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I really like your idea Susan of participating in Earth hour. I think kids aren’t taught explicitly to think about energy consumption and I think it’s a challenge they would enjoy.
Plan to observe the Moon – which phase of the Moon is best for observing in the morning from school? What dates will that be in 2024- 2025?
To start, i would show the children a sample of a lunar cycle (National Geographic). I would assess the children’s prior knowledge of the moon and go through the relevant vocabulary. NASA offer a great lesson on acting out moon phases and break them down into understandable information for the children. I would do this as a whole class activity. We would then plan out our observation of the moon. I would do this in October with the beginning of the next new moon and have the children create a moon log. We would assign discussion time each week to note any changes seen in the moon and from our knowledge of light, why this is. As an extension activity, I would also have the children use clay to construct ‘the man on the moon’ based on what they think this looks like based on their observations. I think this would bring fun and freedom to be creative to the activity and is a nice follow up once they have done their observations.
I really like the idea of displaying the childrens work as I think it opens up a discussion for the wider school community and also the children could revisit the display when there is a new moon phase and note any differences they observe.
I really like the idea of using pringle tube as the kids would really enjoy this. I also like how it allows them freedom to be creative and explore different weights depending on the planet. It allows for lots of linkage and integration!
I would use the ESERO lesson 30 day and night in the world. I teach junior infants and I think the linkage with animals would really appeal to them and engage them. Animals are something they show interest in, so using this to teach the more complex and abstract concept of time and day and night would be really effective.
I would give the children of the different animals we would be discussing and ask them to group them into nocturnal and diurnal. I would also discuss the differences we see during day and night with the children and why they think some animals prefer to sleep during the day. I think the day and night activity with the needle would be too complicated for infants so I would use the buddy teaching that we have in our school and ask the sixth class children to help them construct the circle with them. I like the visual of the orange and the torch as this further explains to the children why we have night and day in different timezones at different times. With an older class, I would use the weather app on the iPads to note the sunrise and sunset times and how they change depending on the time of year. I would also use the sundial activity as an expension of this so as the children become aware of the earth’s rotation throuhgout the day.