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We always actively engage with Science Week in my school but Space Week is often something that gets overlooked. It’s definitely something that I would like to initiate and pursue further in the future and I have gotten lots of wonderful ideas from this course so far.
To fully engage with Space Week in my class, I would try to integrate the theme across many subject areas. I would do this in some of the following ways:
English: Reading themed storybooks such as “The Dinosaur that Pooped a Planet” by Tom Fletcher, “Whatever Next!” by Jill Murphy or “Alien’s Love Underpants” by Claire Freedman. There is also a range of YouTube links to readalouds on the spaceweek.ie junior class plan. Children could also write short stories about trips to Space, aliens landing, or write facts/simple projects about what they have learned about the planets.
Music: Create a soundscape for an alien planet or a trip to Space. Children could also complete listening and responding activities to thematic songs such as “Reach for the Stars” or “Starry, Starry Night”.
Drama: Teacher-in-role as figures from history (Neil Armstrong, Kathryn Johnson), improvisation of various scenarios, freeze-frames based on given scenarios (aliens landing in your garden, landing on the moon as an astronaut).
Art: Design and build a rocket (junk art), paper mache planets, recreating famous paintings such as Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”, printing a space scene using sponges, fruit/vegetables cut in half or stencils, designing an alien using modelling clay or junk materials.
Science: As it is Space Week, I would aim to complete one simple science experiment each day. These would include: Rocket mice, balloon rockets (https://spark.iop.org/balloon-rocket), dancing raisins, balloon blow-up and alien slime.
P.E: I am eager to introduce some of the planet-themed games listed in Module 2 of this course. These include Planet Game, Spin your Planet, and Planet Dance.
I really like how you have broken this theme up into three separate lessons, Sarah. It really ensures that the children will have a thorough understanding of the concepts and also looks like a lot of fun! We can sometimes rush through some of these activities and not get the full worth out of them.
There are many wonderful lesson ideas contained within the module. One which I look forward to using with my class next year is that of What Clothes to Wear? Many children in my school speak English as a second language and, therefore, oral language is always an important focus for us. For the junior classes in particular, this lesson would be a fun, engaging and practical way to discuss clothes, colours, weather, and seasons, and to use lots of interesting, descriptive language.
I would begin the lesson by showing pictures on the interactive whiteboard. These pictures would show various children in different settings according to the season (for example, one picture of children playing on the beach, one of children playing in the snow, etc.). I would initiate a discussion with the class about what they can see, when they think the picture was taken and why, what clues can we get by the clothes the children are wearing. I would then encourage them to look at the clothes that they themselves have on that day – why did they/their parents choose those clothes? I would model this if needs be by saying I wore a pair of boots because it was cold and possibly wet outside, etc.
I would then utilize the dress-up box as the main activity in the lesson. Children would work in small groups to find outfits to match specific seasons – we would then discuss why they chose each item of clothes. An extension of this would be to ask the children to pick an item of clothing that you might wear in a specific country or for a specific activity – this would facilitate extra scope for oral language discussions. A fun game would also be to have two children race to find one item of clothing based on an instruction (first person to find something to wear on the beach, to wear skiing).
I would conclude the lesson with the short story included in the activity pack. Alternatively, we could learn or recite a rhyme about the seasons or clothes.
I really like your idea of combining the children’s models to create a village, Margaret! I have done something similar in the past with the construction strand in art and it has always been a hit.
I teach in a very diverse school where over 40 different nationalities are represented by our students. I would really enjoy undertaking this kind of activity by first asking the children to design the home they live in here, and then perhaps choosing to do a second model based on a family member’s home in a different country/location in Ireland/location in Dublin. It would be a lovely way to compare and contrast the various homes that people live in and to stimulate discussion about cultures and backgrounds.
I really liked the “Special Life” activities from the Space and Aliens activity set. I would begin this activity by discussing the planets with the children, reflecting on prior learning as part of an overall Space theme. I would first ask them to describe any of the planets that we have learned about so far and what makes them different from one another. I would then refer specifically to Earth and encourage them to think-pair-share what makes Earth so special compared to every other planet? I would record these answers on a spider chart or flip chart so that the children could refer back to them. David Attenborough’s “Wonderful World” video would also be a nice stimulus to use at this point of the lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auSo1MyWf8g
I would then distribute paper, pencils and colours so that the children could draw something that they feel a visitor to Earth should experience. If some children found it difficult to think of an idea, I would remind them to refer back to the ideas listed on the board or to think of something from the video that they particularly enjoyed. I will remind children to keep their drawings a secret.
Children will then be given the opportunity to act out what is in their drawing and their classmates must guess what they are doing. I really enjoy teaching drama and think that this would be a very fun way to integrate it into our lesson. We would finish up with a discussion about the different ideas that everyone had and why each one was important, etc.
I would use the Drawing an Alien activity as a separate art lesson. For this, I would give the children the opportunity to draw their aliens on large pieces of paper and to use fabric and fibre, or other materials, to create textured bodies for them. For older classes, it would also be fun to create aliens out of clay.
They’re all really lovely ideas Sarah. I can imagine that it must be difficult to find suitable activities for a multigrade classroom! It sounds like these lessons would really suit your age group however. It’s nice having a mix of rhymes, stories and physical activities, there’s something for everyone.
I always enjoy teaching modules about Space – it’s a topic that always really captures the children’s interest and there are so many fun, creative lessons that one can do.
I was particularly intrigued by the planets games introduced in this module (Planet Game, Spin Your Own Planet, Planet Dance). I think that they provide a fun, novelty way to reinforce learning and are certainly activities that young children would really enjoy. I would integrate these games into my PE lessons while teaching an overall thematic unit on Space. I feel that the games could all be easily played in the PE hall using minimal equipment. Further extension activities (in follow-up weeks) could include orienteering activities in the yard where children search for the names of planets by following a simple map.
Other ways of integrating this theme into a unit of work would be through Art (paper mache planets, printing, splatter art using paint), English (writing simple mnemonics in groups to remember the names of the planets, creative writing), Drama (role play), and History (story – the life of Neil Armstrong, the moon landing, the achievements of Kathryn Johnson)
These are really nice ways to reinforce the Time strand unit of the Maths curriculum, Darcera. I always find it to be a very difficult concept for the children and one that consistently required a lot of inventive lessons! I like the idea of integrating it with Science – it would be a lovely novelty for the children and something that they would really enjoy.
I would teach an inquiry-based lesson from the Materials strand. Here, the children would investigate waterproof materials under the theme of “Teddy Bear’s Picnic”.
Prior to this lesson, we would read the story and learn the song of the Teddy Bear’s Picnic. I would introduce the class to some of my own teddies, and explain to them that they were looking forward to a picnic together later that day. However, I would tell them that I felt that it was going to rain and was worried that the teddies would all get very wet.
Our inquiry question for the lesson would be: Which materials would be best for keeping our teddies dry in the rain?
Small groups would each be given a teddy, and they would work together to design a waterproof jacket for them. When their design is finished, they would be allowed to select a variety of materials from the resource box to try and make the jacket for the teddy.
In the end, we would (carefully!) test the jackets out using a small watering can to simulate rain. The children would discuss which materials were most effective and why.
For differentiation, some children would draw a picture of the various materials and put a tick or an X beside them, according to their effectiveness. Other children could write a sentence to describe their results.
This is a really nice lesson Kathy – I always find that the children are extra engaged when there is are treats involved! Using ice cream melting in the sun is a nice stimulus which the children could easily relate to. Younger children would easily be able to draw the steps involved in the experiment and it could link in to some lovely summer art lessons too.
Hello everyone,
My name is Ailbhe and I have been teaching at the senior end of my school for the last number of years. For this coming year, I will be moving to one of the junior classes (yet to be confirmed). I am looking forward to getting some exciting age-appropriate lesson ideas from this course.
My favourite space fact is that there are more stars in the sky than there are grains of sand on all of the beaches on Earth!
