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I love the idea of creating a passport to go to space.
It’s definitely something that I think the kids would enjoy.Weather
animals in the cold/clothes to wearAs an introduction I would ask the class to discuss today’s weather with a focus on temperature. Is today a hot day or a cold day? What is their preference and why.
I would then read a lovely story titled ‘Henry’s holiday’ about a penguin that didn’t like the cold. Henry who lives in a cold climate leaves his friends and family along with the snow and ice in search of warmer weather. When he eventually finds his warmer weather on an island he realizes he prefers the cold and makes his way back home again. The children discuss and compare the two different climates. Hot and cold. What did Henry need for each with a focus on clothing.
The class is split in two with one half drawing Henry in his cold climate while the other draws him in the hot climate. They compare and contrast drawing afterwards.
A lovely activity to follow on from this is called pack the suitcase. In groups of 4/5 the children race against the clock to pack two suitcases. One for a hot climate and one for a cold. A mixture of clothes including hats, coats, t shirts, shorts, gloves etc. are placed in the middle of the floor. The children must sort them into a hot or cold category by placing them into the correct back. They are timed on how face they complete the task and lose points for incorrect packing. It’s great fun.
Thanks for sharing that website. The 30 different science experiments to do with kids look like so much fun and I look forward to trying some of the out in the new school year.
As an activity I would use the story ‘How to catch a star’ by Oliver Jeffers in the infant classroom.
Before I introduce the story I would ask the children if they have even seen a star. What does a star look like? When can we see them? Can we touch them etc. I allow for plenty of discussion. I would then read them the story again allowing for discussion at the end. In the story the boy finally catches his star so I tell the children we are going to make our own stars.
Using clay and star shapes the children will cut out stars and once dry decorate them to their liking.
As a follow on from this having looked at images of the plough and carrying out some fun tracing activities the children in small groups can re create it using their own individual stars. They can place them on large sheets of card placed on the ground and trace around them to re create the image.I absolutely love the activity ‘the flying alien’.
It’s definitely something that I would love to do with my class next year.The sun and shadow.
To introduce the children to this topic I would close the blinds to have the room as dark as possible. Then using a large light I would ask them what they think might happen if somebody stood in front of the light blocking it. I would allow for a short discussion and then demonstrate allowing different children to block the light creating shadows. I would then put the children in a few small groups and give each group a torch to make shadow puppets. Following this I would ask the children when we might see shadows outside and have a discussion about the sun being the largest source of light.
The next I would take the children outside first thing in the morning. In pairs they would take it in turns to draw around each others shadow. At lunch time they would have to return to the same spot and using a different colour chalk draw each others shadow. The discussion would be based around what they noticed about their Shadows drawn at different times of the day. What was different? Why do they think they were different?
It can be linked in with maths and they could measure both shadows and calculate the difference in length and width taken in the morning and afternoon.
A lovely art lesson can also be integrated using large toy animals. The animals are placed in front of a piece of white paper and in a position that creates a shadow onto paper. The children then Trace the shadow onto the paper.
The poem ‘my shadow’ is also lovely to link in with these activities.I love the idea of the creating a model to a rough scale using different objects. It gives the children the opportunity to observe the size of the planets in comparison to each other.
An inquiry based lesson that i thoroughly enjoy doing with infants is the gummy bear experiment.
Each child is given a gummy bear as a treat to begin the lesson but before they eat it they must examine it and discuss what they think might happen if the gummy bear is left in the classroom in a glass of water.
The children’s predictions are then recorded on a flip chart and three gummy bears are put into three separate cups.Two with water and one without.
When the lesson is revisited the next day the children will see that two of the bears has gotten much bigger. They discuss how this might have happened and revisit their previous predictions. Which bear didn’t grow and why?
One of the bears in water is removed from the cup and one can be left for a further day. The children can see on the third day that each gummy bear is a different size depending on how long it was left to absorb some
Water. They are especially fascinated the second day when they see how the water has changed the jelly. It really is a fun lesson for them.I love the ideas of this lesson. There is definitely plenty of cross curricular scope. Showing them the animated movie ‘home’ might be a fun way to conclude the lesson.
Hi everyone. My name is Elaine and I’m an infant teacher. When I was in 5th class my teacher was very passionate about space and spent a lot of time teaching about it. He taught us a phrase to remember the names of the planets. ‘Many very elegant men just stood up near Pluto’. More of a memory than a fact but it always stuck with me.
