My name is Leeanne and I’ll be working with Senior Infants this year.
An interesting space fact (to me!) is that, since it’s discovery almost 100 years ago, Pluto hasn’t yet made a full orbit of the sun.
One example of an inquiry based lesson I would do is have the children design their own space suits. To introduce the lesson I would have a range of different clothing in the centre of a circle, and ask the children what clothes they would choose for a hot day, a wet day, a cold day, a windy day. I’d ask them about the properties of the clothes and why they’re most suitable for the given conditions. I’d then show pictures of more specialist clothing like that of a bee keeper, a diver, a fire fighter, an astronaut and discuss them.
For the main body of the lesson I’d explain to the children that they’re going to design their own space suits. We’d discuss the requirements of this suit (keep them warm, keep oxygen in). To do this with infant classes, I’d give them the outline of an astronaut that they can cut out and stick the necessary materials to. I’d leave out a range of paper, fabrics, cotton wool, foil, etc, and have them choose what they think is best.
To conclude the lesson we’d recap on the requirements of a good space suit and the children can share their designs with the class and explain why they chose the materials they did.