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Aisling – I like how you are extending out things that have successfully worked for you in the past, and thank you for sharing with the other teachers.
Alanah – the hula hoop activity is great for early spatial language. The planets rotate while they revolve or orbit- and this language is tricky.
I try to use planets spin (and demo with a quick spin on the spot) and orbit – I move around in a circle around another object. I ask children – how many times do i need to spin while I am going around the Sun? Children who know that there are 365 days in the year don’t always relate that to this model – so it is worth doing,
Alanah,
It could be interesting to choose photographs from local real-estate listings – that way children could share a house that is “like mine” or “like one I’d like to live in” without having to reveal details about their own housing situation.
If there are local construction sites, children could visit them to see the construction techniques. Would you include testing of materials for the properties that the children say housing materials need? ie – a house needs to be strong, so we will use bricks, not marshmallows…
Sile – to let the children improve their science understanding through inquiry, there should be some input from them. I know you have a plan to do a demo — but what will they do to check/relate to what they understand?
Since this is about chemical changes and the very different appearance of the mixture once the reaction gets going – you might ask them what happens when you mix two materials — do they just mix or do sometimes big changes happen?
“begin to investigate how materials may be changed by mixing”
You could give them small amounts of the water and yeast to see how that changes, and small amounts of hydrogen peroxide to see how it bubbles just a little. The yeast acts as a catalyst – which is a little beyond the scope of primary science, but you could explain that the yeast helps the reaction go — and perhaps try it again with less catalyst – does it still work?
Sile – I like how a really simple extension could be to ask the same questions, but with the window blinds open! Can you make a shadow from a torch when light is coming in the window? this would really let the children explore how light has to be blocked for there to be a shadow – and how if there are multiple sources of light, the shadows get very messy.
Niamh – with your junior infants which rocket style do you think would be best for them to make as “mini rockets” – many other teachers have been drawn to rocket mouse- and it really is one of the simpler ones to make, but still has great scope for exploration. Looking at weight of the rocket is actually really tricky -since where the weight is has a huge effect on the stability of the rocket — so sometimes, a heavier rocket (heavy in the right place!) flies much better than a lighter rocket.
Sheila – I like the fact file – it ties the children’s understanding to the design and make skills that they will use to create their own alien. The drawing is the plan – and then all the practical skills in creating the junk art alien are brought into play.
Lisa – sounds like a great plan. If your classes visit a library, you can check if that library is participating in Space Reads –http://www.spaceweek.ie/for-organisers/space-reads/
and of course, there have been many book suggestions from teachers in this course that I will publish this year.
Niamh – I’m a little unclear on how
move towards the light to represent daytime and move away to represent night time.
will show day and night? Do you intend to ask the children to physically go closer and then move away? or to rotate so that they are looking at it (day) and then turn so they are looking away (night).
I do this with children, I spin around on the spot and have a big picture of the Sun on a whiteboard — and I say out loud ” Hello sunshine, what a lovely day… and now I’m looking straight at you! oh, I’m still turning, now it looks like the Sun is going down on this side of me…, it’s getting dark now, bye-bye sunshine, now it’s night. Hello stars… oh, I’m turning, now the Sun is just coming up on this side of me , its getting to daytime…”
Darragh – another teacher had suggested using baby clothes – this may be a way to amass a good range of unisex items, that are different for the seasons and don’t take up too much space!
Jane, I completely agree with you on working from staff-consulted plan and finding the aspect of the science curriculum that suits your needs. STEAM is very much a buzz word, but European work on STEAM shows that content understanding improves with broad/real-world contexts when children do science. The A can come from creative activities that connect to their science activity – which might be literally arts = drawing, or creating with models, or preparing a drama…
Séamus – you might have noticed my pic here is of me launching a water rocket. I have learnt to wear a waterproof top!
Eilis – the rocket mice might be too simple for 2nd class, but by all means give them a go. Having a range of different bottles that the children can choose from will add to the activity, and let them work with maths/capacity too.
Aisling, what a nice way to incorporate vocabulary – and along with the clothing, the children can consider the weather and temperatures they are likely to encounter (from a swelteringly hot west coast of Canada! – 33 here today!).
Mentos and coke is great — and so easy to vary how it is carried out… does 1 mentos work? 2 mentos? 3 mentos – how high does the spurt of mentos/coke go? etc
The boys could make simple predictions about what they expect to happen and then check if they were right or not. In my experience, lots of mentos is needed for a satisfactory whoosh!
