[Aoife Tarrant]

I really like the idea of going on a walk with parents in the evening to hear sounds. It is a really practical piece of homework and encourages children to get outside, exercise and spend time with others.

[Aoife Tarrant]

I think this is a great idea. I feel that the children could learn a lot from parents and grandparents and share this with the class. We also looked up the Duchas website when learning about the history of our school and there were a lot of posts about the weather and signs in nature. I’m sure if we looked specifically we could find information on the night sky and the moon too.

[Aoife Tarrant]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>I really like the idea of doing thematic planning. It would be great to integrate the theme of night sky into many subjects, as I feel the children get more absorbed in a topic when it’s done like this.

For poetry I would do the poems:</p>
The Moon by Robert Louis Stevenson

Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Night Sky by Val Harris

Queen of Night by Terry Webb Harshman

Picture books that would be good:

What if night? by Paul Bogard

Lights out by Marsha Diane Arnold

The night the stars went missing by Arthur J Gonzalez

Songs:

Vincent by Don McClean

Harvest Moon by Neil Young

A sky full of stars by Coldplay

Fly me to the moon by Frank Sinatra

 

Art:

Starry night by Van Gogh

Starry night over the Rhone by Van Gogh

Flight into Egypt by Adam Elsheimer

Starry Night Edvard Munch

Haystacks by Claude Monet

I think the theme could also extend into other subjects. Drama could be space related, PE could be the strand of dance, creating a dance for one of the space songs above. In Gaeilge, we could learn a poem or words related to the sky and space. In History, we could look at piseogs or ancient Irish traditions about the night sky and the moon. In maths we could look at weight or problems based on travel in space etc.

 

[Aoife Tarrant]

I think learning about biodiversity is very important for children. Children don’t seem to know a lot about native plants and animals. I think it would be good for the children to do a biodiversity survey of our school area. We could use books from the library to find the names of any plants or animals that we don’t recognise. We could do this in each season as well and compare and contrast what we find.

The book Wild Things at School would be a great starting point for learning about native plants and animals. We already have a wildflower patch on our school grounds, and outside my classroom we have an old bird feeder. We could definitely bring that back into use this year, learning when and what to feed the birds. I could have books about birds as well as the Merlin bird app available for the children to identify the birds that come to the feeder. Again we could track this during the year and record any changes that we see through the seasons.
It’s interesting to see the resources online about bats. I could show these videos to the children and we could research the impact of light pollution on bats specifically.

[Aoife Tarrant]

I really like this lesson plan, especially the’ uh sky investigation’. That would be a great way for the children to put their learning into action.

[Aoife Tarrant]

My school is in the countryside, just outside Killarney. We have some street lights outside the school and local houses but not too many. Some of our students live very close to the school, however, many of them live in Killarney town. I think I would get all of the children to do an observation of the night sky where they live. Then we could compare the results for children in the countryside and those in the town.
We would learn about nocturnal animals in the local area and discuss how light pollution could affect them. Then I would get my class to think about ways in which we could limit light pollution in our local area. I could show the class the image of the various street lighting options. We could walk around the school grounds and observe any lights that the school may have and the impact they would have on local biodiversity. The children could think of alternative lighting and they could even suggest this to our principal to see if any changes could be made.

[Aoife Tarrant]

I really like your ideas here. Doing this at the beginning of the school year would be great, as it would engage the children and encourage their interest in the learning for the year ahead.

[Aoife Tarrant]

Create an observing plan for autumn that shows which planets are visible in the evening sky.

I would begin by asking the children what they might see in the night sky. Do they know any of the stars or constellations in our night sky. What are the names of these? Look at the origins of these names and who named them. What planets can we see in our night sky? Can we always see these planets? Why/why not?

I would then use Stellarium to show us the night sky over our area and help children to identify the planets. For homework I would get the children to look at the night sky and record what they see.

We would observe the sky maybe once a week for the whole of the autumn term. Have the planets changed colour, position, timing since we first started our observation.

I would try to link this lesson in with art, maybe working on their own map of the sky. We could also link it to music. There is a lovely piece called The Planets by Gustav Holst. When we identify the planets in the night sky we can play the music associated with it.

[Aoife Tarrant]

I think these are some great ideas for teaching day and night. I also think it would be interesting to learn about the time in the countries where children come from or have been on holidays. For example, last year I had children from countries including Bangladesh, Ukraine and Peru. The children would enjoy comparing the current time in each of those countries with the time in Ireland throughout the day.

[Aoife Tarrant]

Observe and record the positions of the sun when rising and setting and at different times of the day.
I would start by showing the children pictures of some of the oldest sundials in the world, without telling them what they are. What are these? Why might they have been made? How might they have been used?

Recap directions, which could link up with Geography, PE (outdoor and adventure strand) and Gaeilge. Then use a compass to find North on our school playground. Then use an atlas to figure out our latitude. Use a protractor to measure the degrees accurately.

Next, use a stick and stones to mark the position of the sun on each hour for a full school day. Show the whole class how to do it and then give the children the chance to make their own sundials.

I know that the children in my class were looking at their own shadows in relation to the sun last year, so it would be great progression to make their own sundials.

• This reply was modified 3 months ago by Aoife Tarrant.

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