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<p style=”text-align: left;”>An amazing list of different activities to engage pupils during the space week. I especially love the links to visual arts. The children would have great fun creating their own aliens and galaxies for them to explore.</p>
Activity- Rockets
Trigger – video of a rocket going into space
Wonder- What is making the rocket move? Discuss different methods of moving objects.
Explore- Try out different ways to move objects.
- Move a balloon attached to a straw along a piece of string by letting the air out of the balloon
- Propelling a bottle using water and fizzing tablet
- Propelling an object sitting on top of an open bottle by squashing the bottle, pushing out the air
- Launching a foam rocket using cylinder and elastic bands.
Investigate
Ask the children to design and make a rocket using a range of Materials including cylinder rolls.
Question- How far will the rockets go when launched using a slingshot style launcher.
Predictions- Each group predicts a distance (linkage: maths)
Conduct the experiment- Discuss fair test: all groups start at the same position, all use the same rocket launcher, only difference is the force used and the materials used (both of which would be discussed after the Investigation when discussing results.
Sharing/Interpreting results- Discuss distances measured, materials used, possible forces affecting the launch. Display results using a bar chart or pictogram.
Next steps- what could have been done differently? Evaluate design of rockets. Discuss pull force. A marker to indicate how far to pull back the launcher.
I really like the idea of covering two different strands of visual arts during this lessons. It would allow children to show their strengths in either construction, drawing or both. Children love talking about where they live so this would be a very engaging lesson.
The inclass activity I would choose would be linked to the seasons and weather.
Trigger- I would bring in an assortment of clothes and get the child to initially explore different ways to sort them. (Tops/Bottoms, Different Materials/Textures etc.)
Wondering- I would ask the children about what the different weather/seasons the different clothes would be worn in. (This would probably already be discussed in their groups during the trigger but some children may have sorted them differently.)
Explore- Using different images of weather and seasons, we would explore what clothes are worn during different seasons and weather and discuss why.
Investigation- what materials would keep us warm/cool. Linking back to activities in previous modules: The Earth’s rotation and the Sun as a heat source. Provide the children with different materials and using ice-cubes to investigate keeping things cool and using something warm (not hot) to keep it warm.
Take the next step- as a follow on activity, I would ask the children to make a list of different objects at gome that keep things warm and keep things cool. A list would be compiled then of all the different items. This list could then be used as a trigger for a lesson on designing a space suit to keep an astronaut warm in space.
Love the idea of using the peg boards for the lesson. Very hands on and allows the children to try different patterns before maybe settling on one design to use/draw.
Activity Set – Stars
I would use a video and some images of stars and constellations, encouraging the children to wonder about patterns, shapes, names etc.
I would show the children different constellations and ask them to discuss how they think they got their names.
The main activities I would have the children complete would be the Draw your own constellations. Magpie-ing from another post, I would also use peg boards to allow the children to create their own constellations.
I love the idea of linking Art and Science so the next step would be for the children to make their own star lanterns. Instead of the torch, I would use battery operated tea lights so the children could bring them home once complete and SESE focus has moved on to something else.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>I really like the variety of activities here. I also love the idea of the children being the “Earth” so the lesson can be even more active for them, rather than just looking at the globe.</p>
The activity I would do in my classroom is the Sun and Shadows activity. As this is weather permitting, it would be carried out during the summer term and across a week depending on the weather.
The trigger would be an image of the sun and a range of light sources to get the children talking about light, how it travels in straight lines and what happened when the light is blocked. A discussion on shadows would be undertaken too.
One of the main activities would be drawing the outline of the children’s shadows out in the playground. Another activity would be carried out at different times during the day or week, investigating how shadows change throughout the day. The children would choose a toy to draw around the shadow of. They would do this using paper and at different times throughout the day or week. The toy and the position of the toy would remain constant. The time of day would change. The child would discuss any changes they notice at the end of the day/week across the different shadow outlines.
This was my first idea when trying to come up with a concept for the task. I ended up going with something different but would definitely do this inquiry based lesson in the future. The younger classes would love the idea of working out how to keep their teddies dry.
Module 1: How I would use one inquiry-based activity in my classroom.
Strand- Materials
Strand Unit- Properties and Characteristics of Materials
Learning Objective- . Explore, investigate, identify and recognise ways of keeping things cool.
Trigger- Picture of icelollies in the sun, melting.
Wonder- Why are they melting? How can we stop them from melting? What are insulators? What are conductors?
Exploring- Discuss how quickly/ slowly the ice-lollies melts? Examine cool bags, items that are used for keeping things cool. Show the children the various materials which you have brought in and ask them: “Which of these materials do you think would be the best for keeping ice lollies cool?” “Next best”, etc. “How do you think we could carry out a fair test to try to answer this question?
Starter Question- What material do you think will slow down the melting of the ice lolly?
Predictions- Record these
Investigation- Groups of children use a different material and cover the icelollies. Discuss fair testing. What will be the same (layers of material, size of material, same icelolly type, all in the shade or all in the sunlight? What will be different, materials used?. Control: unwrapped icelolly.
Sharing- What happened? Sharing and interpreting results.
Hi
I’m Fiona, although I’m teaching 6th Class on September I am very interested in learning about Space and using what I learn in tye future. I’m sure I might be able to adapt some of the resources and information for an older class. I don’t have a favourite Space fact but I find the whole universe fascinating.
