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This is a brilliant post Catriona,
I love how you inculded the images and links to the songs, this post alone would be a great resource to use in the classroom as you have gone into great detail on how each one of your selections would work. Super job.
Here are a few examples that came to my mind when thinking of the night sky:
The Stolen Child by WB Yates
She Moved Through the Fair
Rihanna Diamonds
Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy
Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night (I know this was one of the first slides but it was what I instantly thought of when I saw the assignment prompt)
To the Moon by Percy Bysshe Shelleyy
Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 9 No. by Chopin
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
A Sky Full Of Stars by Coldplay
Mr. Sandman
Moon River
The Meeting on the Turret Stairs” by Frederic William Burton (Not necessarily the night sky but could be great to bring children to the national gallery and this painting evokes a moody romantic feeling of dusk or twilight)
In The Evening by William Leech (Another gorgeous painting in the national gallery that reflects the last moments of light before falling into the darkness of night)
This poem by Gabriel Rosenstock called The Stars would be a lovely poem to use as an introduction to the topic of the night sky:The stars shine bright in the midnight sky,
Twinkling above as the night drifts by.
They tell us tales from long ago,
Of dreams and wishes that still glow.I like the idea of using a local park Annette. We have a lovely park within walking distance ftom our school and it would be great to get the kids to go there an explore and see it through a new perspective as investigators.
To make our school grounds a better place for nocturnal Irish animals, we can work together on a few fun projects. First we can carry out a biodiversity survey to see what animals already live in our school grounds. We will reflect on what we have already put into place to improve biodiversity like the native hedgerow we planted and the bat boxes we installed. Next, we can reduce mowing in some areas of the grounds to encourage dandelions and clover to grow and maybe some night blooming flowers,this will hopefully attract moths and other night-time pollinators. We might also make a small water feature that will give animals like hedgehogs and frogs a place to drink but will also be safe for children to play around. Also we can look at tree cover and see if there are places on our school grounds where we could encourage ivy/ suitable trees for nesting. Another idea is to leave some areas a bit wild, like making piles of logs or letting leaves gather in certain spots. This would give animals shelter and places to hide. Finally, we could look at reducing bright lights at night or using special wildlife-friendly lighting to help keep the grounds dark and safe for the creatures that come out after we go home. After all of these changes we would evaluate their effectiveness by completing the biodiversity survey again and see if we can add any new species to the list.
I’m the same Pardraic,
I moved to Dublin from Baltimore in West Cork and the stark contrast to clear skies and being able to see the stars and planets to an orange glow was quite jarring when I moved here first. I like the way that you say to acknowledge that their perception of bright nights is normal and grow from there and show them the dark sky places they could visit in Ireland to give them a new perspective.
As my school is located in Dublin City centre, light pollution is a serious barrier to my students actually observing the night sky in all of its glory. I would use the video by Siding Springs Observatory in Australia as an introduction to the topic of light pollution for my students. This video will spark great conversation and questions about what light pollution is. They will also see how the lights created by humans not only affect our view of the stars but also affect nocturnal animals. Using this video my students will learn the different ways they can combat light pollution in our city by:
Switching off lights
Using lighting only when it’s needed
Shield lights to stop upward light fill
Aim lights downwards
Use warm light bulbsThere is also a link that provides a great resource kit on their website which I will use with my students to find our own ways we can reduce light pollution. I also liked the idea of showing different pictures of light pollution and simple questions that will make the children think about how light pollution differs from other pollution they have heard about. Sky Glow will be a great new term for them as the sky in Dublin never really gets dark. I think it will be eye opening for them as they may not even have realised that this is not how the sky should look at night. This will be a great activity and I think it will spark a wonderful debate among the students on how we can reduce light pollution and hopefully they will come up with some great ideas that we can then turn into a project and share their ideas with Dublin City Council and other organisations that may be able to help.
Using Stellarium Web: https://stellarium-web.org/ Use this to find out what is happening in the night sky. Nice graphics and easy to navigate. Set the location for the school/ Dublin. Display gives nighttime and daylight hours so shows how the night sky changes over the year. Great to use for children’s homework. Could share with parents on Class Dojo and children and families can go star gazing at home and they could look for a specific planet. My students live in Dublin city so light pollution will be a barrier to seeing the stars/ planets clearly so using this website will be great to show them in real time what is happening in the night sky even if they can’t see it with their eyes. Satellites might be the best chance they have of seeing an object in the sky themselves depending on the conditions/ light pollution. Nice effect also to use where you can make the screen red for easier viewing after you have been outside for more than 15 minutes. Useful for marking the position/ phase/ location to planets of the moon.
Using Solar System Explore: https://projects.wwtambassadors.org/solar-system-explorer/ Great resource that can be used in the browser of an Ipad. Could be a great whole class activity where students could work individually or in teams exploring a specific planet or constellation and then report back to the class about their findings. As I have senior infants there would need to be a lot of teacher guidance and team teaching/ station teaching with Learning Support/ Resource teachers if our school has the staffing. Could be a wonderful opportunity for cross curricular teaching where children can research a planet and then use their research to create their narratives about space and what they think is happening on the planet they are looking at. This will hopefully be brilliant for creative writing and for teaching new vocabulary.
Stellarium Web: I will use this to find out what is happening in the night sky. Nice graphics and easy to navigate. Set the location for the school/ Dublin. Display gives nighttime and daylight hours so shows how the night sky changes over the year. Great to use for children’s homework. Could share with parents on Class Dojo and children and families can go star gazing at home and they could look for a specific planet. My students live in Dublin city so light pollution will be a barrier to seeing the stars/ planets clearly so using this website will be great to show them in real time what is happening in the night sky even if they can’t see it with their eyes. Satellites might be the best chance they have of seeing an object in the sky themselves depending on the conditions/ light pollution. Nice effect also to use where you can make the screen red for easier viewing after you have been outside for more than 15 minutes. Useful for marking the position/ phase/ location to planets of the moon.
Solar System Explore is a great resource that can be used in the browser of an Ipad in conjunction with Stellarium. It. could be a great whole class activity where students could work individually or in teams exploring a specific planet or constellation and then report back to the class about their findings. As I have senior infants there would need to be a lot of teacher guidance and team teaching/ station teaching with Learning Support/ Resource teachers if our school has the staffing. Could be a wonderful opportunity for cross curricular teaching where children can research a planet and then use their research to create their narratives about space and what they think is happening on the planet they are looking at. Brilliant for creative writing and for teaching new vocabulary.
Super work here Tara,
I like the use of the oreos, maybe I can use Jaffa cakes instead as a throwback to that great ad from Jacobs. Super fun way to get children thinking about the moon and a hands on activity that they will love.
Hey there Anne,
I loved the Paxi Video and think Paxi will be a great little mascot to use in the class to intrioduce this topic. I will be teaching senior infants in September and I’m always looking for new and interesting resources for them and I think these videos will be fantastic. Love the idea of the whole class presenting their work at a school assembly too. This will hopefully inspire a few more teachers in your school.
Francis and Danielle showed how to make a sundial. Using the sun and the shadows it casts to tell the time. A fantastic way to connect the children to the universe and “how shadows are formed”. This is a great hands-on way to demonstrate to children that light comes from the sun. I have senior infants in September and I think this will be a really great activity that I can use with them in conjunction with and older class that can act as the leaders of the project. I love the way that you introduce the concept by tracing shadows in chalk and observe how this will change over the day. We have an extensive yard at our school and I know that we already have a defined circle drawn in the middle of our yard which I hope is in the sun all day. The only barrier I might face is that the kids go home at 1:20pm so I think the link to the instructions on spaceweek.ie on how to make your own sundial out of cardboard will be a great activity I can send home the printed out template for parents to make with their children and then they can use our Class Dojo app to share their results with the class.
