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Karen – I wonder if you could have lots of toy polar bears, and the children could make a landscape scene with different colours in it, place the toy polar bears and then other children have to try to spot the toys from a distance.
Georgia – have you heard of the Fermi Paradox? In essence it states– space is big, and there are many stars, so there should be lots of alien life out there… so why haven’t we seen any??
Would we actually recognise alien life if we saw it? Does all life have things in common? There were experiments done on Mars in the 1970s that are still being argued about!
Maths trails are great — there is a super guide to making a maths trail from Maths Week. The children could take the photos of a certain place along the trail and then you and your colleagues could work out a maths questions or activity to go with that location.
Alexandra — by changing ordering the planets you are actually hitting on one of the newer theories about how the solar system formed. Known as the Nice model (for the city in France) it suggest that the outer planets changed positions in the early solar system. It’s just a theory, widely accepted, but with some issues.
Fiona – how much fun to go on an alien hunt – would you actually follow bits of slime? I once tried to make a scent trail — with not much success– but that could be an option.
You might make a maths trail – using a simple code with steps/directions to travel – perhaps written in “alien language” – although this might be better for 2nd class.
Here is the story, read by the author. Planets are an interesting topic for children (and for this astronomy-space mad adult!), but don’t worry if they don’t learn the names of the planets. Knowing that they are different from stars is important, and they only show up as a curriculum learning outcome for 5th and 6th class in Geography.
Eilis – I am sure the idea of teddy weather will be ‘borrowed’ by every teacher on this course — it’s super!
You could explore the clothing range in class to make sure it really is suitable for the weather — does the raincoat keep Teddy dry? Does the sun-hat keep the sun out of Teddy’s eyes….
Keith – the mind-map is still hiding – can you check the settings?
Rocket mouse really lends itself to exploration – and the children can have a gentle introduction to fair testing as they consider if the different size bottles are made of the same type of plastic, or if the size of the bottle opening makes a difference, or if the force of their push is the main thing that makes a difference…
Georgia – weather and clothing tied into seasons is so appropriate for young children. There is great opportunity for them to really think through their answers to:
We would orally discuss each season using the images – What season is this? How do we know from the picture?
Could the children actually test their outfits? ie – a raincoat that keeps you dry, a coat that keeps you warm, a T-shirt that keeps you cool, a sun hat that keeps the sun out of your eyes, a hat that stops your hair blowing around (I have long hair!!)…
Is this the book? Looks interesting, but I’m not taken with the reader, who is saying different words than the book! https://youtu.be/YsSTH_B6vYY.
With senior infants will they be able to use metre sticks? or might it be easier for you to ask a child to pace out a few steps / place a marker / pace out a few more steps etc? Or children could place a stone where their rocket goes and then they can compare who went further by looking at the stones.
Georgia – what a lovely maths-centred activity set. Is this the book? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20359195-adams-amazing-space-adventure
not the book by our own Adam from the Toy Show who wants to be a CapCom?
Fiona – we look at rockets in more detail in module 5 – but I love how you have planned to engage the children, and concentrated on forces as the science topic.
I have given children a toy car and asked them to make it move in as many different ways as possible that they can think of — this is very open ended and the children can discuss and play as they learn.
There are pictures of a rocket launch that can be sequenced in the ISS Primary Education Kit from ESA – you can find it on page 54 here.
Eilis – my colleague was a volunteer at Dunsink at the time, and says that the fire left precious little whole, and there was no way that they could have located the tiny bit of Moon rock! The Independent has an article about it.
This video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdj8lPvW0rc
Cute characters- but it builds on the misconception that the Moon can only be seen at night! When they are arguing about the crescent Moon – they should have just looked up and seen it in the morning sky!
How would you help the children explore the reasons for the different phases of the Moon? – remembering that phases of the Moon are not part of the primary curriculum, so the emphasis should be on what is lighting up the Moon and how we can only see something that is lit up or gives out its own light.
Rachel – thanks for sharing such a practical set of activities that you have used. I love the passport for an alien, and the alien’s planet is great – it reminds me of these NASA posters for different exoplanets.