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Hi Yvonne, that sounds like a great lesson. I love how structured it is. I actually read up on Lunar boots too; sometimes children’s books are almost perfect!
To engage the children, I will read “The Darkest Dark” to them. This book was written by an astronaut and tells the story of a little boy who is afraid of the dark. He is then inspired by the moon landing and conquers his fears and becomes an astronaut. We would discuss what astronauts do. Chris Hadfield has many videos about living in space. The children will explore this further in Aistear through both Small World and dramatic play. Another aspect of these lessons, will be how astronauts get into Space. The children will then design their own rockets, thinking about their shape. We will discuss why they think most rockets are pointed at the top and are long. The children will be encouraged to try various shapes when they are constructing their rockets. We will do this using junk art materials. We will then test our rockets. We will devise a fair test first.
Saoirse, you have so many great ideas. I love the idea of allowing the children to dress up as Marvin and Milo. I know that they would adore this opportunity and would also encourage them to think more scientifically.
The activity set I have chosen is “Where Do You Live? & Weather? I teach Senior Infants and the concept of where we live can we be a hard concept to grasp for many children. WE say we live in our homes, our estates, our towns, our counties, our provinces, our countries, our continents and our planet. That’s a lot of places for a child. I have seen an activity online which could be completed whole class or even individually over the course of a week or so. I have attached an image below. This activity is a great one to ground the children and show them where they exist in the world. Following this the children can present their circles project to the class. The children will notice that their immediate circle (their home) is different, but that some children live in the same estate. Most of the children will live in the same town and beyond that all the cirlces will be the same. We can then name a variety of known figures to the children and then compare what their circles might look like.
Making the aliens with such crafty materials is a great idea to get the ideas flowing. Last year, we drew aliens and then wrote about them using describing words. I think your method would work better.
I have actually completed many lessons with my Senior Infants this year. As a stimulus I read the book “Goldilocks in Space” by Peter Bentley. This is a fabulous book. The images are interesting, the story itself is a good length and the text is well written. The story itself is based upon the notion of the Goldilocks zone – this is the area around astar where an orbiting planet could host liquid water and hence support life. The planet needs to be “just right” like the Bears porridge. From this stimulus, the children were then encouraged to create their own planets. We then discussed the possibility of alien life of their planets. To further engage students, I would incorporate digital resources such as videos of space exploration or interactive simulations of alien encounters. Another story that fosters an interest and encourages the children’s scientific inquiry is the Smed’s and the Smoo’s.
Hi Sean, I really enjoyed that lesson as well. The flat maps are so confusing and abstract for children
Firstly, I would introduce the activity of the sun and shadows when we are doing time of day and routines in maths. We would discuss what we do in the morning, the afternoon, the evening and at night time/ Following this, we would discuss what these times look like outside – is there a moon in the sky or a sun in the sky? We would then briefly discuss what happens to the ground when the sun is out. After this I would introduce the Bear Shadow’s in the woods activiry from My Sky Tonight. Through this activity, the children experiment and discover that when the torch (sun) is low down, there are larger shadows cast, and when the torch is higher up the shadows are much smaller. I will demonstrate using the torch, the bears and the scene what the day would look like in shadows. The children will then be encouraged to look at their shadows outdoors at different times of the day in school and at home.
I love this idea Yvonne. My school actually has BeeBots but I never thought of using them in such an imaginative and interesting way.
Hi my name is Deirdre Tiernan and I teach Senior Infants. I find it fascinating to learn about how the world began with the big bang and how it is still evolving.
Inquiry Based Activities are magical when they can be instigated. While I have been successful at creating them in the past, the step by step approach that is available thanks to ESERO is very useful. As an infant teacher, we choose a monthly theme. The themes include Space, Under the Sea and In the Garden. I will use this approach to drive the theme. With effective stimuli’s children usually seize control of their learning and start to research topics at home, write about it in their free writing copy and play imaginatively during Small World and Dramatic Play. I will provide further information, vocabulary, praise and enthusiasm to help the children continue on their learning trajectory. Children love to present their knowledge. I find in particular, they enjoy creating a project or piece of writing and showing it to their peers or other teachers. It is important that the children’s enthusiasm and work is validated.
