Hello, My name is Rachel Byrne and I will be teaching Junior Infants this year. My favourite aspect about ‘Space’ that I remember from my own childhood is how the shape of the ‘Moon’ is not round but in actual fact shaped like a ‘lemon’. An inquiry-based learning activity (materials) that I have used and will continue to use in my classroom is ‘splashing in muddy puddles’. To ensure that I appeal to all learners in my classroom I always use a prompt/stimulus to engage my pupils in their learning at the beginning of the lesson and for students to use their prior knowledge/own personal experiences. For this activity I always use a video of a child in the rain jumping in muddy puddles with an umbrella/wet gear/wellies etc., I then start to ask the children ‘open-ended’ questions about what they have heard/saw and we start to predict/discuss what other materials we already know are waterproof etc., We then investigate ‘how to keep our socks dry’ by carrying out an experiment using a wellington, shoe, socks & water (basin), towels, outdoor/indoor area. Teacher asks the children to bring in some old clothing i.e. shoes/socks/wellingtons from home prior to these experiments. First, we predict whether the shoe/wellington will keep our socks dry. TI get children in groups (mixed ability all who have a different job) to carry out their experiment to test whether the shoe/wellington will keep their favourite socks dry. (Sometimes I will model what I want the children to do depending on the class, otherwise I let the children explore their own ways). At the end of the experiment we reflect on what happened and which shoe/wellington kept our favourite socks dry but I also ask the children to think of ways they could make non-waterproof shoes ‘waterproof’. This will also interlink with Visual Art as I get the children to create a new design shoe with a teacher design task of ‘make it waterproof’. While the children are carrying out their experiment I am facilitating their learning by moving around the room and asking questions like ‘I wonder… etc.,’. I also remind the children that when we are carrying out experiments we are ‘Scientists’.