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Is this the song?
I really like the questioning the alien (teacher) – what a great way to use the questions and to rephrase as needed in the light of information that the teacher provides.
Connecting to science understanding by creating the full persona is super – and some children might work together to create an alien ecosystem. I sometimes do that with children who find the creating aspect challenging and have created “rocks” or lumps — I suggest that these are very well disguised aliens – they look like lumps if anyone else is around…!
Fiona – I sometimes show the clip of the Cantina scene from the first Star Wars film. Lots of aliens and most children still know who Chewbacca is!
Lauren – Dancing Raisins ( English and Irish) is a lovely demonstration. The original activity was written before the Inquiry Framework was developed, but it can be made more child inquiry led by planning ahead to have different liquids and different objects to let the children try out for themselves to check their understanding.
Does the surface of the material make a difference — do raisins work because they are wrinkly? what would happen if you used a smooth bit of plasticine instead? or a small nut that is smooth?
Is it the fizzes that are important – does differently fizzy water work as well? The activity sheet suggests that the drink should be freshly open to be very fizzy – could you use fizzy vitamin tablets to make water fizzy and would that work?
Gwen –
I find fair testing something that children have to experience over and over again – and as you have said “teacher enforcement” is needed until they realise why fair testing makes the science valid.
There is a rocket picture sequence in the ESA ISS Primary Education Kit on page 54.
You can find the kit https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Education/Primary_level_ISS_Education_Kit_-_download
Barbara,
creating with science thinking is lovely way to bring Arts and STEM together. I LOVE your idea of
I would ask the children to act out in small groups how their aliens might move and communicate with each other.
My colleague did aliens as the theme for Space Week Art in 2022. You can find it here
and view at YouTube:
Siobhan,
what a lovely book: https://annaterrerosmartin.co.uk/publications/can-you-see-the-stars-tonight
and links to light pollution, which is dear to my astronomer-heart.
I’ll take the time today to listen to this podcast with her.
Thanks for the recommendation.
nice one Siobhan. Getting an astronaut to visit is huge – we were fortunate to connect with an astronaut for a rocket launch activity we did a few years ago, and have retired astronaut Dan Tani around a fair bit since his wife is from Cork, so they visit the grandparents a lot.
Did you know that there are only a bit more than 600 people who have ever trained as astronauts? There are now space passengers who can book to go on a sub-orbital flight. William Shatner (of Star Trek fame) was one of those – he flew to space when in 2021 when he was 90. You can read his account here.
Barbara,
I like that you have realistically assigned adults to support the young children. The example from the module was of an informal learning environment where bear’s shadow could be explored by one child at a time. Planning to have a darkened room with lots of children doing shadow work … well, best to split and have fewer.
Louise,
your description of weather stations seems a little high-tech powered for the Junior classes. I’d suggest more direct measurements using simple materials.
Infants could start with “moving air” to see if they can make puffs with different strengths – and be asked to use this knowledge to design and make a device to measure wind speed.
ESERO have this class weather station – for 3rd/4th class – but could be adapted for younger children.
Met Eireann have excellent resources on making weather instruments at https://www.met.ie/education/school-resources.
Kevin – it is also really easy to put your own constellations into Stellarium.
You can go to the folder where the constellation art is found, make a copy of those files (so you have the original!) then edit your copies. The software will use your revised versions.
You can find Patricia Reiff’s “Quick Controls” hint sheet here, and the link to the Western colour constellations is https://mst.rice.edu/ASTR530/materials/stellarium-modern-color-art.zip
Aoife,
Your planning for Aistear around the special-ness of Earth is great. You could include picture of different parts of Earth if you wanted – or lots of photos of the immediate school area if that is your focus and the children could also describe the pictures and tell you what they think is important or special about the area.
I reminds me of a radio station that I listened to when I lived in London. Each week the DJ would choose a different part of London and ask listeners to ring in with what made it special. I learnt a lot about other areas from listening.
Anita,
thanks for sharing. I find it quicker to cut out the mice en-masse – I use just one template and can cut about 4 layers at the same time and get 6+ per sheet. Then it’s just a bit of support running around with tape. I use the party ribbon from Tesco for the tails. With Junior Infants I would suggest getting an older class in to help – it’ll be a lot faster!
Start collecting your milk bottles now – and anything smaller than about 500ml gets ignored by children in favour of the 2l or 3 l bottles. The bottles do crack after a bit, so have plenty. I also use soft drink bottles – but now they are recyclable they will be less used.
Thanks for this detailed account of practical science in the infant classroom Dympna. Letting children have the time to explain their predictions – so that they are not just making “guesses” or trying to figure out what you think is the correct answer is so important. I like how you have planned for time for the children to connect to other familiar situations.