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<p align=”left”>I’m very interested in doing the ‘Animals in the Cold’ lesson. I feel the use of animals around the world is a great stimulus for children. Polar bears and penguins are frequently among children’s’ favourite animals so serve as a very interesting way to teach children about climates on Earth.</p>
<p align=”left”>In this lesson the children will learn about different sorts of weather. They will also learn about the characteristics of animals living in different climates. I feel there is room to include some other animals that live in cold weather here. Particularly the arctic rabbit and fox as they’re known to change their colours depending on the seasons.</p>
<p align=”left”>The children begin discussing types of weather. There is some room here for Gaeilge integration.</p>
<p align=”left”>The children will then think about how certain types of weather occurs more frequently in different parts of the world. The children’s own life experience can be drawn on here as they might have visited or lived in different parts of the world. The level of teacher input will depend on the class level as some of this topic is already known by 1<sup>st</sup> or 2<sup>nd</sup> class.</p>
<p align=”left”>The class then focus on the arctic and Antarctic regions, particularly the polar bear and the penguin. Using the photograph prompts, the class will discuss which features of the animals help them stay warm and survive well in the area they live. Again there is opportunity to draw on children’s own experiences here. Digital resources such as video content can be used here, showing penguins swimming and polar bears walking in the snow.</p>
<p align=”left”>I feel the use of vaseline to illustrate how the penguin stays waterproof is a great idea. While slightly messy, it’s a great hands on approach to explain an unfamiliar topic.</p>
<p align=”left”>There are plenty of extension activities available for this lesson. I’m looking forward to sharing it with my class.</p>This is a gorgeous lesson filled with opportunities for discussion and creativity. I’m sure the children will love it.
This sounds like a lovely lesson. I always find kids fascinated by stars so it’s great to have the opportunity to explore it.
I chose the lesson ‘A special life’ from the ESERO resources.
The aim is for children to understand that as far as we know there are no alien beings in space. The children will also understand what makes life on Earth special. This lesson is filled with opportunities for creativity and imagination through drawing and drama.I feel this lesson is perfect for the junior classes. They get some serious information while also keeping it fun and light. Many children really enjoy the topic of aliens and life in space. It really fuels their imagination thinking about what or who could be out there. There is so much media for children relating to this topic which children just find enthralling.
The children begin by learning about just how special life on Earth is. They imagine they are speaking to an alien life form. They choose something special on Earth that they want to show the alien. It can be a creature or an item. They then draw their special thing and act it out to illustrate the thing to their alien visitor.
This is a very active and fun activity. It can be done with lots of group discussion and brainstorming. It could be done in pairs or small groups as well as individually depending on the class. A game element could be added into or taken out of the act it out circle time activity.The final activity is another creative opportunity. Children get a chance to draw an alien of their choosing. They can think about how the alien looks and why it looks like that. Some references to creatures on Earth could be made here. Certain creatures look a certain way depending on where they live and what they can do, ( eg, fur, scales wings). The children could draw their alien alongside the item they had previously shown them if they wanted.
This lesson is given 60 minutes. It’s quite a long time for a young class but the range of elements to the lesson ensures a balance of quite, collaborative and noisy activities to keep the children engaged. Depending on interest levels, the alien creation portion could be extended into a language lesson or further art activities.
This art project sounds great. I love the idea of making the craters and having a 3D piece of art. Thank you for sharing.
I found this module to be excellent for practical lesson plans, ready to use in the classroom. I loved the Universe in a Box resource and can’t wait to try many of these activities in the classroom.
I particularly enjoyed the Sun and the Shadows activity set.
The video about Day and Night: My Sky Tonight is one I look forward to using.I loved the use of a large light and a very dark room to show the earth moving from day to night. I think it illustrated it well. In the past I’ve done a similar activity but on a smaller scale ( with just a ball and a torch). I think it needs to be as big as the example video in order for it to be effective.
Having the children moving around also really helped them understand the day to night change. They can see which part of them is dark and which part is light as they move around. This is a simple yet practical way to illustrate this to children in a tangible way.
I also enjoyed the addition of some bears to different sides of the globe so we could see which bear was in daylight and which bear was in night.
We have done similar before when talking about parts of the day. If we’re at school and doing our work then that must mean that Bluey and her family are asleep.I’m looking forward to trying out this lesson with a class.
I love how enthusiastic junior classes are during inquiry based learning. They always have such imaginative and interesting suggestions to solve problems.
I found the curious minds website excellent for information and resource suggestions and intend to use many of these resources in the future.
One particular lesson that caught my eye was;‘The travelling Space buggy’
In this lesson, children attempt to build a working space buggy using recycled materials ( milk carton, skewers, toilet roll holders etc.)The children investigate what is needed to make a working space buggy. The vehicle must be able to travel forward and backward along a bumpy surface. The buggy will need to be stable, not blow over and mustn’t fall apart.
The children will discuss what materials would be best, and why. They will design, make and test out their vehicles sand or stones outdoors.
The children will the discuss which designs worked well and why, as well as which designs didn’t work and how they could be improved.
This activity could be done individually or in small groups or partners.
It encourages a lot of critical thinking and discussion as well as creativity.
Photos of the Mars rover and other such space buggies can be used as inspiration.
The picture book Míp or Meep by Máire Zepf could be used before or after the activity too.Mary this sounds like a great lesson. Magnets are so fun, kids love working with them. It’s great that the content can be applied in many curricular areas too.