I would choose the activity of the Planets to teach to my Senior Infant class. I would begin the lesson with a discussion about what the children know about planets. We will discuss an easy way to learn the order of the planets by using the mnemonic My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos.
Following this we will listen to the song “The Family of the Sun”. Each group will get a sheet of tin foil. I will draw various circle/rings starting with a small circle (the sun) and continue to draw bigger circles around each one to create an image of the solar system.
Each group will have a black marker to write the name of each planets. To support them I this task, I will ask the children to tell me the mnemonic that we learned regarding the order of the planets. I will place the names on the board for them to copy on their sheets.
I will show the children pictures of the solar system on the interactive whiteboard. We will look at the colours of the different planets. I will ask the children to work with their groups to create ach planet using the correct coloured playdoh pieces and place them on their tin foil solar system. I will prompt the children to recognise the different sizes of each planet too and to try their best to create similar models. By using play doh the children can really see how the planets are in constant motion around the sun. The children will be able to move each piece on the circles or rings around the sun to get a better understanding of this.