are prompted to make the pigs houses themselves during Aistear and I can see them choose light, weak, strong, very strong materials, and hear them using the correct vocabulary.