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Holly -resources in Irish can be very hard to find. SpaceWeek has some in Irish, and our YouTube channel has a handful of videos, which are produced in March each year – https://youtu.be/UTfWwYJPHWc
In our European project PolarStar we had some material translated, so you can find powerpoints and activity sheets that you might be able to adapt for your class. See for example: https://polar-star.ea.gr/content/solar-system-astronomy-irish
Mary – there is a whole school CPD offered by SFI -you can find out details at https://www.sfi.ie/engagement/discover-primary-science-and-maths/education/cpd/, which outlines the 2021/2022 offering. It will resume in the autumn. Both Una and I facilitate this, and it can be offered face to face, or remotely.
Mary – is this the poem? http://www.thebestclass.org/uploads/5/6/2/4/56249715/the_aliens_have_landed_6_parts.pdf
How much fun to consider – would eyes work if they were granite? just what is liquid helium? is my teacher really an alien?!
Mary – the little book of planets is designed to go with the song – it has the same lyrics as the video. You may want to hold it in reserve, or use it in a different way. Please do feel free to edit it as needed. I have a microsoft publisher version if you are able to access that version for editing – let me know if you’d like me to send it to you or create a link for you to download it.
That is a lovely activity outline Ruth, I particularly like the Drama and identifying activities that are more likely to take place in one season than another. Relating that to the clothing that they might wear is great — I am thinking of various sports that start /finish at different times of the year.
What fun – to have an alien as a teacher! Do the children draw their own planets? There could be a super display of planets and aliens – and children trying to work out which alien came from which planet.
Michelle – you’ve brought together many strands of the curriculum around this theme, with science threaded through it – great stuff. I’m hunting around for a person who had shared the spacecraft play area she had made with her son – but can’t find the images. I’d love to see what you make with your class this year – please share with us at spaceweek.ie when you can.
Mallorie – there is lovely scope here to connect to actual space missions that are designed to travel through the solar system – in particular ESA’s Solar Orbiter, where an Irish company provided the black coating that was used to help protect it from the intense environment near the Sun. You can read about solar black and John O Donoghue here: https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/Paint_it_black_Stone_Age_sunscreen_for_Solar_Orbiter
Claire – with a 2nd class would you also include aspects of seasonal change from SESE: Science – related to plant and animal life? and would you give the children the opportunity to measure and compare temperatures?
Trees that lose their leaves are the obvious connection to autumn (I grew up in Canada where the colour change is striking!) – you can see some images related to this in this ESA education activity: https://www.esa.int/Education/Teachers_Corner/One_year_on_Earth_-_Understanding_seasons_Teach_with_space_PR45
thanks for sharing the video links – I love finding new songs about the planets. This autumn it will be quite easy to see Jupiter and Saturn when it gets dark in September/October/November/December and at Christmas-time we’ll even be able to see Mercury and Venus as well. This will make news, so I’d suggest trying to include Planets as a theme before Christmas, or straight afterwards.
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!
Michelle – I think there would be the opportunity to look at how the Sun appears in the sky from the Arctic/Antarctic. Stellarium could be used to show that there is no Sun in the sky for 6 months of the year, and then once it rises at the equinox, it doesn’t set for another 6 months. Some children might ask – if it is daytime all the time, why is it so cold – and this could lead on to an investigation about weather and the Sun.