Hi, my name is Edel and I will be teaching Junior Infants in September. My favourite space face it that there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth. Thats at least a billion trillion, it’s hard to believe that there is that many and so difficult to comprehend the vastness of space.
Inquiry based learning:
Infant classes are more than capable of participating in these lessons and they tend to get very excited about the process and the outcome. A lesson I always conduct with the infant classes is to ask ‘how could we make ice melt fast’:
– ask children to brainstorm within their groups
– record possible suggestions on the board:
place near radiator
put into the dark cofra
leave out on the corridor
add salt (teacher-led suggesetion)
leave outside in the garden
leave in a schoolbag
– each child records their prediction through a drawing a picture in either a copy or handout
– the predictions are recorded on a chart/interactive panel
– each group is given 4-5 ice-cubes and plastic see-through containers
– each group decide where to place their containers
– the class are given opportunities to check on the melting progress at intervals throughout the morning/afternoon
– results are analysed and compared with the predictions
The children love this experiment, it’s easy to set up and engages everyone in the class.