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Students will learn about rockets and how they work by building and launching their own simple rockets.
What you will need:
Balloons, Drinking straws, string & sellotape
Introduction to Rockets:
https://www.esa.int/kids/en/learn/Technology/Rockets/How_does_a_rocket_work
Using the ESA kids website encourage discussion, watch videos, break into pairs or groups for short discussion. Come back together as a class and use visuals (including smaller flashcards for up close inspection as well as slide show on the IWB)
Talk about the FORCE they need to pull away from gravity and launch towards space. Talk about the different parts and using the ‘parts’ element to move onto designing / making their own rockets later in the the theme.
The further their understanding of the forces element use your materials and make a class rocket. This always receives a cheer. Have children try to make it themselves using the material required. This playful learning experience can only consolidate learning and increase their understanding of rocket launching.
Discussion:
Whole class discussion about our rockets. Allow the children to decorate their rockets using different art materials. Talk about why? What? How? the air escaping from the balloon forces the rocket forward.
Have a rocket race and figure out why one was faster or went further?
Follow on lesson
Allow time for junk art rockets. Revise the parts of the rocket and let the children immerse themselves in this design and creative engineering element of our space theme.
Wow Christine! This is great. Very indepth and agreed totally doable. Thank you for all the links really very helpful and have it saved! Much appreciated. Always great to get things like this on these courses. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Dean,
I also like the fact that the ESA Kids website is available in multiple languages. We have a number of students that would benefit. It also allows good planning with the EAL teacher who could work on certain vocabulary so that the children are fully included in more teacher led lessons.
As a junior school educator, I love themes and am all about integrated playful learing expereinces.
Stellarium-web.org would be a great introduction to the theme. Displaying the night sky on the IWB with music and let the kids relax into this theme. Allow the children to take in the visuals and enjoy the sky. I would encourage them to point out patterns in the sky. We would then investigate more closer constellations and using chalk and black paper attempt to recreate the constellations.
Milo and Marvin is a good starting point for role play. The students love dressing up and engaging in role play. Dressing up as aliens and having a selection of items that can the students can feed their imaginations and space time in our our role play corner. I have had a space theme before and will be adding Milo and Marvin this year.
ESA and ESA Kids website was of particular interest to me. It offers a strong collection of downloadable resources that are ideal for our junior school aged students. It also allows for group projects as well as more individual tasks during integrated playful experience time. Students would be encouraged to explore concepts like phases of the moon or building a model rocket.
I would also use this website to support designing and creating their own aliens to have a mix of space fact and fiction is always a worthwhile activity. This increases students awareness of what is real and what is not. I would also use this website for space themed arts and crafts using the Images from this website are ideal for other project such as building a space shuttle or investigating the 4 phases of the moon or the planets. So much on this website it is worthwhile having a good look and picking a few things to really work on through SESE.
The interactive games could further enhance and spark the children’s interest.
Space is a wonderful theme and using ESA and ESA Kids provides the teacher with suitable ideas and supporting materials to have a successful spaces theme in any classroom.
Yes Ainé, the map was great. A great visual for our students. A lot of rural people on here (lol) and we all know what the clear sky looked like. I think it’s super important we try to pass this knowledge on.
I grew up 30miles from Knock airport and we used to love seeing the lights at night. That shows you how clears (and a bit of luck from the lay of the land) the skies were. It was exciting.
We once had visitors from the states who we brought out on night-times walks and one asked how do you see when you’re driving. I initially thought it was a joke when I answered ‘you turn on the lights in the car’ when I realised she had grown up in a big city where light is only artificial and it was not a joke.
I now myself live in the city and think it is so important to teach about light. It was always something I valued and felt was a valuable science lesson. I teach in a junior school and found this module was more in my opinion geared towards the senior end.
I would engage my younger students and their families in a light project. Our school has lovely engaged parents and I feel this is one that we can reach out and do as project for home – school links.
Everyone take a photo at night beside artificial light and one with just natural light (where possible). this would give a wonderful discussion focus and a concrete understanding to the students about artificial light and natural.
We could further use these pictures for an art project to further support learning about this simpler end of learning about light and light pollution.
I work in a junior school and we are always looking for ways to work with our senior school counterparts. We are looking for next year a theme we can both work on. I think Christine’s idea from Lora’s post about the fact that our younger students do not possess the digital literacy (yet) that joining with our senior classes would be a great plan using stellarium.
Thanks!
Paxi and Our Moon: Phases and Eclipses would be an appropriate introductory lesson for my Junior School aged students. It is a bright, engaging and an interesting watch for these curious young minds.
I would always watch the same video on the second lesson but it would be my plan to assign group of students to listen out for specific information that they can report back and share with the rest of the class.
On basic understanding of the moon phases I would engage the class in art that could create a concrete representation of what we are learning about – the 4 phases of the moon. I am a quite creative and always enjoy combining my students artistic talents in lessons. I have always found they can see clearly see and have stronger more meaningful understand of a topic / theme when they represent it in different ways. Plus having a wall display that you yourself can use a concrete resource is always useful to refer to.
With modern technology creating awareness, it make its far easier for a teacher to know exactly what we are looking for when we ourselves (or maybe just me) may need some guidance. Doing this course is showing me / teaching me something new that I would love to incorporate into a new theme next year.
Hi Katie,
Love this idea. As a teacher with lots of different nationalities in my class your lesson starter is perfect! I’ll certainly be using it!
I am a junior school teacher and the idea of making a sun dial is a lovely fun idea. I must admit I have only ever drawn shadows on the grouod during sifferent stages on the day, I can see making and teaching a sun dial is far deeper learning and should lend itself towards a more meaningful understanding of the sun.
Before we had clocks and watches people used sundials to mark the passing of time.
A sundial measures time by the position of the sun. Sundials have something in the centre which casts a shadow over the markings showing what the time is. There are more ways than the ‘drawing around your shadow from the same point at different times during the day’ to show children this. Using stones or stick to show the suns movements. I plan to have the children use sticks and stones to show the hours passing / to show the times throughout the day. I also feel that this is a more concrete representation of time for our younger students.
Kids love shadows! It always a great one for their curious minds. I have done drawing our shadows on the ground during different times of the day.
I would need to investigate how to promote it more in the classroom and like your idea of challenge cards.
The Trigger
Do you know the name of any planet? Let’s see how many we get out of the 8 we get. Then watch the below
*note we will listen and sing along and do action at the start of our planet themed lessons. Engage and have fun
Wondering & Exploring:
Re watch the video and assign each group to one of the 8 planets. Tell them they must listen out for your planets and record only the information from their assigned planet.
State some various facts they may have missed relevant to each group and see if they recognise it as been a fact about their planet.
Starter Question & Predicting:
Have a picture of each planet to give out to each of the 7 ‘planet’ groups (the 8th planet kept for next activity). Have a selection of art supplies / coloured paper mostly on the floor. Children must go up and choose what might reflect their planet best in an art exercise.
Conducting the Investigation:
During starter activities I purposefully left out an 8th planet. I will present the 8th planet and ask the children to tell me different facts about their planet.
Comparing
Creating and art display of all the planets made for comparison. This promoting conversation. Children must pair / group up with others who made a different planet. They must share information about their own planet especially including any information you think they may not know.
Interpreting Data/Results:
Create a display of 8 sections, each section headed with each planet. Children do not have to stick to their original planet group rather put up anything they know or have learned about any of the other planers too. Write facts, words, draw pictures of each planet
Applying Learning, Making Connections & Thoughtful Actions:
Design a space shuttle fact file and picture of a shuttle that could survive on a drive by / landing on one of our planets.
Or
By looking at display made teacher/class should be clearly be able to ascertain if one planets was more interesting or not. Ask the children why they think any particular planet was filled more than other.
Reflection:
Again class displays, drawings, fact files play an important role in reflection. Teacher observation and the all important feedback from students is always invaluable.
Gravity
Standing on tables dropping various things, discuss weight plays a role on how fast things fall, but ultimately everything falls.
How does gravity affect our daily life. How have we designed the world to help us navigate gravity?
How can we slow things down from falling? How have humans designed things to help us beat gravity whether for fun or for safety? Talk about things that don’t fall out of control …gliders, hot air balloons, stairs, escalators, elevators etc.. all the things that help us go up and down at our own pace.
Making parachutes. Talk about materials needed watch some videos. Create our designs. Have a ‘we (kinda) beat gravity day!!!’ dropping various things and enjoying science.
This is just great to read. We have recently opened up our autism class and this is such an engaging task. The spilling of water, pressing various materials to figure out if the material is absorbent or waterproof. Well done! And then ‘ordering’ photos for sorting and classifying afterwards is super and extends the opportunity for teachers to keep using the vocab and engaging the students.
Hi I work in a Junior School. Love the junior school aged children and science. Their natural curiosity lends itself so perfectly to investigation, questions and some great and funny answers!
In the past we have used Chris Hadfield and his posts about life in space as a great ‘real life’ as a concrete example of how gravity makes life in space and on earth so different! How gravity helps us on earth, but also how fun zero gravity would be. The children loved this and enjoyed finding comparisons and coming up with their own ideas of inventions to supports them if they were on the space craft with Chris!
