Hi,
My name is Stephanie and I teach in an infant school. This year I have Senior Infants.
My favourite space fact is that black holes are formed from a massive star dying and the gravity within a black hole is so strong that not even light can escape.
how you would use one inquiry-based activity for senior infants in your classroom:
This year my senior infant class really enjoyed the ‘sink or float’ experiment as it was hands on and everyone could get involved.
It allows children to be curious and helps develop critical thinking, to work as a group and listen to others opinions and make predicitions. It is also important to discuss with the class about how it doesn’t matter if your prediction is right or wrong, as both results teach us something new.
This activity allowed children to predict the buoyancy of an object and then test out the objects to explore their predictions. The children were encouraged to talk about each item and what material it was made of. Each group were provided with a cork, a plastic block, a stone, a coin, twig and a rubber duck. They were encouraged to think back to previous experiences with any of the objects and water, eg bath time and a rubber duck.. did the duck float or sink.
They had to record their predictions first with a smiley face if they thought the object floated and a sad face if they thought the object would sink when we placed the object in water.
The children then placed each object into the water and were encouraged to watch carefully to see if it sinks or floats. Then after each object is tested, they recorded the result next to their predictions on the chart. We then discussed ‘why we different objects sank and why some of them floated? How heavier objects often sink and lighter objects float and about how different material affects its buoyancy.