Hi, I’m Áine. This last year I taught Senior Infants and I will be teaching First and Second class this coming year.
My favourite space fact and concept has always been that astronauts can float in space due to the minimal gravity.
A really enjoyable set of inquiry based lesson that I used with Senior Infants was called how will your roly poly move. https://www.stem.org.uk/resources/elibrary/resource/25804/how-will-your-roly-poly-move#&gid=2&pid=1 We first looked and explored a set of toys that roll – considering what elements were important for a wheel to roll. We listened to and read a poem about Three Roly Polys.
As part of these sessions we explored how different sorts of rolling motions and how these can be achieved by particular arrangements of wheels and axles. We also investigated three different ways of fixing a tube (axle) to a paper plate (wheel).
I loved that each group worked together to explore various methods of attachment. Afterwards we considered which method was quickest/longest, easiest/most difficult, strongest/weakest and which method they would choose.
In the following two sessions we designed and made our Roly Polys. It was great fun and the children enjoyed every single element of those lessons – in particular exploring and wondering if their creations moved in the desired manner.
I would quite happily use this lesson as far as second class and be quite confident they would enjoy it.