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I am definitely going to do some of the class activities around the theme of stars, constellations, and aliens. I am a total visual learner and I love teaching art so these activities are right up my street!
I would begin the art lesson by looking at drawings of constellations on the Interactive Whiteboard and having a whole class discussion around these. Asking the children what they see, what they recognise.
Then we will make the Star Lantern. I would model how to do it, talking them through the steps and showing them through what they need: a needle, some coloured paper, a brush, glue, a stick, a flashlight, crepe paper, luminous card, string, A4 white paper and a stapler.
The children would display their lanterns in the school lobby before bringing them home.
We would integrate this work with English First Steps Writing when doing procedures and write the process we followed.I haven’t read this Julia Donaldson book yet. Am going to get it at the library on Monday! Sounds like a great lesson.
I would teach the children about the planets by doing a number of fun activities with them! I would take these super activities form one of the Esero worksheets Esero 01. Some of these can be carried out in the classroom, others might be better suited to the hall so some cross curriculum linkage with PE.
We would listen to and learn then sing together The Planet Song. We would head to the school hall and do some hoop games based on the planets. We would do the activity ‘ Spin your Planet’.
We would do a planet dance using the hoops as follows-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.
I always struggle to think of new dance ideas so I am delighted with the Esero planet dance and look forward to using it!I can envisage using an inquiry-based activity on Gravity with my class.
Firstly, we would investigate ‘What way will gravity act in different parts of the Earth?
I would use differentiate questions to ascertain what the children already know about gravity. I would make a list with them to include what they would like to find out about gravity.
Then I would talk the whole class through what experiments we were going to do and what we were investigating. I’d use google slides and a video clip of the set up. I would pause video at point where the actual results of the investigation were visible.
I would remind them that we are now scientists and that we were asking questions and experimenting and would be drawing some conclusions!
I would then divide the class into groups of four and hand out the materials: paper, pencil, orange, plasticine. I would circulate as they carried out the activity and help as necessary.
I might record some of the action! Then we would pause and discuss what was happening and draw some conclusions.
We would record the experiment using a diagram in a science copy!Hi there,
My name is Breeda. I’m teaching in a DEIS school in Dublin. Last year I had 4th class and this coming year I’m looking forward to working with a lovely 3rd class. My favourite fact about space is that it is so very, very cold!
To be very honest I found it harder to develop a good research question, than I thought! I can see how students would have to be encouraged to draft, edit and redraft their question and to think ahead to the second phase (investigation) while amending the question. Therefore, I think it would be beneficial to look at the 3 phases of The Climate Detective Project first. It may work well to look at and consider a sample project together as a class first.
I wanted to have a question around the impact of electric cars. I heard in the media recently that the purchase of these has slowed down and consumers are concerned about the battery life. Thus, this prompts the question about how/if these batteries are recycled and the potential impact on the environment? I realized quickly that many of the questions I have were far too broad for a more specific research project.
My question is ‘How is the use of electric cars reducing emissions in the Dublin 6W area?’
Students would have to take a sample of cars. So, they would need ground data. Perhaps counting vehicles passing the school at the same time over a given period. What percentage are EV? What contribution would this make to the national effort of reducing harmful emissions?
Guess who is thinking of going electric?!!!I saw ‘Home’ by Yann Arthurs Bernard a few years ago and enjoyed watching it again as part of this module.
The scenery and footage is breathtaking from the deserts, rainforests to icebergs. Its epic! Even the opening narrative is thought provoking!
It is quite heavy really and it is also long- one hour and thirty three minutes. I had fourth class this year and I don’t think they would be able to concentrate on it in one sitting. Perhaps if I showed it over three lessons and follow with a discussion. This would take preparation but would be worth it. They could discuss point raised in groups. I have third class next year so I will give it a go in segments.
It could probably be shown to students in fifth and sixth in one go and might make a nice conclusion to a block of work on climate change/ the greenhouse effect. Therefore it would be essential that the children had been taught the content/ vocabulary before watching it. Otherwise I think the children wouldn’t be able to concentrate for the duration of the movie.Having completed Activity 3- Climate Reporters, I find it very informative and really usable particularly from classes 3rd to 6th. There are loads of opportunities for cross curricular integration particularly with English language (narrative/report writing) and drama lessons. While I can envisage using it with my 3rd class, I feel that it would be essential that the students had acquired all the knowledge and vocabulary involved in SESE in advance of the lesson when they are required to write a short climate report for the year 2050. They could do a drama lesson after they have written this fictional report.
They would need to understand the new vocabulary- some words/terms quite challenging. Such as natural v’s anthropogenic greenhouse effect, climate models, supercomputers, asteroids, paleoclimatologists. These words could be placed on a science word wall or be questions in a Friday- ‘Show mw what you know!’.
Watching the Paxi video about the Greenhouse Effect would be essential. The Teal free visualization tool would also assist understanding.
45 mins is a good length of time to spend on the writing of the climate report but much more time would be needed to pre teach the vocabulary and content needed.I enjoyed reviewing the ESA resources. Both the ‘Nose up in the Sky’ lessons and the ideas for teaching climate and weather were very useful, teacher friendly and would certainly be enjoyable for primary school pupils.
Having spent some time teaching English as an additional language recently I found it helpful that these resources were available in nine different languages.
The weather proverbs lesson in ‘Nose up in the Sky’ was super. I can envisage using it this year with my third class. It will compliment language lessons well especially when teaching the comprehension strategy of inferring and art.
‘Seagull, seagull sit on the sand. It is never good weather when you’re on land!’. This proverb was new to me! I grew up by the sea and my mam used to say that when you’d see the seagulls coming into shore with the fishing boats, that the rain was on the way! So, this made a text to life connection for me! I can see may paint and colour art lesson opportunities here.
The worksheets in the weather and climate resource were well laid out and would appeal to the visual learner. The Koppen Climate Classification Map was very colourful and clear.I downloaded the satellite tracker ap. I think for 49c a month it is a great resource. I was intrigued by it and I am pretty sure that most students would be too.
I like the way it counts down to the time at which the next pass over my location will take place! Currently its 7 hours to the next pass and my kids have been asking all about it!
The satellites mentioned in my vicinity recently include:
1. ISS
2. Ariane 40 R/B
3. CZ- 4B R/B
4. Cosmos 2084
5. Seasat
6. Achernar
ISS seems to be staffed by mainly Americans. The astronauts involved are even named. These include two women, Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Jeanette Epps.
Cosmos 2084, 4th on the above list, is a Soviet Satellite. Seasat, listed number 5 above, measures sea surface, winds and temperatures, wave heights, atmospheric liquid content, sea ice features and ocean topography.
