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Space week in Junior Infants
I would set up some play areas in the classroom that would allow for free exploration of the topics covered in the discrete lessons. I would have role play area of the space station. I would also have a small world station with moon sand, small people and some diy rockets.
Day 1: The moon and the earth
-I would make a KWL chart with the class to find out what they already know/what they would like to know about space.
-We would listen to the planets song. By the time space week will roll around, we will have learned about 3D shapes; I will use this knowledge to help them understand the spherical nature of the planets.
– We would look at different pictures of the moon. I would ask the kids to look at these; what do they notice etc? I would send a message to parents asking them to keep an eye on this with their kids at home too. I would explain about craters on the moon. For an art activity, we would use balls of tinfoil and grey paint to create a crator type effect on the moon. The class could choose which shape of moon they will do based on the pictures we looked at.
Day 2: Astronauts
-I would use All things primary’s method of doing this by discussing what astronauts need, what they see and what they can do.
-We would practice what happens when we pick something up and then let it go; we would learn that this is gravity acting on the object. I would tell the class that up in space, there is much less gravity in space so things can float. We would watch some videos of chris hadfield in the international space station showing how water acts in space, how he floats and how different things work. We would also watch the apollo 11 moon landing to see how the space suit helps them walk on the moon. For a drama activity, we would practice walking around pretending that we are floating.
Day 3: The sun and shadows
-We will start off by singing the song ‘Mr Golden Sun’
-We will explore how the sun works using flashlights and exploring how shadows are made using the little plastic teddies etc.
-We will go outside and bring some of the plastic animals/dinosaurs we have in the classroom. We will put these down on big sheets and trace around the shadows that the sun makes around them. I will try to do this in a place where the animals and paper can stay there for a while without being disturbed. This would give us an opportunity to go back out later on in the day and see how the shadows had changed. We would use balls to demonstrate how all our planets move around the sun.
Day 4: Stars
-I would use grains of sand to demonstrate how many stars are in the sky.
-We would use the Stellarium resource to look at some stars.
-We would look at some contellations.
-We would use paint, gold stars etc to create a class collaborative display of different stars on a a few pieces of A3 paper stuck together.
Day 5: Rockets
-We would do the mouse rocket activity.
-We would extend the activity using different sized mice, different sized/shaped containers/varying how hard or softly we push. This would lead to natural discussions about what is happening.
-We will be moved on to learning about 2D shapes in Maths at this time, I will get the class to make their own rocket on a black sheet using a variety of different 2D shapes.
Hi Mary, I love the idea of using the nursery rhyme as a starter. I think using the character of Humpty Dumpty throughout the week would ensure that any Junior Infants class would be so engaged. I also love the idea of making rockets using junk. That is a really low threshold high ceiling task suitable for all abilities in the class. I love the emphasis on oral language throughout too with all the questions and discussions; every lesson is an oral language lesson as they say!
Hi Leanne,
That poem is great. Thank you for sharing it. Beyond nursery rhymes, I don’t teach enough short little poems to my infants. This poem is easy enough and engaging enough for them to learn throughout the week. I love that it is a shape poem too.
Hi Audrey,
I love the idea of starting off space week by doing a KWL chart with your class. I think that would make for an enjoyable and engaging space week for all, rather than teaching aspects of the topic that the children do not find interesting.
I think doing this also shows the kids that they do have some sort of responsibility over their learning and the importance of reflecting on what they have learned at the end of a fixed period. These are all the important skills that they will hopefully take with them as they go on.
I will use the Moonbear’s Shadow book aswell in my own class.
Hi Michelle, that is a lovely resource. Thank you for sharing it. I also love the idea of dressing the bears. That would link in really nicely with an éadaí theme aswell.
I would use the Astronomy picture of the day in infants as one of my morning meeting oral language pictures. I usually find funny or interesting photos to put on the board during this time and I will ask the kids prompt questions based on a sentence structure we are using. Eg: we were using the 5 w’s so I would get them to describe what they saw using those. Or I might ask; who do you think took the photo? What time of the day do you think it was taken? ‘Where do you think it was taken? Why?. I think these would provide lots of lovely conversation ideas, especially after a scheme of work on the stars/space etc. In the older classes, pictures such as these could be used for a visual arts activity where you print them, cut them in half and then get the child to use their knowledge of colour mixing to make the other side of the picture.
Another good experiment for teaching about how penguins stay warm is to do the penguin blubber experiment with butter, ice and sandwich bags. It’s a great novelty. Then that could be followed up by putting vaseline on their hands to show how the water rolls off.
I feel like an SSE in STEM would be really beneficial at the moment considering the new parameters in the new primary curriculum.
These are the details I think that would be important to consider in undertaking this process.
Step 1: Gathering evidence
-as part of Croke park hours, teachers could gather together in small groups and establish what is working well/not working well/could be better about SESE in their school. I think it would be important for the teachers to discuss whether the books they are using are aligned to the way that STEM should be taught etc.
-small groups of students from each class could be taken from each class and asked about what they like/don’t like about how these subects are taught in school. We have used smiley face ranges for the infant classes to partake in situations like this; they colour green if they like it, red if they don’t etc.
-Have an evening for parents in the school; explain what STEM is, how it applies in the 21st century and its prevalence in the new curriculum. I think it would be important for them to know the context before they comment. They can then be invited to give their opinions. An online poll through Google Docs could also be sent to parents who did not get to make it on the night.
-All of this information could then be collated into graphs/pie-charts etc to see areas where we believe we need to work.Step 2: Analyse the evidence:
– Teachers should meet again to analyse the result of the surveys.
Questions should as; are we using the process of inquiry, are we allowing the children time to investigate and explore, are we using enough hands-on activites or are we too book-focused. Are we allowing problem-solving/enough design and make activites. Are we establishing enough links with Maths etc.Step 3:
Teachers should meet again to pick some key areas that they would like to work on in the coming year. I think at this point, it would be important not to pick too many targets. There would also need to be an agreement of how thes targets would be assessed at the end of the year; they would need to be SMART targets. The new curriculum and the statements of effective and highly effective practise would need to really inform the discussions here. I think it would also be important to discuss the areas that a school are doing well in. It is so good for group morale to do this.Step 4/5
-A smaller group of teachers may be appointed to spearhead the project; draw up a plan of sorts and to document what came out of the previous few steps. This should be shared with parents to help them feel that they are a valued part of the process.Step 6:
-The school body should decide what individuals will be in charge of monitoring the plan, when it will be reviewed etc.-I think throughout the SSE process, it would be important to have a positive focus on the process and to highlight successes rather than failures. I think that it would benefit staff for a padlet of resources (the process of inquiry document/science glance cards, curious minds, etc) to be made to support them in the process or getting in a speaker to provide CPD. It would be really positive if teachers were asked to give short presentations of something that worked well in their classroom etc.
Hi Claire, I agree that Shauna’s idea would be a lovely collaborative project. I was just thinking that it would also be loving to get the ikea long roll out paper and let the kids all work together on the one piece of art together to make one big piece of art that could be stuck on a display board or to the ceiling of a sensory space maybe. Then the kids could lie beneath the stars and spot the different constellations. They could all paint it black first, or use black sheets stuck together. Then they could all use golden stars, glow in the dark stars or paint to to make the stars.
Hi Shauna, I love the idea of the children creating their own constellations. It would encourage such ‘buy in’ for them to name it, and give a background story to it. It would follow on really well from a few lessons on the constellations and the names of them. I think it would also go well with some visual arts lessons including artist’s different depictions of stars like Van Gogh’s using spiral, swirling motions for stars in Starry Night. It would be a particularly nice activity for Junior Infants and really help with their oral language development.
I picked the aliens aspect of this module.
I would use these activities to inspire my play set-ups in the infant classes. I think the make your own alien using playdough activity would be a great art activity to set up for free play. I would leave googly eyes, match sticks, feathers etc.
I also like the idea of them acting like an alien in drama. I would expand upon this by giving them small scenarios to act out. Eg: ‘imagine you’re driving your spaceship’, ‘pretend you’re climbing out of your spaceship’, ‘oh my goodness, you get out and you don’t know where you are, you’ve never seen a space like this before’, ‘go ask someone where you are in your alien language etc’. I would also incorporate a hotseating activity where a child or myself would pretend to be an alien and the other children would ask them questions. Or, we could brainstorm questions that you would love to ask an alien.
I think it would be important to be mindful when approaching this topic as some parents sometimes do not like their children learning about topics such as this due to religious reasons etc.
Hi Eithne, I love how you have added in some integration with Gaeilge. I do think we tend to become preoccupied with the themes in some of the Gaeilge programmes. I feel, even though they teach basic concepts that the children need to learn, that the usual themes of bia, éadaí etc do lead to a lack of interest at times. I would love to teach a Gaeilge theme around space if it was something that they were showing a keen interest in. This is something that I need to become more confident in doing; moulding the curriculum and the content around the interests of my class.
I think it is a brilliant idea to get parents involved in the process and to share pictures. It creates a lovely home school link and I think it would lead to more buy in from lots of the kids; they love when their mammies and daddies are involved. The learning does stick better when they have a more meaningful connection with the content and resources; rather than random ones on twinkl. I regularly share what we are learning in English, Maths and Gaeilge with parents. However, upon reflection, I do realise that I only really share about Science during science week or if we do a really cool experiment. This has made me more mindful to share more about what the kids are doing in Science and about the skills we are developing so that they can be a developed further at home. I feel like this will also allow more parents to have an ‘in’ to help with their kids’ schoolwork also; for example if the parents have EAL and find it tricky to help their kids with their English homework. I think it might create a stronger positive relationship between the school and parents.
I would use the activities from the sun pack as they seem very appealing for Junior Infants.
I would use a picturebook to stimulate their interest. I loved how the teacher gave them the mini flashlights and just let them explore the effects in the darkened room. As I reflected in the last module, I need to allow more natural inquiry to happen in my infant classroom. I think just letting them have that chance to explore how the sun lights up things would make for such rich conversation. For activities like this, I suppose I just need to be mindful that each child feels comfortable in the slightly darkened room and that I explained what was going to happen right before.
I alos loved the activity where the children explored shadows with the felt sun attached to the flashlight and then shining it on their bear in the little felt landscapes they had made. I suppose, my thought here would be about the making of these little landscapes. Once they were made, they would last for years. Another idea might be to print different landscapes. I think it would work somewhat well in 2D aswell if the plastic bears were used. It was great to hear the language coming out in that lesson; ‘I know how to make the shadow longer’ and to see peer-to-peer learning with other kids trying to mimic their partners’ techniques. Again, I am guilty of showing the kids exactly how to do something before they set off on their task. I feel that some kids can tend to want to do something straight away and struggle to deal with the inquiry process. The phrase ‘I can’t do it’ and a fixed mindset and very prominent in young children now. I think using the inquiry process from the start of infants will help to increase their resilience and willingness to grapple with a task for longer. The new curriculum is very skills oriented so I feel activities like these align with that.
Lastly, I would definitely use the activity where they went outside and drew eachother’s shadows, then went outside later and saw that they had moved. Now, the logistics of this might be slightly more difficult in Junior Infants; who drew who, where etc. However, I really think it gives them a great visual demonstration of a concept that is difficult for them to grasp otherwise.
Hi Audrey, I love these ideas. Books are such good stimuli for infants to pique their interest in a topic. There are so many about space. I love the idea of just letting them freely explore the questions about what it would be like to be an astronaut etc before teaching the content. This is something that I do not do enough. I can tend to go in and teach the content that I find interesting/that I want covered. Your way would ensure that I was capturing the interests of the kids and the things that they wanted to learn about space; kind of like a KWL chart for infants.
Then add a reflection (150 words min) on how you would use one inquiry-based activity in your classroom:
This is an inquiry activity that I would use with infants across a couple of weeks of lessons.
First I would teach the class about what is meant by the words sink/float. We would actively explore items in the classroom that sank/floated. I would ask questions throughout like ‘why do you think that item floated/sank?’ I ask them what they notice about its shape, its size etc.
As a prompt for a fun inquiry activity around this for infants, I would show them my little plastic bear. He needs to get across the water but he can’t float by himself; he will need to find another way to get across the water. I would use ‘I wonder’ statements throughout like ‘I wonder how we could help him’, ‘I wonder what things we could use?’, ‘I wonder what would sink/float?’ I wonder what would be the best shape for a boat?’. The whole class would share some ideas together at this point to ensure that children who might find tasks like this trickier would get some hints/ideas upon where to starts. For a prediction element to the lesson, each child could be asked to draw a design of a boat that they think would be good before they set off investigating and designing.
For the investigation aspect, I would leave out a variety of different materials at the top of the classroom for the children to use (some that would be good for a floating boat/some that would not). I would also leave a small tray with shallow water in the middle of each table so that they could investigate materials/their design as they went (of course lots of supervision would be needed for this). When everyone is finished making their boats, we will test them in a plastic tub of water. We will discuss throughout the properties of the ones that floated. At the end of the lesson, we would have circle time; ‘what did you notice about the boats that floated/sank?’ ‘What materials were used on those boats?’, ‘What would you do next time if you made the boat again?’. The activity could be extended by adding more bears to each boat and the children having to reinforce the boat so that it could carry them. It could also be extended into having boat races; how can we make our boat go faster etc.
