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I am choosing to explore the theme of rockets…
We would begin the lesson with a countdown and blast off, and listen and respond through movement to ‘space’ background music, pretending to launch up into space. We would ‘look’ at different things in space around the room – e.g. the globe to represent earth, an alien teddy, stars made out of gold card etc.
We would ‘come back to earth’, and have a chat about our imaginary trip. We would reflect on/think about how we travelled to space, and then watch some short clips of rockets launching into space.
We would then explore and experiment making rockets, by giving the children some small pieces of paper, scissors, and a variety of containers. How can we launch a rocket the highest we possibly can? What made it launch so high?
We would design a ‘dream rocket’ for art using oil pastels, sequins, pompoms etc.
We would also enjoy a couple of songs and a story ‘Sadie Sprocket Builds a Rocket’.
I think the children must have really loved this hands on activity….so much fun watching the bubbles and hearing the fizz etc.!
I love your idea of making it clear that these are houses in Ireland and exploring homes in other countries. I also love your idea of using boxes to create a village – great way of incorporating art (construction) and maths (3D shapes) in a fun and hands on way!
I have chosen to explore the ‘Where do you live?’ theme.
We would read and enjoy the story ‘The Three Little Pigs’. We would have hands on investigation with the different materials – straw, twigs, and brick, that the three little pigs used to construct their houses. We would discuss and explore their attributes, including testing their strength, their ability to keep rain out (waterproof or not), their suitability as a building material etc.
We would then listen to the song ‘House song’ on the interactive whiteboard, and this would spark thought and reflection on different types of houses, and bringing it to the children’s own lives, what kind of house they live in. We would look at pictures of different types of houses, and discuss their features, and think about their own lives e.g. my Granny lives in that type of house… Is it a tall or short house? Does it have stairs? Does it have other houses joined on or attached to it?
The children would use 2D shape cut out pieces of paper to make a picture of their own house and would decorate it further with colours to customise it to their own house and their own liking. We would then make a display with the children’s homes, and to tease out aspects of the area they live in that are missing – e.g. I wonder how you would get food for dinner – shops…. same for school, playground and other parts of the locality etc., and add these to our display. Lots of talk and discussion as we go along.
We would also take a walk in the locality, on a scavenger hunt for different things connected to the above e.g. a block of apartments, a shop, a detached house etc. and tick these off on the way.
Reading about Tom Crean is a great idea, and is so interesting to learn about a real person and their experiences for this topic.
The activity set I am choosing is stars.
I would begin with a game of charades, where different children read a word that is related to the night time and act it out – e.g. brush your teeth, put on your pyjamas, read a night-time story… I would see then if the children could work out what linked them all? – night.
We would then talk about what it looks like at night time outside. The children would draw a picture of night, and we would look and respond, focusing in on any who drew stars in their pictures, and tell the children we are going to learn about stars today.
I would give the children a piece of paper in the shape of a star, and ask them to record things they know about stars. We would then record these on a class chart.
I would then play the song ‘Outer Space, I’m a Star’ song, and we would compare and contrast information in this song to our class chart of prior knowledge.
We would then focus on the constellations part covered in the song, and would look at pictures of different constellations in the night sky. We would discuss their shapes and names etc.
Then, the children would get a chance to invent their own constellations and name them, and share these with the class.
We would finish with enjoying the story ‘My Pet Star’.
I love the idea of designing an alien using 2D shapes, such a fun and engaging way to cover this area of maths!
I love your idea of sharing ‘Out of this world’ facts! Your idea of the fact or fiction game is great also, and means all children are engaged – tasking not just asking.
Activity set: The Planets
The planets are such a fascinating thing for young and old alike, and I am looking forward to providing fun and engaging learning activities for my class.
I would begin by showing the children images of different planets, without naming them, and I would ask them to write and/or draw/make a poster of the planets and what they know about them already.
We would then get an opportunity to share and discuss prior knowledge and ‘I wonder’ questions about the planets, using the above posters to help.
I would play a song about the planets e.g. – ‘We are the Planets’, and then we would record the order of the planets as a reference for our ‘upcoming journey to visit the planets’.
I would then split the class into 8 different groups, and assign a different planet to each group to research 3 different facts about each one. Each group would also make a model of the planet together, using playdough. We would place the planets in order on the ground.
We would then watch a spaceship take off on the Interactive whiteboard, and we would begin our journey around space, travelling to each planet where each group of children would show us their model, and share their findings and share questions with their classmates about the different planets.
We would end the lesson with a story for example ‘There’s No Place Like Space’
Inquiry based activity ideas for the children in my autism class…
Topic – Shadows
I would introduce the topic through a song about shadows, as I find music and song is a great way to settle the children, and to spark their interest and engagement in a topic/lesson/learning activity.
Along a similar vein – stories are really enticing and engaging for the children in my class, so we would read and enjoy various stories about shadows e.g. The Day I Met My Shadow in the days and weeks that we would be exploring shadows.
I would provide opportunities for ‘wonder’ questions, including through looking at visuals/pictures, looking at real items e.g. torches, and I would ask simple, short I wonder questions e.g. I wonder what would happen if I put this pencil in between the torch and the wall?
The children and/or I would record our ideas and predictions in different ways, including writing, drawing, movement/acting it out…
I would provide opportunities for lots of hands on play and exploration. The children would have free choice as to the items they would like to use to create shadows using torches and the sun, including their own bodies, and various items from around the classroom and local environment. Activities like shadow puppets using their hands or pieces of paper or other items, doing shadow art, waving at our shadows/playing chasing with each others’ shadows on the ground outside in the sun…,
We would record the experiences in different ways including taking photos as a record and talking point, drawing, labelling, writing….