[Rohana Rahman]

I have used a number of hands-on classroom activities in the last few years with Infants regarding weather and the different clothes you would wear for various conditions.

·       Geography/ Science: We began the topic by discussing different types of weather. Following this, I showed the children clips of weather forecasts. We brainstormed and highlighted different words the weather forecaster had used to describe the weather on the whiteboard. I split the group into groups and they created their own weather forecasts for the class and acted them out. We discussed our favourite weather and what we would wear for this type of weather.

·       Science: Another activity I used before was a cutting activity where the children had to match the correct clothes to the correct picture of a certain type of weather. We discussed as a class why they chose this and what the words we can use to describe the weather in question.

·       Aistear: The children loved using the rain-themed sensory table in Aistear. The children love playing with water. I put plastic animals and figurines into the water with strainers and colander’s. The children used the strainers to make rain.

·       Visual Arts: The children loved making their own kites using paper plates. With support the children cut the centre of the paper plate out. They designed their own paper plate with paint. Once it was dry they stuck a number of colourful ribbons on one side of the paper plate with sellotape. We then stuck a long dowel to the end of the paper plate with masking tape. The children loved bringing these out to the school yard to see their kite ribbons  blowing in the wind as they ran around the playground.

[Rohana Rahman]

This is a brilliant idea Siobhan. I will do this in September. Id say the parents would love to get rid of bits that they don’t use around the house which we can use at various stations.

[Rohana Rahman]

I would use the activity of Stars and this lesson would be aimed at infant level.

Subject: Visual Arts/Literacy/SPHE

Activity topic: Stars

I would begin the lesson with reciting the song “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” with the children. We would go through the words and we would discuss what the song is about.

We will create Paper Plate Star mobiles. The resources we will need are:

·       Paper plates

·       Coloured string

·       Scissors

·       Paint, paintbrushes

·       Glue

·       Star templates

·       Coloured markers

The children will begin by decorating the star templates and cutting them out. The children will colour the stars and they can put a different emotion on the face of each star. We can link this are to SPHE also where we can teach the children how to recognise facial expressions and what emotions mean. Once they have done this, they can cut out their stars. They will then paint the paper plates blue, purple and black swirls to be used as the galaxy. When the paper plates are dry the children can cut the plates out in a spiral design. I will help the children to draw the spiral design with a marker so they can follow it when they are cutting. We will make a hole in the top of the spiral plate and put a piece of string through it. The children can tie a knot at the end of it. I will support them with this step too. The children can then hang the mobile in their bedroom.

[Rohana Rahman]

I love all of these ideas. There are so many subjects integrated with the topic of stars that will keep the children engaged and interested.

[Rohana Rahman]

There are lots of great games in this lesson to keep the children entertained and interested in this topic.

[Rohana Rahman]

I would choose the activity of the Planets to teach to my Senior Infant class. I would begin the lesson with a discussion about what the children know about planets. We will discuss an easy way to learn the order of the planets by using the mnemonic My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos.

Following this we will listen to the song “The Family of the Sun”. Each group will get a sheet of tin foil. I will draw various circle/rings starting with a small circle (the sun) and continue to draw bigger circles around each one to create an image of the solar system.

Each group will have a black marker to write the name of each planets. To support them I this task, I will ask the children to tell me the mnemonic that we learned regarding the order of the planets. I will place the names on the board for them to copy on their sheets.

I will show the children pictures of the solar system on the interactive whiteboard. We will look at the colours of the different planets. I will ask the children to work with their groups to create ach planet using the correct coloured playdoh pieces and place them on their tin foil solar system. I will prompt the children to recognise the different sizes of each planet too and to try their best to create similar models. By using play doh the children can really see how the planets are in constant motion around the sun. The children will be able to move each piece on the circles or rings around the sun to get a better understanding of this.

[Rohana Rahman]

Hi,

My name is Rohana and I am teaching Senior Infants this year. I love Science and I am looking forward to learning news ideas to implement in my class this year. The interesting fact on space is about shooting star and how they are made up of various different colours based on what they are made of.

An inquiry-based lesson that I have used in my class before is the Dancing Raisons experiment. The children absolutely loved this during Science Week last year. You fill up a glass with still water and put a handful of raisons in. The children observe what happens to the raisons. No movement takes place. Then we fill a glass with fizzy drink like 7Up/sparkling water and put a handful of raisons into this glass. The children watch what takes place. The raisons begin to float and dance.

In the glass of still water, the raisons sink because the raison is denser than the water. In the fizzy drink, the raison is denser than the water but the bubbles get trapped in the indents of the raison. This makes them float up to the top of the glass. Once the bubble bursts, the raison sinks back down. The children loves predicting what would happen and they got so excited once the raisons started floating up and down.

[Rohana Rahman]

Thanks for mentioning that Michelle. I love reading about Brian Cox’s findings. He has really interesting debates online and really informative documentaries that really make you want to analyse things further.

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