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Activity Set: Rockets
We will begin our lesson by reading the picture book ‘Peep Inside How A Rocket Works’. This will stimulate lots of conversation about rockets; the children’s prior knowledge, space related questions, rocket vocabulary etc.
We will then focus on how we think a rocket actually works. We will look at a Kids Academy video; ‘How Rockets Work’ to further aid our discussion.
We will then make the ESERO Rocket Mice in small groups. I will explain that just like a real space rocket, our rocket mice will use trapped air in the carton to push them upwards.
I will then ask the children the question ‘What happened to the mice after they were shot up into the air?’. (This will lead onto the next day’s lesson about gravity.)
The story book ‘Roaring Rockets’ is a great resource in this lesson as it simplifies the very complex topic of space travel and uses lots of age appropriate space related vocabularly, all in an engaging and enjoyable way.
Activity Set: Animals in the cold.
I will start the lesson by reading the picture book ‘Say Hello To The Snowy Animals’. This book takes the reader through a variety of animals living in the Arctic and focuses on the sounds they make. We will talk about each animal: what they are called, what colour they are, what they are doing and we will repeat what sounds they make.
Next, we will listen to the book again, this time online; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CkRzf4mmSk We will stop at every page, repeat the sounds they make again, and I will ask the question about each animal ‘How do you think the _______ keeps warm in the cold snowy weather?’ We will discuss how we think the husky, the polar bear, the snowy owl, the caribou, the whale, the seal, the puffin and the arctic hare use their bodies to deal with the freezing climate. (feathers, fur, blubber, greasy layer on skin)
I will then further develop the concept of the greasy layer of skin by using the Vaseline experiment in the ESERO 7 lesson.
I like the idea of the vaseline to show the effect of the greasy layer to keep water off some animals in cold climates. I will definitely use this idea. Have you ever read the book ‘Say Hello to the Snowy Animals’? This would be a lovely addition to your lesson.
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.