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Meadhbh,
I think the discussion could also be really interesting if they have visited anyone over the summer – is their house similar to other houses? If you are in a city school you might have children who live in flats, as well as the more suburban 3-bed semis or bungalows in the country.
Would you take a walk of the local area and look at the various styles of houses? Google streetview could do that if the weather is against you, or if you are very rural with only a few houses nearby.
I love this drama/journey concept as a physical activity (the putting on coats etc is just gorgeous),
thanks for sharing.
Ailbhe,
as someone who was the right age when ET came out (cough 1982) – I love this idea of the alien left behind.
Would you show the children the ET poster?
or the trailer?
Conor,
I found one read along of Astromouse, but the energy levels were just too much!
https://youtu.be/v1quwfChw5M?si=OQjhhC-qjB6EEXGk
One of the reviews on goodreads has:
This is a lovely book that would be very useful to extend children’s thinking as part of a topic on space or travel. The mice characters are very engaging and sure to appeal to young children. The book includes reading comprehension questions and suggested activity ideas. These are useful, ( and I’m definitely trying the recipe for moon paint), but I think there would also be considerable scope for problem solving and Design and Technology activities. I would use this at the start of a topic, as part of a ‘Knowledge Harvest’ to find out what children already know about space and explore their thinking about space travel.
Thanks for sharing your mind map. It can be useful to take a screen shot of it as you continue to add to it over this course.
Ciara,
What a great set of activities to really bring Space into your classroom.
you could show them Chris Hadfield brushing his teeth in space!
https://youtu.be/3bCoGC532p8?si=jkx5AkiEwppqRMPX
Space weather has a specific meaning – you can explore it in this spaceweek resource: https://www.spaceweek.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/MagneticSunandSpaceWeather.pdf
and for space music – check out this lovely vocal activity (linked from Mission to the Moon)
Catherine,
using a Wonder Wall sounds like a great way to include the children’s ideas and wondering.
Do you implement in it in this way? https://artsintegration.com/2018/09/01/a-low-prep-strategy-to-cultivate-inquiry-voice-and-choice/
Susanne,
fair testing with paper aeroplanes is a lovely way to check if children really get the idea of fair testing.
If they are changing the material, then everything else should stay the same, including the design of the folded plane, the force with which they launch, the angle of launch, the height of launch etc.
It might be easier to choose just one material and then let them explore the other factors.
Ciara,
I love your plans for the teddy to visit with each child, and how natural to make him an umbrella.
Using
discussion, critical thinking, investigative learning and lots of predicting.
can be structured with the framework for inquiry with the prompt of teddy’s umbrella, lots of wondering (as discussion) and then exploring at the water table. This could be a design and make if they find out which materials are waterproof, then consider what other requirements there are for an umbrella. They might look at a material being flexible so that the umbrella can fold, or light weight, so that teddy can hold up the umbrella, or they might look at the colour being a colour that they like…
Ailbhe,
the bridge making activity from Curious Minds (and in Irish ) uses paper to make bridges – and I have tried this with 7-8 year olds and they find it surprisingly hard to get bridges made and tested within 40 minutes. As long as you allow plenty of time (perhaps over a few weeks) this can really work. Amazing triangles / (in Irish) is a good initial activity, to help the children explore what structures are strong.
Aoife,
that’s a lovely set of activities, very accessible for an infant class. May I share it in the end of course summary?
Sheelagh,
demonstration and then exploration fits so well with the inquiry approach. The demonstration acts as the prompt and gives children the experience of a successful version of whatever they are investigating. They can then find out more and deepen their understanding.
Emma,
counting stars is a nice way to introduce sampling and estimation with a slightly older class.
With a large image – how do we check how many of a thing are shown? We sample a small part of the image and then multiply it out.
This is particularly important with galaxies, where we have only take deep sky images of a fraction of the sky, so we use the density of galaxies in one area to extrapolate out.
See this article about it: https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a32109712/how-many-galaxies/
The Webb telescope is so good, that galaxies appear in almost every image it takes – even when it is looking at something much closer!
New Webb Image Captures Clearest View of Neptune’s Rings in Decades
Lauren,
here is a direct YouTube link to that video:
https://youtu.be/CrKw2ysZUEo?si=BKTQCCbbQIgWWPLg
I like how you have linked the clothing that we wear in different weather conditions to the hot and cold theme.
Hi Leeanne
ESERO’s Design a Spacesuit has some nice images that would support this activity.
To bring out the inquiry aspect of this, (referencing the Curious Minds ESERO Framework for Inquiry) I would use the scenario of designing a spacesuit as the prompt, encourage the children to wonder and explore the different types of clothing. As you have mentioned, one criteria is “keep them warm”, so the children could carry out an investigation as to which of the materials you have provided keep something warm the longest. In a typical classroom this often means having something hot inside the fabric – which can be a bit hazardous (at second level this is often hot water inside metal cans with different layers of insulation, a thermometer measuring the temperature), so this could be modified to “keep something cold” – (the heat from outside can’t get in). Then you can look at keeping an ice cube cold – and will a thick warm sock keep it cold or will a thin tight be better? This can be the starter question and they can share their thinking as they make a prediction.
Once they have shared results, they can consider their next step, which could be their design of the suit using the materials that they have found best to keep the heat out (which is the same as heat in).