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Una,
for me, the key way to bring science thinking into this creative activity is to do exactly what you have suggested:
What would the Alien need to survive?
The child who creates a wonderful, imaginative alien can then extend the activity by describing the ecosystem that they live in.
When we make aliens (using tin foil) there is often a child who gets a bit discouraged and crumples theirs us into a ball. I suggest that this is an alien in camouflage, waiting to catch an other alien by surprise!
Nora,
I really like how you have structure the inquiry into shadows to look at firstly
“how does changing the distance from the torch to the object” affect them, and then as a perfect next step:
How do shadows change in the Sun – since the Sun is at a fixed distance from us, and only the angles between it and the screen (the ground) change.
Jennifer and Marcella,
Nationwide libraries have been very supportive of space week for years, and set up book displays and have online connections to speakers. Do check in with your local branch to see what they have on offer.
Niamh,
with your space travel agent, be sure to print off some of the space travel agent destinations from here:
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/alien-worlds/exoplanet-travel-bureau/?intent=021
such as this one:
An older class might make travel brochures for the solar system, which your class could then use for selling the tickets and offering information to a potential traveller.
This is a guide that an older class might use: https://coppins6.weebly.com/
Orla,
I’d love to send my Brownie Guides to your class! We try to get outside as much as possible at our meetings, so we always ask them to wear good shoes and a rain coat. The number of times they arrive in a version of Uggs (water repellant, not waterproof!) and a hoodie…
With Irish seasons I’d expect the children would include a rain coat in most seasons 🙂
Susan,
you have described a lovely set of activities, that also include Science, in that, colour is an aspect of light in Science for infants.
Hi Marcella,
an optional source of inspiration could be grocery magazines -and these can be printed out or shared on the whiteboard.
Dunnes currently has this link: https://www.dunnesstores.com/c/kids/highlights/kids-summer-shop
and Tesco this one: https://www.tesco.ie/zones/clothing/kids?icid=ff_hub_kids
Would you discuss the dates of the seasons? That is a thorny question that I am often asked about!
Hi Úna,
we’ll meet rockets more extensively in Module 5, but you have described perfectly how inquiry learning can be used with rockets as the activity.
The launch of a rocket makes a perfect prompt, and then the design and make acts as the investigation section. As the children play with their rockets they can make changes to improve the rocket’s flight, based on what they notice about the rocket. This gives immediate feedback.
We make a lot of rockets with children, and the excitement they share when they get the rocket to launch is very real. We find the foam rocket is good for 1st class (at the end of the year) if you have some extra hands to help with the duct tape. 2nd and up are fine with it, and 3rd class children usually have the record for how fast they can make one (an entire class in about 23 minutes).
Lorraine,
connecting a known alien to an unknown planet and considering what it ‘might look, smell, feel and sound like.’ is brilliant. This really connects the children’s thinking about living things to the environment of the living thing.
Aisling – NOPE.
I am not waiting until Jan 2026 for my next birthday, even if it will be my 32nd!
Mars
Your Martian Age
Days Old: 20,836.9
Years Old: 31.24
Next Birthday: Jan 16, 2026Celine,
I really like that you can search the World’s Largest Lesson by age group, SDG and by topic. What a great resource, thanks for sharing.
I’ll be borrowing from it for my Brownie Guides, since IGG offers badges based on different SDGs.
Aisling,
is this the one you have used?
https://www.schoolsobservatory.org/things-to-do/space-age-calculator
I’ve always thought that I was in my twenties on Mars, but it has me at 31! I suppose using roughly 2 Earth years is a Mars year was not quite accurate 😉
This one asks for the date of birth to be input as dd/mm/yy which isn’t something very young children would know easily, so you might have to put this in from your own records.
Laura’s Star is a lovely story of friendship, and stars that can be seen at night.
There is this video of it – but I kept the sound off and just advanced so I could read the story myself – not a fan of this narration.
https://youtu.be/SFK9nWM5DRg?si=1JobISGjXnyEThPy
It looks to be part of a larger series – have you read any of the others?
Rohana,
would it look like this one?
https://www.redtedart.com/paper-plate-star-twirler/
These swirls could be used in investigative work in the classroom since they are quite like the Convection Snake from this curious minds activity: https://www.sfi.ie/site-files/primary-science/media/pdfs/col/snake_spiral.pdf
which suggest that The children can develop their own questions about how heat travels and test them.