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The Activity I have chosen to look at is ” The mouse Rocket”
We would get an introduction to the them by reading some stories, especially focusing on “Roaring Rockets” by Tony Mitton and also “Aliens love Underpants” by Clare Friedman.
Discussion on rockets , blast off, landing, space,etc .. encouraging the children to come up with as many words as possible to do with rockets .
Look at NASA launch Video.
Countdown to Launch.
We have a toy space station and some rockets in our Aistear equipment.
Children get to play in this area and explore the equipment available.
After time playing with the toys and equipment available we can then explore how we can make our own Rocket . Introduce Rocket Mouse. The children can gather in a circle as we discuss how mouse can take off or blast off from the top of the water bottle we place him on. Predict how far he might fly and what might make the blast off more powerful .
Have a selection of bottles and mice ready made for children to partner up . We can line up a launch our Rocket Mice. Find which rocket mice traveled longest.
Now have fun playing with their own rockets and Rocket Mouse.
Follow up activity, children can draw a rocket and decorate it.
I would choose the Activity . Weather. What clothes to wear?
In Early start each day , one child goes to the window and looks outside , then reports to the others what our weather is like. We look at the sky ? Is it cloudy or clear.? Is it raining? Is the sun shining?. Are the trees blowing in the wind? We then choose a picture card to represent our weather today and stick it on our weekly chart.
Having done this for some time we can introduce the idea of the clothing we need for the day. Have a discussion each day about “what did we wear coming to school today?”. Noticing if we needed a raincoat, did we wear light clothes, did I wear gloves etc.
Activity. Bring in a box of various types of clothes, and footwear. A box for all seasons.
Place the box in the center of our circle and ask a child to choose clothes for a specific type of weather, eg.. hot , cold ,wet .
Other children can offer suggestions as to what is best to choose and why.
Discuss choices.
Follow up Activity;Set up two areas in the room. our summer sun section, and our winter cold destination. Choose the clothes we need to wear.
Have fun dressing up for and playing.
The activity set; Space and Aliens.
There are so many books listed in the comments that can be used the begin an activity about Aliens.
When Aliens come to tea.
Here come the Aliens
The way back Home.
The Darkest dark
Beegu.
I have use the story “Aliens Love underpants” as a stimulus for discussion about aliens . What will “The Alien” look like and how they might move, do they have eyes , a nose, ears, legs, arms, hands. What colour might the Alien be. We can use coloured paper to choose background and draw out Alien shape. Then we can glue googley eyes ,bits of foil, pipe cleaners or ribbon on to add features and texture. Teacher cuts out Alien to display.
We also have an option of colouring the Alien Underpants.
I have added a picture of the display from an activity with Early Start this year,
Children enjoyed the activity and also had fun moving like the Alien might move.
Have not heard of that story before. “Goldilocks in space” , brilliant idea by the author Peter Bentley, creating this story explaining the Goldilocks zone, just brilliant. Making a note of that one.
I am choosing the Activity set ” Sun and shadows” for exploration.
Some lovely books and videos mentioned in the comments as starting points to introduce this topic to very young children, Sesame street , My furry little Shadow. “Day Monkey ,Night Monkey” by Julia Donaldson. ” What makes a shadow”. “Moon Bears Shadow” by Frank Ash. Also the book, “Cant you sleep little Bear”.
I would do this on a sunny day. An introductory story of “Moon Bears Shadow” to start the exploration.
At the end of the story have a discussion on what is a shadow, how do we get a shadow, explore how a shadow can be created with a torch and little bears.
Go outside and explore our shadows on the ground, make shadow shapes and shadow dances. Draw around shadows.
Discussion on where is the light coming from, what would it be like on a cloudy day, could we see shadows.? Can we see a shadow in the dark?
Finish by drawing “me and my shadow”
The story “What makes a Shadow ” seems like a great resource to use when exploring light and shadow with the children. Thank you Sue.
Hi, My name is Bridget and I am teaching Early Start.
My favorite space fact is that there are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on all the beaches on earth.
For my inquiry base activity we could look at what material will soak up water best.
Trigger:Water spill on table or floor .
What can we use to clean up the spillage.
Look for suggestions of what will work best from a range of materials presented.
Will I use, newspaper, tinfoil, cling film, kitchen towel, toilet paper , tea-towel. ???
Predict which will be the most effective.
Conduct the investigation by using the various materials to try and wipe up the spill.
Out all the various materials used which worked best.
Record results by putting a smiley face on the material that worked best.
