Hi my name is Orla and I will be teaching Senior Infants. My favourite Space fact is …There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth. That’s at least a billion trillion!
This is how I have used an inquiry-based activity in my classroom. We have made Colourful Flowers to learn how water travels through plants.The children learn what happens to plants when they are given water. They are able to see processes like transpiration and cohesion as the water moves from the glasses up to the stem of the flowers and upwards towards the flowers. I introduce the topic with the children through picture books. Examples of these books are
1.Usborne book – How do flowers grow?
2.Step into Science – Plants by Peter Riley
I encourage the children to predict what will happen and in groups they record their findings through simple pictures to show the results of the experiment.You need 3 or 4 white flowers, food colouring in different colour, 4 glasses and water. I give a glass of water to each group. I pour food colouring into the glasses, so that each glass contains a different colour. We cut the flowers so they fit into the glasses. Then we gently place the flowers into the glasses. We then watch as the flowers begin to change colour! During this I ask the children to make predictions and also also many questions to encourage them to talk about what they are seeing and what they think is happening. The children then record what they have observed using simple pictures or sometimes I draw out flowers for them to colour in and show our results. I have also discussed how the children could make a multi-coloured flower. The children always enjoy this inquiry and they get very excited seeing the flowers change colour!