Inquiry based learning activity for Junior Infants
1. Investigation of Day and Night
· Using the picture book ‘Goodnight Bear’ as a stimulus for establishing the children’s understanding of day and night and nocturnal animals
Sit in a circle with the children. Place the photographs of the diurnal and nocturnal animals in the middle of the circle. Ask if animals sleep at night, just like people. Which animals don’t sleep at night? When are they awake? Remove the photographs of the diurnal animals. Look at the photographs of the nocturnal animals and talk about how you can recognise a nocturnal animal. Come to the conclusion that nocturnal animals often have bigger eyes than diurnal animals so that they can see better at night. Sometimes they have adapted in other ways as well. Nocturnal animals can be recognised by specific features, because they live in the dark. The nocturnal animals in the photographs are the bat, the owl, the hedgehog, and the panther. The children investigate the difference between day and night in the world.