Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi, my name is joey and I usually teach senior infants. I love teaching science to infants, but often find the suggested activities for the junior classes are a bit bland. Small children generally have great interest in all things science and are perfectly capable of engaging with more complex concepts. They are especially fascinated with space and are amazed to discover more about their universe. I am happy to say this course has provided plenty of interesting, practical ideas for teaching infants about space. Younger children need lots of hands on activities to be able to experience and visualise complex concepts. This course has given me lots to work with. Thank you.
Hi Frances, I think the idea of encouraging them to improve on their rocket is really good. They will be sure to have some good ideas, and it really makes them think about how the rocket works!
I loved the idea of creating different rockets with the children, I think they would be fascinated with the concept. We would first look at different types of rockets in order to engage the children. Then we would look at the different types of rockets we can make and how they are propelled. I think the mouse rocket is an especially simple and effective one too make with the children. . I would also show the children the fizzing space rocket as I think they would get a great thrill from that.
There is a wonderful book called Space Dogs which I read to the children every year. It’s about Bella and Strelka the first living things to return from space. It’s a great story and has a good timeline at the back about the different animals and people who went to space. .
I enjoyed the activities in this module, they are very child centred and hands on. I would choose the hot and cold theme as there are many ways to investigate this in the infant classroom. I would freeze some small toys in water in balloons and ask the children as a group to predict which would be the fastest way to melt the ice. We would record the predictions and then work away at melting the ice and record our results. I would take photos along the way so we could remember what exactly happened.
Next we would talk about ourselves in hot and cold weather and compare the clothes we wear. This would be a good introduction to penguins and polar bears and a discussion on how they keep themselves warm in freezing weather.II think the children would really enjoy the lesson on stars. I would start the lesson with a story bout the stars and the night sky. I would ask the children how many stars they think there are in the sky and what they know about stars already. Some children may already know that the sun is our nearest star.
I liked the idea of asking them would the number be larger than the jar of marbles, the children in the class, grains of sand on a beach etc. Small children’s concept of large numbers can be pretty wild!
I think the children would love making the constellations with tinfoil. I would take photos of their work and post it on Google classroom so they could check can they see their constellation in the night sky with their parents. There is a phone app which shows the constellations and draws the picture around them and I find this very useful for showing them how people made those pictures in the stars.
Based on this module, I would choose a lesson set based on the moon. I loved that the moon is “multi-cultural”, I think this would be a really interesting and cross-curricular lesson.
introduction: begin with a story about the moon, perhaps one of the international ones listed. Do the children think this is a true story? Do they know any other stories about the moon?
What do we know about the moon? : make a class chart about all the things we know, or think we know about the moon.
Have we seen the moon in different shapes? Could some children draw these shapes, why do we think this is? What shape do we think the moon is?
I have made models of the planets, sun and moon before with a class and this is a good way of showing the moon’s position in space. After showing the children pictures of the moon landing, I would give the children art materials and we would layer up the surface of the moon with craters and mare.
To finish we would read more stories about the man in the moon
I have also done this challenge. It is great for a cooperation activity. We gave a prize to the bridge that could hold the most blocks! The children were asked to predict which one would be strongest and say why they thought that, the results were quite surprising for them!
