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Songs, poems and art works linked to the night sky.
As I think about this, it becomes so clear how much influence the stars have had on artists through out the ages, after all as they say ‘it’s written in the stars’.
The painting that springs straight to mind is Van Goughs Starry Night, a fabulous painting that has been used as inspiration for art classes in schools for a very long time. Another by Van Gough is Starry Night Over the Rhône, a beautiful painting of the night sky with the plough in the sky.
Nursery rhymes, Twinkle, Twinkle, Hey Diddle Diddle, and Star light, star bright are classics used in junior infants. Lovely rhymes we always say with our children.
Songs that come to mind are Nightswimming by REM, Fly me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra, Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay, City of Stars by Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.
The night sky has long fascinated people, its beauty, wonder and the unknown has captured the imagination forever. The romance of a stroll under the stars or the glint of the moon reflecting on water is also an inspiration to artists.
We have a local bat population near our school is a fantastic, children often report seeing them fly around the soccer and gaa pitches. I think it would be a great to continue this conversation and explore why we can see them here- the light attract insects and the bats eat them.
I think next year we could look at supporting the bat population by making bat boxes to attach to some of the poles around our school. We could follow this up by investigating what the bats eat, and subsequently creating a night garden that attracts moths, beetles etc. Our first step would be to examine pollinators at work during the day, do any insects work at night? What insects come out after 9pm? Just because we are asleep doesn’t mean the world stops. If possible we could install or borrow a cheap wildlife trail camera near our night garden to try capture the activity at night. I think the children would be amazed at what they see!
I really like the idea of exploring the two contrasting areas, this would bring about lots of interesting discussions on why there is more light pollution in urban areas, but that it is not limited to urban areas.
Light pollution is a huge problem across the globe, and I think its a great topic to cover with my class next year.
I would follow on from our lessons on the moon and the constellations and begin a discussion about what children can see from their own houses when it gets dark. As most of the children in our school are from a rural area, I expect that they will see lots, providing there are no clouds. My class are big into GAA, so i think a comparison between what they see from their homes, and then from the GAA pitch at night ( its lit up as there is a walkway) would be very interesting, we could also look at the sky from the street. I think these are very good places to start as the children would be in these areas every week, even in the dark.
Following this I would explore the difference between the night sky now and when their grandparents were young, some grandparents would remember the streetlights being lit by a person every evening. looking at photos taken of the earth would also be a good idea here.
We could then explore how the animals have evolved to need the night sky and the natural lights to feed, breed and find their way home. David Attenborough has fantastic documentaries about this.
To follow up, we could discuss how to improve light pollution in our area. We could design posters/ information leaflets to show the impact light has on the local wildlife.
This is a lovely idea, the children would be very engaged. I like the idea of opening with a KWL to show where children are with their understanding of the moon before you begin.
Using stellarium with sixth class.
I would begin with a prompt question or activity, such as what can we see when we look at the sky? Discuss the day/night changes, and then engage children in a discussion on whether the night sky changes. What changes occur? Can any features we typically think of as being night time features be seen during the day – the moon, the first stars to appear, venus.
We can now begin to discuss the position of the moon in relation to the time of the day.
We will use a model of the earth, the moon and the sun(torch) to investigate what is happening as the earth rotates.
We may decide to keep a moon observation log for a week or two, we could then report on our findings.
We can now progress to using the stellarium. I think this would really fascinate the children, I was completely amazed looking at it. They would love to explore the website, and then look towards the sky to check their findings.
Hi Michaela,
I really love this itea too. I think you are right that allowing the children to decorate their plan tubes would give them ownership and make them more interested in this project. It also engages children who have different interests – maths, art and design and English/Irish for the write up afterwards.
Construct a sundial in your immediate area, or plan where to put one in your school grounds.
To begin this activity I would use our school buddy system between sixth class and junior infants. I would repeat an activity we did earlier this year. Sixth class drew the junior infant shadows at 9am, at 12pm and again at 1.45. There was much discussion as to why the shadows had moved, with some very entertaining responses. Children were very curious as to why the shadows were not the same length or facing the same direction despite their feet being in the same position as earlier in the day.
I would use this activity at a few different times in the year to show how the seasons also have an effect on the shadows, following on from this, I would engage sixth class in a discussion as to what we might need to take into account before making our own school sundial. I think this would be a very engaging project for the school.
We could use google forms for evaluating all areas of the curriculum. Maybe starting with Wellbeing would be useful for our school as we have this as a focus for our SSE.
I like the idea that children get to be detectives while exploring their own communities, this is a sure way to engage children in any task!
Designing a village icon would be tricky, it might be more suited if you wanted to advertise your village as a tourist destination.
The brainstorm gem is a great way of getting starter ideas for lessons.
I think we should evaluate learner experiences as part of out SSE. The focus being on Gaeilge learning experiences. I want to determine if the children in my own class are merely repeating learned phrases or are they actively using Gaeilge to communicate their own opinions and choices.
To assess this I would begin by using Google Forms, have a selection of questions that would elicit a response on a scale of 1-5, such as – I only speak when teacher asks me to/I get to choose the projects we work on in Gaeilge. By doing this type of survey with the children I will be able to ascertain how they feel about learning Irish in my classroom. Following the results of this, I can explore new ideas on how to improve on my teaching. I can then return to this survey in two months and see have things improved. I think this is a very good starting point, and may share my idea with other teachers.
Love this idea Nicola. The children would love trying to decipher what the object was used for – a tool, a bowl, a toy……so many options!
Would you include some hints as to where it was found? Near a dwelling? Or a river? This may help guide discussion on what the object might be for.
Another idea could be to allow one child decide what it is and have them in the hot seat answering questions about it.