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Hi David,
Thank you so much for such a great list of songs, poems and art. There’s lots here I didn’t think of. These will be so useful in the classroom next year.
Consider how many Songs / Poems /Art can you think of to connect us with the Night Sky?
I really enjoyed looking for poems, songs and art connected to the night sky. This will be so useful in the classroom next year.
Poems:
The Moon – Robert Louis Stevenson
Silver – Walter de la Mare
The Star – Jane Taylor
Escape at Bedtime – Robert Louis Stevenson
The Night Sky – Anon
Songs:
Starman
Moon river
Twinkle twinkle
A Sky Full of Stars
Art:
Starry Sky – Van Gogh
Flight into Egypt – Elsheimer
Starry night over the Rhone – Van Gogh
Hi Edwin, I really like your ideas. The children would love learning about all the nocturnal animals that might live in their area. Taking photos and then linking to art is a great idea.
Thinking of ways to help nocturnal animals is a great way for children to realise that they can make a difference by doing simple things.
- How you would engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and
the possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity.
I think I would begin by discussing the term biodiversity and what it means. We would discuss that every different area has it’s own biodiversity. I live in a rural area but my school is in an urban area. We could discuss how our two localities could have different biodiversities and why this might be.
We could then go on a hunt around our school to see if we can find any animals/creatures.
I could let the class know the types of animals and creatures I see where I live and compare.
To link this to light pollution which we would have learned about in previous lessons, we would discuss how light pollution might impact the animals and creatures in each area. Would there be much light pollution in my rural area compared to their urban area. How would nocturnal animals do in a highly light polluted area? What could we do on our school grounds to help this?
Hi Aisling, I really like your lesson ideas. The children comparing the stars they can see at night in their different locations would be so interesting and engaging for the children.
Light mapping of good and bad lighting design is also a great idea. Thank you
- Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
I would design a project based on this. We would discuss whether we think our town in Co. Louth suffers from light pollution or not. This would lead to the discovery that this area of Louth suffers very badly from light pollution caused by heavy skyglow form street lights and commercial hubs.
We would then do research in groups whether anything has been done in the town to help with this. Have street lights been upgraded to downcast only and are led lights with a warmer light being used?
We could then see if there are other things that could be done to help with this problem. Possibly deciding to reach out to all the families of the school first to check their outside lights to see if they are using warm lights, making sure their outdoor lights are casting downwards and having outdoor lights on sensors or timers to help keep the amount of light down.
The children could design posters to send home to each house.
I really like your lesson Lauren. It sounds so engaging. I have never used this resource before either and I look forward to using it this year. I really like how you have made some nice cross curricular links with art and literacy. Thanks for some great ideas.
Plan to observe the Moon – which phase of the Moon is best for observing in the morning from school? What dates will that be in 2024- 2025?
The moon is best observed in the morning in the Waning Cresent phase of it’s lunar cycle.
The dates for this school year will be September 6th-10th, October 5th-9th, November 2nd-8th, December 2nd-8th, February 1st-2nd, March 2nd-4th, April 1st- 3rd, May 1st-3rd.
I would begin the series of lessons on this by showing the class images of the phases of the moon and what they look like.
We would then perform the Sun, moon and earth activity using the ball, chair and torch so the children can see how the light of the sun reflects of the moon and can make it look different.
I would then give each child a moon log to keep track of what we will observe. On a number of the dates mentioned above we would go outside to observe the moon and sketch what they look like. We would then compare and discuss our sketches in the classroom.
Hi, I really like your lesson idea. I like that it is project based and would be used across the curriculum. Decorating the tubes with interesting facts and decorations would be a brilliant art lesson. I love that the whole class will learn about so many planets and their gravitational pull as each group presents their work.
I have chosen ‘Construct a sundial in your immediate area or plan for your school grounds to see where a sundial could be placed’.
I would begin by showing the children a number of sundials on the interactive whiteboard. I would ask them what they think they are. If no one guesses, I would then give them the name of it. I would then ask what they think it could be used for and discuss.
We would then move outside and use our bodies to act as temporary sundials and see what type of shadows they make. We would discuss how the earth fully rotates every 24hrs (discussed in previous lesson- giving us day and night) and this rotation is how and why the shadow changes throughout the day.
We would then discuss where would be the best place to place a permanent sundial in our school, experimenting with sticks.
I would bring the children outside at different times of the day and throughout the year to show how the seasons change the shadow created.
- How you would engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and