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Oisín,
since phases of the Moon appears in second level not primary, looking at the phenomena with a view to light and shadow is the best way to examine it.
From doing a similar activity with secondary students, there is a lot to it, and children need to take the time to explore. I would suggest starting with New Moon and Full Moon, and if you can, go outside with Moon balls (styrofoam on a stick) and let the actual Sun light up the Moon ball so that the children can directly connect the source of the light (the flashlight if you are inside) with the Sun.
Night Sky Network / Astronomy Society of the Pacific has a simple overview of this activity:
https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/docs/MoonPhases1.pdf
and the overview with video support is here: https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/download-view.cfm?Doc_ID=329
https://youtu.be/ai9VcMLBiQg?si=n-RYAcfKFix8jjs4
thanks Jane,
please do email cpd@teachnet.ie if you need help with the forum. Since you could post this much directly, there is probably some very odd little quirk that is affecting your ability to post.
I LOVE your 3 little pigs in Ireland plan. There’s so much to it, with great connections between Geography and Science and a super Design and Make from the children’s findings.
Katie,
encouraging the children to compare and contrast is a great way to start an inquiry process. It can serve as the prompt and the wondering of the initial engagement.
To fully incorporate inquiry science learning the children should go to asking testable questions based on their understanding to deepen and confirm their mental models.
So, if the children have noticed that the polar bears are white and the front of penguins are white, (and they might think this is because ‘white colouring for camouflage’) they might carry out an simple research activity to find images of animals in the arctic regions and classify them by colour.
https://www.activewild.com/arctic-animals-list/
They could predict that there will be more white animals than non-white animals. Then, they check the list and see if they are right.
Pamela.
Green Schools has an outline of Blubber Glove that might be useful here.
I’d consider enhancing this ‘task outline’ with the children’s own questions to bring it into an inquiry learning format as outline in the Framework for Inquiry.
They might look at the thickness of the blubber for warmth, or the material that the blubber is made of, or if smaller hands stay warmer for longer vs larger hands in blubber etc.
Laura,
could you check permissions please?
If someone gave you a link to this diagram they might also need to give you permission to view it.
I’ve circled where you can set the sharing on a sample coggle
Nice description here of how Newgrange was designed and how it’s not quite the same now. From RTE news 2011: RTÉ’s Richard Dowling speaks to Professor Tom Ray of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies inside the Passage Tomb at Newgrange.
Hi Eimear,
I think if you want the children to actually time something falling that you will need to give them objects with a lot of air resistance, otherwise, it’ll all be too fast.
Or, you could go to ramps, and have them at a very shallow angle and have objects slide down. If you have marbles that roll, or toys that roll, then a shallow shallow ramp may work.
Measuring time appears in the Maths curriculum for 3rd/4th class- would you introduce it much earlier? [compare, approximate and measure time using appropriate units of measurement.]
Leah,
the lovely astronomy side to Moonbear’s shadow is the changing direction of the Sun over the course of the day. When I have carried this out with children I have taken them outside first to to see where the Sun is in the sky – we have noted it and it is usually in the south -east (I start my workshops at 10am). We check again when we finish the whole visit (at 1pm) and it is in the south.
When we set up the Moonbear’s shadow fishing pond (a blue bit of paper with some paper fish), I have a compass drawn nearby with the cardinal directions. I ask them — what time of day have you made it? Is the Sun shining from the east – then it is early morning… etc.
Laura,
There is an outline of the blubber glove here: https://greenschoolsireland.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Green-Schools_Blubber-Experiment.pdf
I’ve only seen it made with solid fat, how well does the coconut oil version work? I’m not familiar with coconut oil, but it seems to be a solid up to 25 degrees, so wouldn’t it melt when hands touch it?
Would you share the Inquiry Framework that we discussed in Module 1 as you structured the stations? The scenarios can act as prompts, and the children should be encouraged to ask their own questions, make predictions based on their understanding and then carry out their investigation.
So blubber glove station could have instructions on how to make a blubber glove, but the children can explore for themselves if:
1. Does thicker blubber mean my hand can last longer in the cold water?
2. Does thicker blubber make it harder for my hand to move (they’d have to work out how to measure this)
3. Does vergetable shortening blubber work as well as coconut oil blubber…
Robyn,
I’m curious about
2. Literacy: Explore heart words and CVCC or CCVC words around the theme of space – word to picture matching, sentence building, decodable readers around the theme, spelling activities.
Would this have a space ‘cover’ – or be words that are linked to the theme of space? I could find plenty of visuals on Twinkl that had planets or rockets with everyday words – but not a resource that used words about space.
I asked Chatgpt (give me a list of words that use ccvc or cvcc about the theme of space)- but it doesn’t really know its consonants from its vowels:
Sure! Here are some words related to space that follow the CCVC or CVCC structure:
CCVC Words:
Star
Moon
Mars
Plan (short for planet)
Glow (from “glow” of stars or planets)CVCC Words:
Dust (space dust)
Rock (space rock or asteroid)
Moon (assuming a slightly looser interpretation as it phonetically can be “mo-on”)
Warp (as in warp speed)
Ring (planetary rings)
These words adhere to the requested phonetic patterns and are related to the theme of space.Which shows the issue with generative AI – it can rearrange words in a general sense, but has to be taken with many pinches of salt!
Niamh,
would this list be of use?
Don’t bother listening to the Blur song – it’s a list of star and moon names.
Laura,
can you say more about how
We would then use a flashlight in a darkened room to simulate how stars twinkle in the night sky. This visual representation will help to solidify their learning and makes the concept more tangible.
would show stars twinkling? The demonstration I have come across for stars twinkling (which is an atmospheric phenomena) is very much for upper second level since it deals with refraction:
https://stardate.org/teaching-tool/hot-air
For vivid images I would suggest Astronomy Picture of the Day (which we meet in Module 4) – have you other sources you would use?
Hilary,
what a really nice outline of Space activity for an infant class.
Is the Sea of Tranquility by Mark Haddon?
Rocket mice are great, and to control the noise a little bit I would consider having only a few launch bottles out at a time, and encouraging the children to work in 3s, with a launcher, a safety officer and a measurer roles that can rotate.
John,
How much fun! It sounds like a great plan, with something for everyone.
Did you know that there is a junior school in Galway that celebrates Space Week every year by launching at least one type of rocket per day.
You can see what they have done at their website: http://junior.renmoreschool.com/Space/Index.html
