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Introducing junior infants to the effects of greenhouse gases and climate change should be gentle, visual, and story-driven. The ESA Paxi video is a fantastic tool to use for this purpose as it is well pitched for all age groups.
Children will begin to understand:
The Earth needs just the right temperature to be healthy.
Greenhouse gases act like a warm blanket.
Too much of this blanket makes the Earth too hot.
We can help by taking care of our Earth.The children will then watch the Paxi video, pausing the video to ask questions such as What is Paxi wearing? Why? What happens when the blanket gets too thick?
Ask the children once the video is over what do they think we can do to help? Record the answers and lets commit to doing one everyday in our classroom
Simple actions:Turn off lights
Walk or cycle
Plant a tree
Don’t waste waterHi Ann
i think your idea of teaching them using real life experiences is a great way to keep the children interested as everything is relatable, sometime the lessons can go over there head if they cant compare to real life situations that they have experienced.
Setting up a weather station with junior infants can be a fun and hands-on way to introduce them to weather concepts. The key is to keep the activity simple, interactive, and visual.
Objective:
Introduce children to basic weather elements (sun, rain, wind, temperature) by helping them create a simple weather station and observe daily changes.Ask: “What is weather?”
Show pictures of sunny, rainy, windy, and snowy days.
Introduce weather words with gestures or songs (e.g., “Rain, Rain, Go Away”).Building the weather station:
Help the children set up:
Thermometer: Show them where it’s placed and explain it shows how hot or cold it is.
Rain Gauge: Place the bottle gauge outside. Mark measurements with tape.
Wind Sock/Pinwheel: Let them take turns running with the pinwheel to see how wind makes it spin.Cloud Viewer: Use a paper viewer to look at the sky and find different clouds.
Daily weather reporting:
Pick a “Weather Reporter of the Day.”
Let the child check the thermometer, look at the sky, and decide:Is it sunny? Cloudy? Windy?
Is it warm or chilly?
Is there rain in the gauge?
Let them place magnetic/weather symbols on the class board and draw the weather in the daily weather diary.To Finish the activity sing a weather song: e.g., “What’s the Weather Like Today?”
Do a weather-themed movement game: “If it’s sunny, jump up! If it’s windy, spin!”Hi Deirdre,
I liked the way you changed the idea of the carbon footprint so you could still use it in your class, great idea.
“Home” by Yann Arthus-Bertrand is a powerful and visually stunning documentary that explores the planet’s diversity and the impact of human activity on the environment. The film is made entirely from aerial shots and is designed to give viewers a new perspective on the beauty of Earth and the challenges it faces. By incorporating “Home” into the classroom, teachers can inspire young students to appreciate the beauty of the planet and understand the importance of taking care of the environment.
Introduction to Climate Change:
Begin by asking the students what they know about weather and seasons.
Explain that climate is the usual weather of a place over a long time.
Introduce the concept of climate change by explaining that the Earth’s climate is changing more quickly now because of certain activities.
introduce the documentary, explaining that it shows many beautiful places around the world from a unique perspective and talks about how we can help protect these places.
Discussion:After watching the segments, discuss with the students what they saw.
Ask questions such as:
What did you find most beautiful or interesting?
What are some things people do that can harm the environment?
How can we help take care of our planet?
Simple Environmental Actions:Create a list of simple actions students can take to help the environment, such as recycling, conserving water, and planting trees.
Make a classroom pledge to adopt one or more of these actions.This is a lovely idea i also love the idea of using different size containers, this will create such excitement for the children.
The activity I have chosen from this module is Rockets,
I would introduce the topic by reading the book alien’s in underpants save the world. From here I would show the children some of the living in space Chris Hadfield videos on YouTube to spark the discussion on how astronauts gets to space, what helps the rocket go so fast.
we would then create our own rockets from lots of different materials and test them to see which is heavier, faster etc. The children can predict which rockets they think will work the best and why.
In my class I would use the hands on activity of animals and the weather.
To introduce the lesson I would start by asking about todays weather and encouraging the children to discuss the weather, different types of weather and how we may feel when it rains etc. Leading on to how we would dress in different weather and if the weather effects animals? Do cows wear coats in the rain?!
I will sing a weather-related animal song. Five Little Ducks (rainy weather)
I will then set up an Animal & Weather Matching Game for the children to play
Show pictures of animals and weather types.
Ask: “Where does the polar bear live?” “Does the duck like the rain?”
Children take turns matching animals to the right weather.To extend the learning we could play a game outside acting like the animals Waddle like a penguin
Hop like a frog in the rain
Lie down like a cat in the sunThis is a really good lesson, I like that the children can relate to it personally and how children from different country’s will have different experiences to share.
I would use the stars activity.
I would start by asking the class what they see when they look up at the night sky. Talk about how they see stars. What are the stars made of, how do they light up the night sky. Explaining how the stars are made up of gas. Asking questions like are all stars the same, to spark curiosity.
I would introduce the song Twinkle Twinkle and ask students what do they think the story will be about. Recording the predications.
explain to the children that they will make there own starry night scene. Children are offered different colour paper, paints etc. to create there own images. The children can then discuss their pictures with each other.
Activity set: The Sun and Shadows
Exploring the Sun and Shadows is a fantastic way to introduce concepts of light, time, and how the Sun affects our world, all while promoting curiosity and exploration. Here’s a hands-on activity for Junior Infants that combines inquiry-based learning with shadow play
I Would start with a simple question:
“Have you ever seen a shadow? What does it look like?”
“Where do you think shadows come from?”
Take the kids outside (or by a window if outside isn’t an option) and look for shadows on the ground.Ask: “Why do you think the tree has a shadow? What about the playground slide?”
Point out how the length and direction of shadows change depending on where the Sun is in the sky.Make Your Own Shadow
Using a flashlight , hold up simple objects and ask the children questions such as
“What do you see on the wall?”
“How did the shadow happen?”
“Can we make the shadow bigger or smaller?”
Let the children take turns placing objects in front of the light and seeing how shadows form.Move the object closer and farther from the light to show how the shadow changes.
Experiment with different objects and their shadows. What happens if you use your hand versus a block?explain the concept of shadows:
“The Sun gives us light. When something is in the way of the light, it makes a shadow.”
Use simple visuals or even act out the explanation:“When we stand in the Sun, our bodies block the light, and that makes a shadow!”
Draw a simple diagram on the board showing how the Sun, an object, and the shadow are connected.Hi Siobhan, I love your idea of the mosaics and the extension of adding the phases of the moon is a great idea..
Using Gravity for our inquiry based learning lesson.
the theme we will use is “why things fall”
To spark interest and curiosity i will start by asking the question; What happens if this falls? while holding different objects. I will ask questions like why do you think things fall down and not up? Ask the children to make predictions.
then using hands on investigation i will ask children to predict what they think will happen before they drop different objects.
The children really enjoy the hands on experiments and this sparks lots of emerging interests, we could further develop the lesson by moving it to the playground and talk about force, push and pull.
