The wealth of resources and information in this module was excellent.
The activity set – The Planets.
How would I use these activities in the classroom?
As I work as Junior school SET my lesson would be targeted towards this age group.
Lesson objectives: know/recognise the names of the eight planets • know that the planets revolve around the Sun and that the Sun gives light • differentiate between in front, behind, above, below, left and right • be given opportunities to listen, understand and respond.
Talk & Discussion about the planets in our Solar System. Talk about the names of the planets in the Solar system and that the planets orbit the sun. Highlight we live on earth. As I looked into researching this I found many songs etc. on youtube to support this in addition to the examples given in the module https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2prtmPEjOc
At this point I would play the Planet game with the children on the yard. We would use hula hoops to represent the planets and a yellow hula hoop at the centre representing the sun. The children travel from planet to planet in their Space rockets when a planet name is called. Cross curricular integration PE – hopping/ running/ skipping etc from planet to planet. The children are warned not to land on the sun as it is too hot. At the end of the game, ask what planet names the children can remember. Bonus points for the children who remember the sun is in the middle and the planets revolve around the sun.
The extension to this lesson would incorporate the Planet Dance. Again this could be taught through PE or Maths and focus on the childrens spatial orientation and prepositional language.
• Stand with legs wide apart on your planet.
• Stand in your planet.
• Stand behind your planet.
• Stand next to your planet.
• Stand to the left of your planet.
• Stand to the right of your planet.
• Stand under your planet – hold the hoop above your head.
In this lesson the children could also Spin their hula hoop and roll it around the sun (planets revolve around the Sun, but also spin on their own axes)