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Activity set: Stars
I would introduce the lesson with a picture of the plough constellation and tell the children that long ago people looked at the sky and played connect the dots and made up stories about the pictures they could see.
I would then ask them to do the same and tell me what picture they can see.
Following on from all their ideas, I would then explain that these 7 stars are in fact a group of stars in our sky called the plough. I would ask them why they think it might have been given this name. I would introduce the word ‘constellation’ at this point.
I would them get the children to stick 7 star stickers on to black paper to form the plough constellation.
As an extension creative activity, |I would allow the children to design their own constellation using the same materials and ask them to name it and tell the class about it.
This is a lovely theme of work inspired by a lovely stimulus. My 2 kids love ‘Aliens Love Underpants’ and read it regularly. For maths, you could explore halves, symmetry and pattern using copies/versions of the pictures of the aliens underpants in the front and back of the story book.
Activity Set: The Moon
One of the classes that I support did a lovely lesson last year on the moon phases……whilst making use of leftover Oreo treats from our school lunches provider! 😊
Following an introductory discussion on the moon and after explaining that the moon does not actually change shape but instead we just see different amounts of the sun’s reflected light hitting its surface, we gave the children, in pairs, 8 Oreo biscuits, a wooden fork and a paper plate.
Using a display on the whiteboard as guidance, we instructed the kids to pull the Oreos apart and using the part with cream still attached, and with the wooden fork to carve the 8 main phases of the moon. They arranged these in order and displayed them on the paper plates.
They had great fun making these and even more fun eating them afterwards! (We photographed and displayed their creations outside the classroom!)
A lovely interactive lesson that gets the kids up, thinking and moving. You could do a follow up lesson doing the same but with just the earth orbiting the sun and at the same time the moon orbiting the earth. This could be paired with an art lesson of making a very simple mechanical paper model to show the same.
Inquiry Based Lesson: magnetic and non-magnetic objects
Class Level: Junior Infants
Learning Outcome: Which materials are magnetic and which are not?
Prompt: Which objects will our ‘magic’ magnetic wands pick up?
Materials: ‘Magic’ magnetic wands and a collection of magnetic and non-magnetic objects spread out on tuff trayBegin by discussing magnets in everyday life and see what the children already know about them. Use fridge magnets and magnetic letters when discussing as these would be most familiar to them.
Next show the children the ‘magic’ magnetic wands and ask them to think and chat about which items on our tuff tray they think we could pick up with them. Record their predictions on white board, putting smiley/sad faces next to pictures of items.
Giving everyone a turn, get the children to use the ‘magic’ wand to test every item to see if it is magnetic or non-magnetic and check results against their predictions.
In small groups, get the children to record their findings on a poster of ‘magnetic’ and ‘non-magnetic’ items; a paste the pictures task. (Leave the ‘magic’ magnetic wands and tuff tray of items for them to continue testing and playing with to help them make their posters.)
A nice extension on to this lesson would be to send the kids home with a moon calendar, on which each night, on stepping outside to view the moon, they shade in what they see and then at the end of the month they should end up with their own inquiry based evidence of the lunar cycle.
