Activity Set: The Moon
The activity set I have chosen is ‘The Moon’. I like that this activity set is very hands on. I believe focusing on the moon as a theme will help the students’ understanding of a wide range of astronomy and space concepts. I would use this activity with either first class or second class. It may be useful to complete this lesson in September/October. The students can pay attention to the moon’s regular monthly movement and track it throughout the year. This topic could also be linked to Maths, in particular 3D shapes as the moon is spherical. A link can also be made to Science, in particular the strand of ‘Technology’ by studying the advances that have been made with the telescope through the years. I would teach the ‘Moon Rhyme’ to link our topic with Literacy. As a class we could also create a word bank of words about the moon based on ‘What does the moon look like?’ from Esero. A link to History could be study of the lunar missions that took place in the 1960’s and 1970’s. As a link to Visual Art I would complete the ‘The Man in the Moon: Journey to the Moon’ activity from Esero. This activity would help the students to realise that the moon doesn’t always look the same. If time allowed I would also complete the ‘Meet Our Neighbour: The Moon’ activity from Astro Edu. It will allow students to recognise and describe lunar features using the tactile moon.