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We have such a rich folklore history that showed both the awe and fear our ancestors had for the night sky. It is rich study that needs to be passed down to the children.
Consider how many Songs / Poems /Art can you think of to connect us with the Night Sky? For example: Look up President Michael D Higgins’ “Stardust”
During Space Week last year our children learned about the planets, moon and completed group projects on the milky way, black holes, life of an astronaut and others. We also have a huge interest in music and learned Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay on the ukelele.
A number of the children wrote sense poems about space and how they might feel there. It was a huge area of interest for them and they thought about it in ways that us adults wouldn’t. I would love to focus the children’s attention on all the poems and songs that can be connected to our light and outer space.
I loved reading the John O Donoghue poem and feel that it would be approachable by all class levels. It would be very interesting to hear how they interpret it from Infants up. I think we would be very impressed and surprised.
We read Chris Hatfields book and listened to David Bowie
It would be interesting to create a collage poem where the children research songs that contain lyrics or words pertaining to space and present a line from that song/poem using pencil, magazine cut outs etc. They could arrange their quotes in whatever order to make something new.
Starry Night Don McClean, painting and song. Children could take a virtual tour of Beyond Van Gogh. Children who might have experienced it would get a chance to talk about it.
Children are simply fascinated by space and need to be made aware of how people across countries, languages and age groups even begin to comprehend it.
This sounds amazing Ruth. It’s great that ye have the sea nearby, such a range of habitats and wildlife for the children to access.
Some really nice ideas to consider the city setting. Great opportunities to study the urban effect on habitats too.
How you would engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and the possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity.
I am in a rural school and we love to explore the habitats around us. We take wooded walks and visit the local stream and river at least once a term. We have studied minibeasts in our school grounds and observed the needs they have in their habitats.
It would be a great opportunity for a study unit on describing habitats and how each species adapts to it’s habitat. Children can photograph plants and animals in various areas and detail out the type of habitat it is. Children observing for soil types, what type of weeds/flowers are growing. Once children have chosen two habitats they can then investigate light sources in the area.
Children could plant two plants and place one in front of an artificial resource and the other in natural light. After a period of time children could photograph the plants and note any differences.
Sandra this is such a well outlined structured plan. Really good suggestions and covering a lot of different learning styles.
I really like the sense of responsibility the children would be engaged in with observing, recording and submitting their own results.
Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
I really loved this module and have learned about things I never really thought about. We are all so ready at school to conserve light energy and monitor our electricity usage but we don’t think of night. I had attended a night sky park in New Zealand and thought it was amazing. I am definitely encouraged to visit the Mayo Dark Sky park and use it as a classroom resource.
I would ask the children to think about light sources in their home and what they use at night (starting indoor and moving outdoor)
Children could draw an aerial view of a room and colour the light sources (integration with Maths and Geography)
I would then show pictures on the whiteboard of their local urban area at night (taken by teacher or sourced elsewhere) and discuss the function of each. What are they lighting? What is the purpose of the light? etc.
Children then research wildlife in the area. How are they impacted by the light – there is a river in the locality – are the herons affected by the light? What types of plants grow – are they affected by artificial light. Children could create a slideshow of local flora and fauna and it’s potential damage from light pollution. (integration with Science and Geography)
How does artificial light affect humans? Blue light on phones, tablets – home lighting.
Teacher could display the criteria of light to lower light pollution and compare their local light source to see if it meets the criteria. Teacher could brainstorm with children on what could be done to change – write to local council for information, talk to local business?
Children could create their map again with the changes they need to be made – light shields, LED bulbs etc.
I like the idea of comparing rural and urban. Really clear way the children can observe light pollution.
This is a great use of Chat GPT for useful purposes Denis and it is a handy guide to have. Good linkage of the moon phases to other curricular areas.
Plan to observe the Moon – which phase of the Moon is best for observing in the morning from school? What dates will that be?
I love the idea of focusing on the moon for a couple of lessons. We always link a unit of study to Space Week so I think this year the moon will be the focus. Last year we did a little work on how the craters in the moon can be created and the children really enjoyed it. They were very interested in the fact the moon isn’t its own light source and we did a little on it but now with some of the resources I’ve come across here we will definitely explore it more.
I would start with the Paxi video or a true and false quiz (set out a mixture of true and false statements from the intended learning and children predict what might be true or false – they return at the end of the lesson and see how their predictions worked out)I love the moon observation journal and shading the shape of the moon.
According to the moon calculator the week of 14th of September and 13th of October is the Moon’s third quarter which makes it visible during the day. Prior to these dates children will study the phases of the moon and create their own charts (art work activity can be linked here, collage creating their own phases using paper and fabrics)
Children can then observe the moon and fill in the log.
Children will be encouraged to observe the moon at night at home and record their observations on Seesaw. Some children have telescopes at home so they can share any findings with their peers.Learning can then be consolidated through interactive matching cards of moon phase and picture (Wordwall, Baamboozle) – worksheets to label the phases, collaborative slide show where a group can complete a slide on a certain moonphase or returning to their true/false predictions (I’m of a certain age where I might even use Jaffa cakes to show the phases)
I love the chalk tracing idea, you would have such an interesting work of Art on the yard after. Such a connection their own personalities.
One Year on Earth: Understanding the Seasons.
This is a fabulous resource and already one I am going to use. We are in a small country school close to the woods and we do one walk a term there with the children to observe seasonal differences. I feel this is a very relevant topic for students and their interests. There are endless cross curricular links to explore through a variety of ages – completing the model of the earth and physically replicating the sun and the spin of the earth on it’s axis is of huge interest to our older classes. We have engaged with curious minds over the last two years and the children have loved demonstrating and explaining their experiments to the other classes so demonstrating the earth’s movements in relation to the sun for the year would be a great opportunity for the older classes to demonstrate for the younger while consolidating their own learning. We use Seesaw as our digital learning portfolios so children can record and make their own videos of their learning. They would also find the colour changing in the satellite images very interesting and it is an excellent chance for a group research activity, each group takes a season each and presents their findings to each other. I would plan an Art extension activity with the whole school for permanent display in the school. On a large length of paper (either the back of unused wallpaper or the IKEA rolls) children can divide it into 4 sections. They paint a tree ‘skeleton’ over the whole page. Then in their groups they can paint a section each to match the season they worked on – choosing colours and shapes to represent plants of each season.
