[Siobhan Ni hiceadha]

Hi Niamh,

Thanks for compiling that list. i had forgtton some of those poems!

[Siobhan Ni hiceadha]

Module 5 Assignment- Consider songs/poems/art that connect us with the night sky.

There are many ways through the arts to explore the concept of the night sky. These are great resourses to bare in mind when conductiing any lessons based on the cosmos.

For art I always like to encourage the children to create their own masterpieces of the night sky. The Starry Night by Van Gogh is a perfect resource here. This painting is perfect for teaching ovement, swirling thick brush strokes, showing how our sky is alive, energetic and filled with beautiful light. The song Vincent by Don McClean is a lovely addition here .

The poem “The moons the north winds cookie ” by V Lindsay is a lovely playful and imaginative poem which treats the moon as a cookie that the wind slowly bites away day by day.

Other songs I know of referencingthe night sky:

-Stargazing by Kygo

-A sky full of stars by Coldplay

-Starman by David Bowie

-Fireflies by Owl city

-Counting stars by One Republic

 

Poems :

-Star light, star bright

-The man in the moon

 

Of course lets not forget the ultimate primary school anthem for the cosmos -“Twinkle, twinkle little star”!!!

[Siobhan Ni hiceadha]

Wow catherine well done on your schools bio diversity work. Thank  you for sharingyour schools ideas with us.

[Siobhan Ni hiceadha]

Module 4 Assignment:
Engaging my learners to explore biodiversity in our local area and the possible impacts of light pollution on local bio diversity.
As a teacher, engaging my students with biodiversity is very important, and all it requires is some hands on discovery outside the confines of our classroom.
I would begin by introducing the concept of biodiversity , what it means and how important clean water, fresh air, and lots of plants are to our health and wellbeing.We would brainstorm the benefits of clean water, plants, trees . bogs and pollination. I would recomend the book DEE THE BEE BY DOLORES KIVNEY here, which explains all about polination in a child friendly manner.
I am fortunate to teach in a country school so we have lots of green areas around us and a lake , forest and bog in our locality. Children love investigating so I would begin by giving each group of children a magnifying glass and some string. Here, in their groups they cordon off specific areas of our yard/ green areas with the challenge of finding living things, weeds, moss etc.Texture rubbing of various plants etc that they find can be lots of fun here too.
We have a school garden soI would focus in on the benefits of pollination and we have a local bee keeper who visits our school each year to do a workshop. This is highly successful and so interesting. We also have a bug motel.
I really liked the idea of the gardening colouring book as a resource to reinforce our lessons here and also the video Gareding For Biodiversity.
The Curious Minds framework forinquiry lesson planon the impact of light pollution would be very useful. We would discuss the imacts of light pollution on our local ecosystems such as the disruption and disorientation of nocturnal creatures , insects / moths( which ase very good pollinators) flying around street lamps confused, and artificial lights ruining natural dark habitat spaces where hedgehogs , bats etc would have lived and huntede for food.

[Siobhan Ni hiceadha]

This is a lovelly idea Laura. TheStellarium website is a great resource to show the children what they could see in the night sky minus artificial light pollution.

[Siobhan Ni hiceadha]

I have chosen how light pollution is impacting my ocal area and how I would engage my class to explore this , as module 3 assignment.
The night sky above our local area is changing. With the expansion of my town there is more and more artificial lighting lighting up our nights sky. While progress and development is postiive dor our town with the expansion of spotrts clubs with lit up pitchew, street lighting ,lit up public car parks and public buildings, I do think that the loss of darkness being replaced by an amber glow is stealing our view of the universe / natural night sky.
To engage my students on this topic I would start by mapping out our local environment . The children would become ” Night time detectives “for a week, Using the survey in this module on the lighting in our town.
I would then explain to thye chidren how certin nocturnal creatures in our local ecosystem rely on the dark- and how artificial street lightingconfuses their hunting / foraging habits.If I was teaching a senior class they could design/ construct light shields which would direct the light downwards thus eliminating the glare up towards the night sky. They could also write a letter to our local council in relation to any unnecessary night lighting / put lights on sensors.

[Siobhan Ni hiceadha]

This is a lovely idea Elizabeth.

Getting the children to go outside and observe the Moon in the day time in its last quarter and then following on with recirding the following Moon phases on a recording log would be lots of fun for the children.

[Siobhan Ni hiceadha]

I have chosen “observing the moon ” and how I would engage the children in my class here as my assignment for Module 2.
I would begin by explaining the difference between day and night-sun and moon. I teach younger children so explaing that the moon doesnt change its shape – it remains a ball of rock and we only see parts of it sometimes because of the Sun as it travels around the Earth. The Oreo Moon Phase activity is a nice one here to explain the different moon phases – new moon/ crescent/half moon / full moon idea . Then the best part- they can eat the cookie!
I would also explain that sometimes we can see the moon in the daytime and we would observe this outdoors when it occurs.
The ESA Paxi and our moon phases is also a nice resource for the different moon phases.
The Moon observation log / sheet would be a lovely activity to give as homework where children shade in the different moon phases as they come.
I will also be using the Time and Date website and Where the moon shows website as resources to show upcoming phases .
From thid website I see that the upcoming Moon phases are 21/7 – first quarter
29/7 Full Moon
3rd quarter -6/8
12/8 New Moon.
This will be very useful during the school year to keep track of Moon phases.

[Siobhan Ni hiceadha]

Thats a lovely idea Dervla- children would really enjoy making their own sun dial and then having a little diary to record the suns position.

[Siobhan Ni hiceadha]

I am considering “ESERO 30 day and night in the world” as my assignment here.
For children to understand day and night it is important firstly that they get a good understanding of the difference between day and night and then that we get day and night from the Earths rotation. There are lots of lovely idaes from ESERO to explain and teach this to children. Using the photo resourses here of the day and night animals (nocturnal and diurnal)is a lovely way to introduce this lesson. Sorting these photos and describing how the night animals have bigger eyes and why .It is also very interesting about how bats use sound to vibrate to see how far away their prey is. The children of the world paper craft is a nice carry on from this. Before this activity I would use a globe and a flash lightto explain that the sun ( flash light ) gives us day and night. when the globe/Earth moves / rotates around the flashlight we get day and night ( night when the globe rotates to the back ofthe sun/ flashlight. I would also encourage the children to see different countries are located on the globe, and that when one side has day the other has night. ie Ireland /Australia
A nice game to play with infant classes here is BE THE EARTH movement game where one child is the sun and children walk around the sun…who is at nightime /daytime?

[Siobhan Ni hiceadha]

Module 5 Assessment. Siobhan ni hIceadha.
The Climate Detective research question planner would be a very good tool for me to use when planning a lesson in relation to a climate issue.
The issue I have chosen here to explore with my infant class is – the effect that climate change is and has had on the lives of animals living in Polar Regions and things we can do to help these animals.
We will explore how climate change is greatly impacting where these beautiful animals live with the ice melting.
In my experience children really enjoy any lessons about animals and especially animals living in North/ South Pole.
I would firstly introduce the world map to my infants and pinpoint where these areas are. I would show the children photos of certain animals that live here and learn about them (Polar bears/ penguins)
We would then explore the area of the ice melting and the impact that this is having on these animals. There are many fantastic videos on National Geographic for kids to explore this.
I would also use the Paxi animation video to explain about Greenhouse effect.
We would discuss ways in which we can help these animals in our daily lives ie- energy conservation- turn off the lights, tv etc when not in use, water conservation- don’t leave the tap running when brushing your teeth, reusing and recycling, using less plastic. Walking/ cycling where possible instead of using a car.
There is huge scope here again for cross curricular links. I would also get my class to make posters to “save the penguins/ polar bears” and draw things that we can do.
The documentary called “Mickey the polar bear “is a great resource also here for children to understand the daily struggles that climate change is impacting on the animals.

[Siobhan Ni hiceadha]

Yes I also think this would be a very interesting research topic to explore

[Siobhan Ni hiceadha]

Module 4: Assessment . Siobhan ni hiceadha
The download I chose for module 4 assessment was Nose up high in the sky.
I feel ths would certainly be a resource I would use this coming year with my class. I teach infants and what I liked most about this resource was that there were ideas that the whole school would use.
Firstly I would let the children become familiar wuth a few old weather sayings and explain that in the “olden “days before technology, people predicted the weather with these. I would also explain theat these sayings are still pretty accurate when it comes to predicting the weather ie Red sky at night / sea gull sea gull.
I would encourage the children to make sensory weather observations – what can we see/ feel/ hear- wind, rain, temperature, type of clouds.
I am really looking forward to carrying out the idea of building our own weather station in our school garden, as a whole school activity.
I know the children would really enjoy this.
Keeping a weather diary ( pictorally in infants)for the week and having a designated weather person tell the weather each day.
Explain to the children that we can use certain instruments to measure the weather. Creating a rain gauge and the wind speed instrument that has been explained here would be great for older classes, and record this daily also.
An outdoor thermometer and a designated person recording the daily temperature .
Then at the end of the week / month, analyse and chat about the recordings. Lots of integration with other subject areas here also.

[Siobhan Ni hiceadha]

Totally agree, loved the old weather proverbs also. I was told these as a child and still remember and use them. I think my class would love this and maybe like myself would remember and use  them as they get older also!

[Siobhan Ni hiceadha]

Module 3 Assignment: Siobhan ni hiceadha
I found the video HOME very interesting indeed. It is quite shocking to see the effects and impact that our actions as humans have had on our beautiful planet. We are being urgently warned time and time again to take action in respect to this. Unfortunatly, while yes we are taking some action I feel more can be done. This is why it is so important that children are so aware of how our actions impact our planet.
Reducing our carbon footprint is so important, but we have to act as a collective here, – me not getting on a plane won`t really change things but if we all get more mindful of our footprint then this certainly will. Remember how obvious this was in Covid lockdown.
Using HOME facts to introduce this would be a very good resource. However I would be selective in clips that I would show the children, not to overwhelm them/ increase eco-anxiety.
I would brainstorm simple ideas in relation to water conservation / conserving energy/ reducing waste both in school and in the home with my class.
-using rainwater collected to water indoor plants
-don’t let the tap run while brushing teeth
-reuse water bottles/ lunch bags
-ensuring lights are off when no one is in the room/ tablets/ tv switched off when not in use
-close doors when heat is on
There are tonnes of simple ideas that would make a big impact to encourage and support sustainable practices.
I would also show the children excerpts from TED talk with Greta Thunburg, to highlight the fact that children also have a voice and should be heard in relation to our planet.

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