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I love the idea of the mice rockets. I have never made them with my class but they definitely look like something senior infants would be able for and enjoy.
I would do the rockets activity with my class.
Engage: I would begin with a story such as Alien’s Love Underpants. Young children love this story so it is a good starter to the lesson. We might then look at photos or videos of a rocket launch and discuss what is happening, how much force is needed etc.
Investigate: We would make our own balloon rockets working in pair or small groups. We would tie a string between 2 chairs, blow up our balloons and use a peg to seal them. Each group could then tape their balloon to the straw on the string and release the peg to see their rocket launch. They would make predictions about the speed and distance their rocket might travel and work out ways/ more force to increase the speed or distance. We could then look at the Marvin and Milo cartoons and discuss the questions posed to see if we could answer them.
Next Step: We could bring our knowledge now of force, speed and distance to PE for example with throwing foam javelins.
Reflection: We would use talk and discussion to see what we had learned and reflect on ways that we could have improved our rockets.I absolutely agree that children learn best through play. I have made the rocket balloons with my class previously and they loved the activity.
I think my activity would be based on Where Do You Live?
We would begin by reading a book such as ‘You Live Where?!’ by John Hay. It brings the idea that we all live in different places and buildings but they are home for us all.I would introduce the ESERO 5 activities based on Types of Houses. The children could name and identify the type of home they lived in. We would then move on to an art or STEM idea where the children could make their own home from either playdough or Lego or whatever STEM material they would like to choose.
This could then lead on to children making streetscapes with the other buildings they know in their community.
We could then move this on to a Scratch Junior activity where the children create their own streetscape and show themselves coming in or out of their home.I love the idea of integrating this with your early maths lessons. The chalk and black paper art activity also sounds lovely.
I would do an activity with my senior infant class on Stars. We would begin by talking about all the things we already know about stars. I find every year you will have at least a few children in each class who have a real interest in Space and will be able to give you lots of facts. This year one of my children told me that there were more stars in the Universe than grains of sand on Earth. The other children were amazed by this.
We would then do the activity of guessing how many marbles in a jar and then look at the same jar filled with grains of sand and see how it would be impossible for us to count these and then to think about all the sand in the world and imagine then how many stars are in our universe. I would show the ESA youtube video and the GAIA one to help show just how vast an amount of stars there are.
I would use the Draw Your Own Constellation art activity. The templates are fabulous. Show the children The Plough and give them the blank star point template and ask them to come up with their own design.I love this idea of integrating your lesson on the moon with maths and your 2D and 3D shapes. Some lovely hands on activities here.
The Sun and Shadows
I would begin by bringing my class outside and playing a game of ‘Shadows’. The children would be caught if someone stepped on their shadow. We could then have a discussion on what a shadow is, when we can see our shadows, what causes this etc.
The children could then work in small groups and using chalk, draw around each other’s shadows. We could show how to make these shadows smaller, bigger and so on. We could then bring the children out to the yard at a different time of the day and investigate if we can still see our shadows etc.
We would go back into the class and darken the room and do further investigations on shadows using torches and creating distance with them. We could then finish the lesson by reading the story ‘Rosa’s Big Shadows Puppet Experiment’ by Jessica Spanyol. It is a lovely story about how young Rosa creates her own experiments with her friends to investigate the sun and shadows.I love this idea Ruth. The younger children love investigating and being hands on. They especially love using toys and objects in the classroom.
One enquiry based activity I would use in my classroom is the Pass the Parcel activity investigating materials.
Engage: We would begin by talking about the party game Pass the Parcel. I would ask the children to explain what happens in the game. We would look at and use our vocabulary to describe the materials. We would look at the characteristics of different types of wrapping materials.
Investigate: We would begin to play a game of Pass the Parcel with each layer made up of different wrapping materials. When it is each child’s turn to unwrap a layer they must use their new vocabulary to describe their layer. When all is finished all layers would be put back into the middle and the children would decide how to sort the different materials. Hula Hoops could be used to help with this.
Next Step: We could make category cards and the children could find materials within the room or from home and place them in their categories.
Reflect: I would check for learning looking at vocabulary learned and their ability to describe and categorise the different materials.My name is Breege and I will be teaching Senior Infants next year. My favourite space fact is that there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth.
I love the idea of keeping your research question local so that the children have a true understanding of the effects of climate change on their own space.
I think the Climate Detectives research framework is an excellent resource. It gives a very structured approach to completing a research question. Senior classes would love it.
We live in a coastal area that depends heavily on tourism during the Summer months. Our research question could be based on how the Summer weather has changed over the years and ask if this is having an effect on tourism numbers in the region. Our Summers seem to be warmer but more wet weather. We could investigate the truth or reality of this. We could then move on to look at what we could do both as individuals and at a local level to see how we could protect our environment from further climate change.
I think when using the Climate Detectives framework, keeping your research question to a local one will ensure a level of interest in improving things from the children.I also found the Nose High in the Sky activity to be very useful and engaging. I thought the photos, resources and links given were excellent and would provide great opportunities for children to think critically and question and match the photos.
I downloaded the ESA resource ‘Nose High Up in the Sky’. I loved this resource and would definitely use it with a senior class.
Activity 1 – The Earth Seen From the ISS.
This gives loads of interesting facts based on the International Space Station which the children would love. The children can work independently or in groups to look at and describe photos of Earth taken from the ISS.
Activity 2 – Match the Photos.
Children have to match photos taken from the ground (on Earth) with photos taken from space (by an astronaut) of the same places. Excellent examples of photos are given which could easily be downloaded and printed off for group work. They then must compare and contrast these. A very interesting activity.
Activity 3 – Similar to Activity 2 but this time the photos are taken from the International Space Station. The children also learn more about Earth Observation satellite images and what they are used for. I think the resources in these activities are excellent and I would definitely use them.