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I love the think pair share and the KWL chart to gain a better understanding of their knowledge. It’s a wonderful starting point and the children really learn from each other using these strategies.
Space Week Plan
I would create a padlet of a variety of activities for teachers to choose from. Some things I would include, Give a fun fact about space everyday. Teachers would read space themed stories everyday/ show videos the solar system, the moon, astronauts ect carry out experiments and showcase them to other classes. I would ask teachers to choose a science activity based on the space theme and then the children could showcase what they had learned to each other in the different classes. Writing activities/ comprehensions based on the space theme for the week. Kahoot quiz on the space theme. Art activities like building a rocket or creating their own planet using polystyrene balls, sun catchers in the theme of space. We could end the week by dressing up. The children could choose a space themed character. I would hold a competition for the best costume from each class.Thank you for sharing the link to the discover primary science and maths. I will explore this further next year. I also love the Marvin and Milo resource.
Hi Regina,
I like the way you have used a variety of cross curricular areas throughout the lesson. Vocabulary building, describing things use of math’s through discussions on height ect, geography when disussing different homes around the world/ climate. art through designing an d making their homes. A wonderful lesson. Thank you for sharing.
There are many wonderful hands- on classroom themed activities I would use. I particularly like the esero activity on the ice is meltinghttps://esero.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/47_The-ice-is-melting.pdf . I often explore the theme of Antarctica and I think this will be a wonderful addition to that theme. I love the experiment to investigate what will happen to the water if the ice at the North Pole and the South Pole melts. This experiment is a great way for the children to understand the difference beween land ice at the South Pole and sea ice at the North Pole and to explore ideas like – will sea levels change?, Will he temperature change?. Some further steps I would take towards a STEM focused SSE is to introduce STEM week into our school and carry out these hands- on activities from the curious minds and esero activities with the children. I will share the links with my colleagues also.
The activity set: Space and Aliens
I think this topic would engage the learners immediately and as a teacher would really enjoy all the fun and imaginative ways you can explore the topic with the kids. I have used a drama activity in the past as a stimulus for this particular theme. The children get into groups and you get them to each come up with a vocal sound (They have great fun making squeaky sounds/ deep sounds, ) They stand up at the front of the class in a line and when I touch them on the head they make their sound one after the other) we try to spell the sound on the board. The children have a great laugh with this and then I tell them this is the name of their alien. They write the name of the alien on the top of a big piece of paper and the group begins to draw the alien how many eyes / legs ect/ what food it likes to eat/ what planet it lives on ect. I will add to this lesson now about acting out the alien they have created. The children write wonderful creative stories around their alien and present to the class. I like to think that their knowledge of space from me doing this course and carrying out the lessons with them will enhance their understanding of space and I would hope to see elements of that in their writing in future lessons.The activity set on ‘The Planets’ is a brilliant way to teach the children the names of the planets and also help them to recognise them in relation to the sun. I loved the use of hulla-hoops and using movement throughout the lesson. The Planet Dance and Spin your own Planet’ are fun, engaging activities which I have never thought about doing. The younger classes would enjoy this. I would use prompting questions like what planet do we live on? And introduce the solar system by viewing videos ect prior to the active lesson. You could add a flashlight to the yellow hulla-hoop to add to the idea of the sun giving light. The lesson offers cross curricular topics like prepositions and children developing their spatial awareness. These are all very accessible lessons to carry out and I am really look forward to using them in the classroom next year.
Wonderful resources for teaching the moon. I like the stories you have chosen. Here’s another link to a you tube video that might be interesting John Lewis ‘Man on the Moon’
Great idea to get them to work in small groups as I find this a wonderful, fun way for kids to explore topics and research. They love finding out new facts together.
Space in the junior classes.
My name is Lianna. I will be working in SEN this year and my favourite fact about space is
One million Earths could fit inside the Sun – and the Sun is considered an average-size star.Inquiry-Based Activity: Junior/ Senior Infants
To begin I would plan the lesson using the framework for inquiry based learning. Explore: I would use a variety of questions to spark interest in the subject. I wonder what life is like in Space? I wonder how you would get there. I would use think pair share to discuss their ideas Engage: We would read stories associated with the theme and listen to videos about space. How would you survive in space? Food, water ect? Investigate: Design and make a rocket to get to space- we would look at a variety of different rockets made out of a variety if materials. They would draw a picture of what their design might look like and create their design. We would examine a variety of premade rockets to give them ideas of the ways the rocket could be launched. Take the next step: Launching rockets- look at videos of rockets and discuss how they think the rocket launches. Try to launch their own rockets. Question the position of rockets and what position would be best to help the rocket go the furthest. Are there any adaptations you could make to help the rocket go further?Counting stars would be a brilliant song to use to link music to this theme. The ideas you have shared are excellent and I look forward to using them in my lessons.
I too love to connect the arts to my lessons and these are wonderful ways to do this.Thanks for sharing the song ‘somewhere out there’ I will definitely use this in my lessons.
1. Describe how you could implement a version of “Design Your own Dark Sky place” in your school/classroom?
Step 1: Look at what a dark sky place is and look at examples of Kerry Dark Space and Mayo Dark Space.
Step 2: I would ask the children to look at their own sky at home on a clear night and identify whether they can see the stars. We talk about how built up areas you will be able to see less stars or no stars and how light pollution affects the viewing of the milky way.
Step 2:We would design our own dark place in our school. I would ask the children to come up with ways to ensure lighting doesn’t affect the wildlife living in the space. I would ask them to brainstorm different ways to or using alternatively lighting dimmed lights or orange lighting ect. We would take pictures of the space before and after.
