Hi my name is Sheelagh. I have taught infant classes in my school for over 10 years. For the past two years and again next year I am teaching the Autism class in my school. The children are of first class age and we engage with activities at a range of different levels. One of my students loves space so I’m looking forward to learning more. All the children love science lessons which is great!
My fact about space is that space is completely silent because it is a vaccum and no sound waves travel through. Great to suggest let’s pretend we’re in space if you want a quiet classroom to engage with an activity!
Inquiry based lessons in my classroom are slightly different to mainstream but one that was very successful was ‘Bouncy bubbles’. From building relationships with the children I knew bubbles were a favourite activity of a lot of the children. They love catching, blowing and popping bubbles. I mixed warm water with sugar and fairy washing up liquid (you can also use dish soap), I placed a sock on my hand and showed the children how when I blew from this mixture I could make the bubbles bounce. The children loved it and their were a lot of excitement. Some children tried on the gloves and more watched closely as I bounced the bubbles. Language is limited for some children in my class but we used simple words to explain what was happening through speech or AAC devices. One student who is very verbal compared the bouncy bubbles and the bursting bubbles. We examined why the bouncy were bubbles. I then showed the children how to make the mixture and we again experimented. Some children then tried to make the mixture with some adult support. We spoke about why the bubbles were different and experimented blowing both types of bubbles. We discussed the shapes of the bubbles. We tried putting more and less sugar and fairy liquid in to see if it had a difference. We revisited the lesson a number of times and by the end some children were leading with how much of each ingredient we needed. I was deligthed when at the end of our year I asked the students will we do normally bubbles or bouncy bubbles and they could distinguish between the two as well as letting me know they wanted Bouncy bubbles.