Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I like the flow of your lesson Robyn and reinforcing the learning through interactive online games is a nice way to consolidate the learning. I would even like to use the interactive games as a stimulus to engaging children in designing and making their own rockets too,
I will use the activity set:Rockets
To introduce the lesson, I would start with 3 images (rocket/helicopter/hot air balloon) per outline on Explorify and ask children to discuss in groups: https://explorify.uk/en/activities/odd-one-out/funky-flyers
This activity is great for promoting observation and discussion skills. 1. Show the three images above and ask everyone to come up with as many similarities and differences as they can. If they get stuck, prompt them to think about:
appearance
what they do
where they might be found
2. Then, everyone needs to decide which one is the odd one out and why. Encourage a reason for every answer and there is no wrong answer!
I will ask the children how long they think rockets have been in existence and share the fact that a rocket is a craft that burns fuel to propel itself. Rockets have existed since 13th century China, when they were used as fireworks but modern rockets have been used for space research and to send people into space. We will look at where China is on the globe of the world and I have Ireland marked with a little sticker so they can identify how far away or close Ireland is to the country we are locating on the globe.
Next, I will engage the groups in the rocket mouse if they have no prior experience of this (if they do I would start with the balloon one using a long balloon as recommended and testing this at home in advance and move on to the alkasetzer rocket instead as an extension activity) , I will double-check with previous teacher as to which experiments they have already engaged with. I feel starting with a simple one is best to try and encourage discussion from all pupils.
We would discuss the results and I would show a different container to what they have used for the mouse rocket and ask each group to come with a starter inquiry before we try the different container and how this may impact the outcome. We will discuss & compare.
If it is the balloon activity will compare the random movement of the balloon as the air rushes out of it compared to the addition of the string and straw where the movement is controlled.
Extension Activity: Designing and making rockets from recycled materials (Art)
Literacy: Reading Roaring Rockets by Tony Mitton to the class – asking them to record
verbs (action/doing words) as I read it.Thank you Frances for the tip on the use of coloured sand and needing to let it dry – makes sense, is less wasteful and more practical. I am always conscious too when using food items that perhaps some children are not always afforded the luxury of things like hot chocolate – and there we are using it in an experiment for a whole class !
Am grateful for the nice ICT extension too. You are a mine of information, endless resources and wonderful insights.
Topic: Seasonal Changes/Weather
I would like to use aspects of the Espero 11 Activity on Seasons and What to wear & the Discover Primary Science Investigating Children’s Coats for first class .
To:
• identify different kinds of weather: rain, wind, thunderstorm, and sunny
• know that for every season you wear different kinds of clothes
• know that clothing protects you from the cold
• discover that some kinds of weather occur more often in certain seasons
Trigger Question: Have you ever gone out wearing the wrong coat ? – in order to relate to children’s prior experiences and the Irish weather where it feels like we can frequently have numerous seasons in one day!
Explain you want the class to help. Present the question to the children.
1. In pairs ask the children to share their experiences.
2. Once they have had a brief chance to chat give them some prompts to help their conversation:
• Have you ever got wet/cold/too hot because you wore the wrong coat to school? Has it happened more than once?
• How did you decide what to coat to wear to school today?
• How do you find out about what the weather is going to be like?
• Who decides what coat you wear to school?
• Looking at labels on their coats to observe the material names (allows for movement too).
3. As the children talk, try to spot children who normally don’t contribute that are sharing lots of ideas with their partner.
4. Invite the children to share their experiences and try to pick some of the children you noticed who are normally quiet in science discussions. Make sure you really value their contributions and their expertise. You could record their experiences on a large piece of paper for display in the classroom.
5. After the children have shared, ask if they think their comments could help us understand our science – hopefully some will deduce that the weather can be different according to the time of year/season. During the summer (of old anyway !?!, we experience warmer, longer days and in winter it is colder and the nights are longer.. – you could extend here by asking whether Climate change has had any impact on our seasons?
Activities:( to be linked but extended over a period of a month all linked to seaons and weather/materials)
• Children can draw a picture of what they wear for each season and write underneath why. This could be an activity you return to each season as children need to observe and discuss spring, summer, autumn and winter. Or you could take photos of the class wearing their outdoor clothes at different points in the year.
• The class will record what the weather is like each day that week and make a display. You could position a rain gauge outside, so that children can check the amount of rainfall each day. Similarly, we could also check the temperature each day or once weekly over the course of a month and fill out a class chart for this which we would have displayed in the classroom.
• As children are expected to understand that the hours of daylight vary during the year, we will also record each month perhaps from December – March whether it is light or dark when they wake up, or when they go to bed.
• Children with families living in other parts of the world could share their experiences/knowledge of the weather in those countries or experiences of a visit abroad where they noticed a different weather pattern.Extended Learning & Cross-curricular Links over a series of lessons linked to the weather theme :
– Trigger: link to the scientist Charles Mackintosh – who he is? What piece of clothing was named after him? ) & do a science lesson on investigating coat materials but extending it to test for waterproof materials
– Maths- data gathering on the coats belong to the children per categories: colour/ length/ hood/waterproof
– Art – Design your own coat per Investigating Children’s Coats Lesson Resource with the prompt q’s
What season is it for?
• What will the weather be like?
• What sort of temperature is it likely to be?
• What material/ materials will they use?
• How can they make it practical? (e.g. type of fastening, pockets, hood).
• Can they suggest where they might use their coat (going to school, helping in the garden,
going to a party etc).
– Drama- rain, wind and storm story per Eserpo Activity 11I think this space memory game is a really good one too Ciara, for differentiating in terms of the visuals but also reinforcing & consolidating planet names and spellings too. A lot of the games on the ESA website would be great for station teaching and you could have your QR codes printed off or just displayed on the IWB or teacher IPAD for that station linked to the topic/theme focus.
https://www.esa.int/kids/en/Games/Colour_with_Paxi – also a good one for stations
I like all of the cross-curricular integration in your outline Orla. I will check out Adams Amazing Space Adventures as children love a book with rhyme and it is always good to reinforce it as often as possible as some children find it hard to grasp. I really like the link to drama too and think children would love creating a drama about a day in the Life of their Alien.
Activity Set: Stars
To begin the lesson: Trigger: I would show the children (first class) three real life images (sun/moon/earth) on the whiteboard with no captions – the children to work in pairs/groups and consider what each of the images represents.
1. Ask everyone to come up with as many similarities and differences as they can. If they get stuck, prompt them to think about:
Appearance – size/shape/ colour association
what they do – function
where they might be found – location
(a KWL chart or mind map could be recorded by teacher based on accurate facts given by pupils)
2. Then, everyone needs to decide which one is the odd one out and why. Encourage a reason for every answer and there is no wrong answer here!
3. I would read : Our Stars By Anne Rockwell , emphasising that the sun is a star and that also we have lots of stars . Stars in groups that form a pattern or an outline are known as constellations. I would ask children to name any constellations they know before we read the book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqo-cP9gemw
4. I would engage the children in the imaginative Draw your Own Constellation Activity.Extension linked to Art in the same week: I would engage the children in creating a constellation Activity: Looking at the Plough in two ways
I would give children a choice as to whether they want to use pre-cut straws or string – I feel that some children in first would be able for the measuring of the string but not all.Thank you Frances – this is a really nice way to consolidate their knowledge and and also to extend the children’s experience in a practical and real way.
Lesson on Shadows
I will start the lesson with a discussion on shadows and creating a KWL chart on the board in relation to the following questions:
Tell me about your shadow. • When do you see your own shadow? Do you see your shadow on a cloudy day? Do you have a shadow when it’s dark? • Does your shadow always look the same? Why do you think that your shadow changes?
Assign pairs and a trigger question that they can work on: What elements do you need to make a shadow? Get children to brainstorm this in pairs and record their ideas on mini whiteboards.
Teacher will circle and observe children’s knowledge . Confirm where children are on the right track with elements listed (source of light and object to block light) and ask them to consider carefully what the 3rd element might be.
We need three elements to see a shadow: ❂ Source of light ❂ Object to block the light ❂ Surface for the shadow to fall upon.
I would then read Moonbear’s Shadow by Frank Asch (10–15 minutes) per lesson outline https://astrosociety.org/file_download/inline/c6bdec27-ce84-4819-ad1f-5aa3b79b4833
This is a story about Bear trying to lose his shadow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq0z-UVyYnE
I would use the following questions to focus the children’s attention
• Show me/ point to the Sun and Bear’s shadow in each illustration. Use your finger to trace a line from the Sun, to Bear, and then to his shadow.
• I would encourage children to make predictions about the story. For example: Do you think Bear’s shadow will stay fixed on the ground when he walks away? Bear’s shadow disappeared when he stepped into the shade of the tree — where did it go?
• Review, reflect and discuss with the children how the position of the Sun in the sky changed throughout the story, over the course of the day and the impact on Bear’s shadow relative to the position of the light source. I would encourage the children to describe Bear’s shadow as short or long and the light source as high or low.
Experiment with making Bear’s shadow in pairs (10–15 minutes) Invite each pair to a station so that they can recreate scenes from the book and try to make Bear’s shadow change. Encourage children to try switching the flashlight on and off, and using it to make the shadow of the Bear figure, then experiment moving the light and the objects to recreate scenes from the book as depicted on the challenge cards: 1. Move the Sun across the sky, from sunrise to sunset. What happens to Bear’s shadow as the Sun moves? 2. Shine the light straight down on Bear from above his head. Where is his shadow? 3. Try to make Bear’s shadow appear in front of him/behind him. 4. Try to make Bear’s shadow long/short. 5. Bear wants to hide in the shade of the tree. Can you help him? 6. In the story, Bear’s shadow scared the big fish away. Try to make Bear’s shadow touch the fish in the pond. This activity allows children to model the phenomenon of how the Sun casts shadows outside.
I would use the question prompts to help children investigate how changing the flashlight’s position changes the size, length, and position of the shadows. As children test different positions of the flashlight, ask them to compare their observations and encourage them use their observations to make claims about how to make the shadows longer, shorter, or in front of/ behind the Bear figure. Children can make claims either verbally or by demonstrating with their model.
I think children would really enjoy this activity from the initial stimulus, the story and really benefit from the hands-on experimentation with the torches and figuring out how the position of the light source impacts both the position of the shadow and also the shadow size & length.
Hi Edel,
I love that science fact too in relation to the grains of sand and the number of stars – it really does help us visualise the vastness of space.
I like your inquiry based learning activity and all the variables with regard to melting ice and prior predictions. I have used salt and ice and food dye in the past particularly where it has been a cold winter and the roads have been gritted and I wanted the children to understand the impact of the salt on ice. However, I really like the idea though of including more variables and predictions and analysing the outcomes for this type of experiment – I will do this for sure next time round.
Hi there. My name is Leah and I will be teaching first class in September. I love this age group in relation to Science as they are so fascinated by space, living things and they can get very excited and engage well with experiments too.
A favourite fact about space is that precious metals like silver and gold are forged when dead stars collide. The remnants of exploding stars – neutron stars – will sometimes collide, producing and releasing vast quantities of precious metals among many other elements. It’s pretty cool to think that the precious metals we frequently adorn ourselves with are linked to the stars.
Inquiry Based Activity: Forces/Environment
Skills: Observing, measuring, investigating (what do we keep the same? What do we change?)
Equipment: Large tray, flour, newspaper, plasticine (or else different-sized spherical objects, e.g. marbles, balls, beads), drinking chocolate powder, metre stick, cm rulers, sieve.
Trigger Questions accompanied by 2 images on WB – swiss cheese/moon surface
Have you ever heard someone say that the moon is made of cheese? Does anyone know what those sunken parts of the moon that look like holes are called ? Craters – a crater is a hollow formed on the moon’s surface.
Even though the craters on the surface of the moon resemble holes in Swiss cheese, we know that this common myth is not true. (The children may already know about a crater being the hollow at the top of a volcano – so it is important to emphasise that the two types of crater are completely different).
Wondering : I will let the children know that we are going to consider how craters are formed and why they are different sizes.
Questions before the brainstorm: What happens if you drop something heavy onto soft sand on the beach? What happens if you drop something heavy on the kitchen tiles at home or a wooden floor? Will you get the same result ?
In groups with assigned roles, I will engage the children in a brainstorm to consider and come up with theories as to how they think that craters are formed on the moon.
After each presenter from the group has relayed their theories, we will discuss the following background information and which group’s theory was closest to these facts while commending all groups for their efforts and putting on their science hats!
Why does the moon have craters?
Craters are the result of a collision between the moon and asteroids or meteorites. These craters were formed millions of years ago when meteorites hit the Moon’s surface. The moon, unlike the Earth, does not have an atmosphere that can protect itself from the debris of space, so it happens much more frequently. The impact of the meteorites caused the hollows to form and some of the surface to be thrown up and out around the crater. This is called ejecta (because it was ejected from the surface). Meteorites are bits of rock in space, which people think may have been left over from the start of the solar system (the planets and moons). There also is very little geological activity on the moon, for instance earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, so the craters can remain the same on the surface for many years.
Next I will let the children know that they will work in groups, taking turns and modelling creating craters on the moon using flour, hot chocolate, marbles/plasticine balls.
Spread the newspaper onto the table or floor, put the tray on the newspaper and put some flour onto the tray, until it is about 5 or 6 centimetres deep. Make the flour as smooth as possible without packing it down. Hold the sieve over the flour and put some drinking chocolate into it and shake it until you get a thin brown layer on the flour.
Make different sized balls from plasticine (these are the ‘meteorites’). Use ‘meteorites’ of different weight and note if there is any difference in the craters.
Drop one of the balls onto the moon’s surface.
Draw what happens.
Drop a different ball onto the moon’s surface.
Does it make a bigger or smaller crater?
Drop some more balls and draw a moon surface.
My first class loved this for Science week last year and engaged really well. We completed the experiment in the classroom and once you have newspaper it is not too messy.
After engaging in the investigation:
Ask the children to reflect on how they dropped the rocks on their ‘moon surface’ and what variables they would change to gain a different outcome.
Follow-up activity: Throw the ‘meteorites’ (gently!) at different angles onto the flour and notice if the craters are any different shape./ Throw the ‘meteorites’ at different speeds to see if that makes any difference to the size of the crater./ What happens if we change the shape of the meteorite (easy if it is made of plasticine)?
