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My class would love making Alien Slime as would my own children. What is it with children and messy play??
After doing this course I have been motivated to participate in Science week and encourage my colleagues to do the same. In studying Module 4 and 5 I was reminded of how I loved science myself and this was cemented by a visit to Cape Canaveral many years ago. I will do a series of lessons on Rockets incorporating other curricular areas.
I will use 2 books as a stimulus
- The Hundred Decker Rocket by Mike Smith
- Roaring Rockets by Tony Mitton
I would then elicit what the children know about rockets and each child would make their own rocket. I may also set up stations and do a couple of experiments when I have extra bodies in the classroom-
Rocket: using Alka Seltzer or Vitamin C tablets
Balloon Rocket
Design their own rocket- These rockets would also be launched and I would have the children ensure it was a fair test.
I was very impressed with the Science week website and I will definitely visit this again when we are studying space.
I was also reminded of the test with the balloon and the baking soda and vinegar. I conducted this experiment years ago and I bad forgotten how much fun we had when we were doing it.
Thank you so much for these tips Frances. I think Stellarium will be a great resource for me next year.
I really enjoyed exploring the online tools in this module. I particularly like the Stellarium website and i was unaware that this existed. I will definitely use it next year with my 1sn and 2nd class. I like the fact that you can put in a location on it and you could use the childrens own families to explore the sky in different areas. You could elicit from the children if they have family in other parts of the world and explore what the sky looks like in those areas. I also really like the idea of using the astronomy picture a day website and it was really good with the explanation of each picture. It was also good that you could go back to pictures from previous days too.
I used the Lets Discover book this year with my class and the experiments with Hot and Cold were very good and I liked how they could be integrated easily with other subject areas.I like the idea of using stations for studying constellations. It will make it much more fun for the children and is more personal to them.
I am teaching 1st and 2nd class next year and I would like to use the Activity Set on Stars with my class.
Introduction: I would use the song Sky Full of Stars from Sing 2 with the children to initiate a discussion about stars. We would elicit what they know about stars and what they might like to find out about them.
Sing 2 (2021) – A Sky Full of Stars Scene | Movieclips
I have used this song before with my 1st and 2nd class and after doing this course I now see how useful it would be as a starter for the Lots and Lots of Stars activity from ESERO. The song could then be integrated into a music lesson.
I would also use The Starry Night picture by Van Gogh and use this for an art lesson.
As I have a sister who lives in Australia and I have seen the constellations in the Southern Hemisphere I would also explore with the children the fact that there are different constellations in the Northern and the Southern Hemisphere. I would encourage the class to come up with their own constellations too and name them themselves. It would be a great way to focus an oral language lesson and why they name their constellation the way they did.
After doing this module I see how broad the topic is and where it can lead you.I would choose the Moon as my area of focus and it would allow me to talk about my time when I visited Cape Canaveral in Florida many years ago. I would start by showing a video clip of Neil Armstrong on the moon and elicit from the children what they know about the moon. We would complete a KWL grid on the board and come back to it at the end of the lesson. I would use The Man in the Moon lesson and distribute materials to allow the children to make their own representation of the moon. We would follow up with a drama activity where they would reenact the walk on the moon and do a Thought Tunnel to put themselves in Neil Armstrong and the other astronauts shoes before and after the moon exploration. We would also link study on the moon with the other planets to explore what other planets have moons and what role they play.
I would love to be in your Infant classroom for the study of the moon Claire. It all sounds fantastic.
I think after doing this module that I will work harder on making my science lessons inquiry based where they can be. I followed a certain programme during the year which was great for giving me ideas and I will certainly try even harder next year to use the inquisitive minds of the children and work from what they know. In the last month we did the experiment where we spilled the water and they were very quick to tell me that the water spillage had to be the same each time we were testing a new material to keep the test fair. We also did a theme on bridges which was integrated with Art and they had to design bridges that would be strong enough to withhold different toys. I can tell you that it took a lot longer than the time that I had intended it to but it was worth it to see the joy on their faces when they experienced success.
I love the idea of this lesson as I am drawn in by Paddington myself. My own 1st and 2nd class loved experimenting with materials to see which would be waterproof too.
My favourite space fact is that the Sunset on Mars appears blue. My class loved when we discovered that.
e Hi everyone. My name is Deirdre and I jobshare in 1st and 2nd class and will be doing that for the 3rd year this year. I love how inquisitive children are and how they can up with solutions to scientific experiments. We had loads of fun this year using Lets’ discover and there was plenty of opportunities for experimentation.is
