[Ciara Rogan]

Space and Aliens
Junior Infants

Introduction:
Whole class discussion on space. KWL chart where teacher acts as the scribe. What do we know about space and what do you want to learn? I will prompt the children to bring up Aliens if they don’t do it themselves, for example ‘does anyone/anything live in space?’

Main Activities:
Children will be shown an oral language poster based on an alien birthday party. They will be asked questions like to compare our party to their party what are the similarities/ differences between them. Then we would discuss Aliens and themselves on a day to day basis for example house/school/jobs etc.

The children will then plan their own alien on their whiteboard and use classroom materials to construct their alien for example playdoh/ art materials etc.

We will conclude the lesson by comparing our aliens.

[Ciara Rogan]

I really like how you got the children to compare their alien landscape to their school environment. This is a really nice way of concluding the lesson!

[Ciara Rogan]

Activity set: The Sun and Shadows
Class: Junior Infants
Strand: Energy and Forces – Light

Content Objectives:
Identify and name different sources of light
Explore how light behaves
Investigate shadows

Learning Objectives:
Recognise that the Sun is a source of light.
Observe that objects can make shadows when light shines on them.
Explore how shadows change based on where light comes from.

I would introduce the topic by reading the story ‘what makes a shadow’. Before I begin reading the book I would ask the children to make predictions based on the book and I would act as a scribe to note what the children know about shadows and what they want to learn about shadows.

Next we would go outside and find our shadows. The children would complete different activities with their shadows, for example: wave at it, jump, stretch tall. We would discuss if their shadows move, if they can run away from it and if everyone’s shadow is the same size.

We would return to the classroom and the children would be given the opportunity to make shadows using different objects in the classroom, torches and paper.

To conclude the lesson we would discuss what we learned about shadows and I would fill it in on our chart.

[Ciara Rogan]

This is a great lesson on shadows. The use of questioning throughout the lesson is very good. The layout of the lesson and the resources used throughout make it accessible for the Junior Classroom especially when shadows can be an abstract concept.

[Ciara Rogan]

I would use gravity as an inquiry based activity in my junior infant classroom. I would create curiosity by showing the children different objects for example: a feather, ball, car, counters, lego and ask the children to make predictions on what they think will happen when I drop these objects. They will share their predictions in their groups and with the class. The children will then test out their predictions by dropping each object and observing what happens. The children will discuss what happens to each object and record what happens. We would then have a discussion and I would ask questions such as ‘why do you think they fell down?’ ‘Can you make something go up instead of down?

[Ciara Rogan]

This sounds like a great activity! It is something I would also love to do in my class next year!

[Ciara Rogan]

Hi, my name is Ciara. I am teaching Junior Infants. My favourite fact is there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on all the beaches.

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