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Activity Set: Rockets
I am teaching junior infants in September and I think that rockets are of huge interest to the little ones. I would start my lesson by reading the book “The way back home”. Oliver Jeffers is an excellent author and it’s a great opportunity to integrate with literacy.Children will be prompted to think about ways to get home from space and travel in space. Once we have introduced the topic of rockets, I will show them some real rockets and I will also show them a video of a rocket launching.
The children will make a rocket using paper- they will design and make rockets using colours.
Then children will watch me make a rocket mouse and we will compare two launches and pick the best. The children will predict before we carry out the experiment. We will predict, investigate and complete an experiment called Rocket Mice and see which rocket mice will go the biggest distance.I will then help the children explore this in small groups and they can feedback which rocket was better.
Children will design and colour a rocket.
Children will make a 3d rocket in junk art as part of Aistear.
We will do an acrostic poem for the word rocket.
We will also do a word map for rockets.Hi Sinéad, thanks for posting all the ideas Re integration. The alien counting ideas are a nice way to vary the learning for the children.
Activity : where do you live – Esero 5.
I liked the lesson where do you live and would try it with my junior infant class next year. I liked the idea of providing the children with images of houses as a starting point following a dicusiion on what a home is. Some preparation could be stories like the three little pigs.
Once the children have chosen a house we could discuss why the house needs certain features to provide shelter in the weather.
As a follow up activity children will make 3d models. I will have a lego table, a playdough table, a table with blocks and art materials as a prompt but children they will be free to use whatever they want.
I like the idea of using a simplified version of this lesson https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/edu/PR37_Moon_shelter.pdf
I think it would be fun to extend the theme by coming up with ideas for shelter on the moon.Thanks Julie, this post has some really good ideas for homes and houses. I also like the idea of comparing homes on earth to potential homes on Mars for example.
Activity Set : space and aliens
Circle time discussion about the planets and with a particular focus on Mars. Have a photograph of the planet.
Trigger question : what would aliens look like if they lived on Mars.
Think pair share about their ideas and teacher records some adjectives on the board.
Children are then invited to sketch their alien on a piece of paper and share it with the class.
Children can make their alien with playdough and can mix colours and display their work on a large 2d planet mars. The children can paint it and add craters etc.
As an extension lesson the teacher can read Oliver Jeffers “the way back home” and integrate space with a literacy lesson.I will definitely be stealing this idea of the oliver J book. I love his illustrations and it’s a lovely way to integrate with English.
This is a lovely lesson, I will be noting the story and song you used. Storiea and music are so helpful with junior infants when teaching SESE.
I have chosen the activity set of the planets. We teach the planets in junior infants but at a basic level.
I would introduce the planets by some work on planet earth and the children would have prior learning about earth.
I would ask the children to sit in a circle and show them an orange balloon and tell them this is our sun. I would ask questions to elicit knowledge about the sun. Then I would show them the planets video by story bots.
I would put a visual of the planets on the white board and then ask the children if they can remember any planets from the story. As children named them, I would match them to the visual. I would also ask children to pick from a selection of balloons and we would label the balloons with name and a small photo of each planet.
We would finish by sharing their favourite planet and why.
The next lesson we would move on to the position of the planets and the children would be active and moving around. Subsequent lessons would involve some recording of learning in their SESE journal.
We would try and remember some planets mentioned in the videoThis is a super idea. I can imagine the children captivated by their own shadow and also it’s a super way of getting the children outdoors.
An inquiry-based activity I would use to teach children about space would be a lesson on “a real spacesuit”
Engage
Prompt a picture of an astronaut and a diver
Wonder / Explore / predict Discussion about weather and what clothes we wear. Picture of the astronaut and the diver -Show the photograph of the diver. Explain
That a diver has to take air with him to be able to breathe underwater. People in
space cannot breathe like they do here on Earth. That is why astronauts have to
take their own air supply with them. It can also be very cold in space. That is why
the astronauts wear special suits. Show the photograph of the astronaut. Explain to the children that they are going to make a spacesuit that will keep the
astronaut warm and have its own air supply.
Experiment and Investigation :Allow the children to design clothes for the astronaut and give them a copy of a template of an astronaut.Discussion and applying learning: Encourage them to describe what their
astronaut is wearing. Why did they choose this? Can their spacesuit keep the astronaut warm? For example, did they use lots of cotton wool? Does their astronaut
have a helmet?Hello,
My name is Kathy and I am a teacher in a DEIS school in Dublin. I will have junior infants next year. I have been in SEN for many years and need to learn some ideas for engaging with younger children about space.
