Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Katie – could you time this to let the children observe the Moon during school time? The 3rd quarter phase of the Moon is visible in the morning, and in September at 3rd quarter it is particularly high in the sky at its highest, so easy to see.
The Moon can be seen easily without binoculars or telescopes – and Stellarium can be used to show a Zoomed in view of the Moon for those possibly cloudy days!
Ruth – you have connected across so many curriculum areas, great stuff. Remember that for SESE Geography infants need only to “identify and discuss the sun, the moon and stars ” so integration with other curriculum over a broad topic like “The Planets” is perfect.
Don’t forget to have a count-down to launch when playing the planets hoolahoop game!
Welcome Ruth, there are plenty of other Senior Infants teachers here, so please do look around the forums for lots of ideas and shared experiences.
The water in the stem of two different plants is a nice demo – how will you stretch out the children’s learning? Will they have the chance to wonder and ask their own questions about this? Could they try different lengths or widths of celery and see if the red colour moves differently?
Inquiry should give the children an opportunity to predict what might happen based on their science understanding — so I’d demo this, then let them explore further depending on the questions they have.
There is nothing worse than a class saying ” I get it, I get it” when you ask them if they have any questions — a child that has understood something really well will always have more questions.
A nice way to demonstrate how the earth rotates causing difference shadows would be to pair the class up and get the children to stand and the other outline the shadow that it casts. This activity can then be repeated in the afternoon from the exact same spot. the shadow outline or shape should have changed indicating how the earth moves and rotates
Do you have a nice area in the school grounds where you can do this? Even drawing the children’s attention to the position of the Sun at different times of day can help them to understand that the Sun appears to move across the sky.
I like to ask schools – which way do the windows in your classroom face? Do you get the Sun in the mornings? (east) in the afternoons? (west) not at all? (north).
Deirdre — I’d definitely show possible bridge designs from https://www.sfi.ie/site-files/primary-science/media/pdfs/col/design_a_bridge.pdf,
and an extension could ask the children to design a totally different type of bridge — and compare does it work as well as the others.
I think an important part of the lesson is giving lots of opportunities for children to ask questions and also provide questions that they can explore and investigate themselves.
I 100% agree with you on this Barbara. The key focus of inquiry learning for science is for the children to wonder and question how the world works – and to test out for themselves if it does work they way they think it works.
Marie- I like the idea of repeating the shadow activity at different times of the year – particularly if you take photos of the children and their shadows. This could also act as a record of how much the children grow during the year!
Have you tried making a solar oven? I once followed instructions to make one from a pizza box – this looks to be a simpler version.
Aisling – can you check the sharing settings on Miro, you mind map is not visible.
I like how you have considered how the children will record their findings — another way is suggested in the ESERO activity Does Saturn Float?
for sure – and Adam is such a nice kid. I know his Dad and have met Adam a few times. The family are space mad!!
Aisling – selecting the toy can give rise to so many questions… is it easier to trace the shadow of a “sharp-edge” toy, or a fuzzy soft toy? what do you think? why?….
Enya – this history of time telling is really interesting – did you know “After 1916 in Ireland, depending on where you were, clocks could show four different times: Dunsink, Greenwich, and the summer variations on either, with a maximum difference of an hour and 25 minutes.” (source, this article from Irish Times 2013)
