Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi Ciara, I also teach an infant class and agree that it was great that lots of these activities could be used with a younger class group
I teach senior infants and I like how the activities in this module were broken down into four parts- engage, investigate, taking the next step and reflecting, as this would make it easy to plan for my own classroom. When learning about rockets, I love how the module suggested some age-appropriate texts and videos. This is a great way to introduce new vocabulary as well as capture the children’s interest in a new topic. The children could make their own simple rockets, perhaps during Aistear time, and explore how they could be launched. I think the children would really enjoy the rocket mice activity from youtube. In terms of investigating how their rockets launch, I like how the importance of discussing fair testing was highlighted, as this is an concept skill to develop. The children’s understanding could then be applied to other curriculum areas, such as javelin throwing in PE. The children could engage in this activity and share the results during assembly as part of Space Week.
Hi Maeve, great ideas outlined above. I also love the language development oportunities for the children that hands-on learning experiences provide
A STEM focused SSE would work well in any school to evaluate their teaching of science skills across all classes. Once the focus of improving teaching of science skills is identified, the next step would be to gather information regarding our current practices. This information could be collected from staff, parents and students. In our infant school, drawings could be used to assess understanding. This information could then be analysed and decisions made regarding the next step in improving student learning in this area. A plan would be written and shared to those in the school community to ensure everyone is aware of the changes occurring. The plan would then be put into place within a reasonable timeframe, with support provided as needed (e.g. professional development opportunities provided, a professional learning community established etc.). Lastly, staff would monitor the actions taken as part of the plan and evaluate the impact of the interventions. The cycle could then begin again as needed, with changes implemented based on the learning needs of the students in the school.
Hi Maeve,
I agree that the children would find this a fun activity in which to explore their understanding of space. I love the idea of using a book as a starting point into the lesson
I found it helpful that this module outlined links to the new primary maths curriculum. This was helpful as I am just getting used to planning for my senior infants with this document in mind.
I also appreciated the links to videos for teacher background knowledge, as I wouldn’t be overly confident in my own knowledge about space.
The series of activities based on stars would work well in the infant classroom. The support document “Lots and Lots of Stars” activity “Looking at the stars- How many stars are there?” where the teacher uses containers of marbles to emphasize how many stars are in the sky would really help children in the younger years with their conceptual understanding of number. The discussion element of the lesson helps the children use their language skills and vocabulary to help explain their thinking to their peers. The follow on activity of making a starry sky by using a splatter paint screen would be a fun, visual way to help them understand the huge number of stars in space.
Hi Mary,
I love all the ideas you had for this lesson. There are lots of different activities with movement and music integrated throughout, which would provide fun learning experiences for the children.
An activity that I enjoyed learning about during this module was the spherical Earth. This activity comes from the “The Universe in a Box” support document which outlines resources needed, as well as cross-curricular links. I currently teach senior infants but this activity could be easily adapted for both younger and older students. Using a globe, a flat table top, an origami ship and a captain figurine, we could investigate how the children’s perception of the ship changes as it moves further away from them, depending on what surface represents the earth. These observations could then be compared to the children’s own experiences. This learning could be expanded further using the lesson “Up or Down” from the same document. Using the same globe, as well as a polar bear and a penguin figurine, children could investigate their understanding of the Earth’s pull. The dialogue and language produced by the children during this activity will help me as the teacher understand their current level of understanding and indicate what the next steps in their learning should be.
Hello everyone, my name is Caoimhe and I teach senior infants.
I don’t know a lot about space but hope to learn a lot more over the duration of this course but one fact that I read about is that the International Space Station takes 90 minutes to complete an orbit of Earth.
An inquiry based activity that I would use in my infant classroom would be based on the Esero support document “What does gravity do?”. We could investigate using the prompt activity “oops I dropped it” to compare the effects of gravity on various objects. These objects could come from what is already available in the classroom. The activity is broken down into several parts, ensuring that the children engage, investigate, take the next step and that the teacher reflects on their learning. The use of collecting and interpreting data would be a useful link to the maths curriculum.
