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Hey Meadhbh, I love all these ideas for an infant class for space week. I really like how you have integrated all of the subject areas under the one theme. Another idea for maths that my children love is counting backwards from 10 to 0, while pretending to be a rocket, starting off as a ball and gradually getting up so by the time when the get to 0 they are standing and can jump for blast off.
As STEM co-ordinator in my school I would be very enthusiastic and confident to organise and implement space week in my school after exploring the wonderful resources on SpaceWeek.ie.
I love that there is a range of topics and themes to pick from which the whole school could focus on for the week for example:
-Solar System
-Humans in Space
-Satellites
-Sun and Shadows etc
These different topics would allow you to organise different activities every year.The topic which caught my attention was “Mission to the Moon” as this ties in nicely with the other activities explored in this module.
Here is a example of some of the activities I would organise for both junior and senior classes:Junior classes
Science-Discussing rockets, observing rocket launches, acting out a rocket launch, designing a rocket, investigate who’s rocket is the best.
English-Listen to stories about going to the moon.
Aistear-Creating a role play area in the classroom based on going to space.
Music-Learning songs about going to space e.g David Bowie songs, such
as Life of Mars, Space Oddity and Starman.
PE- Train like an astronaut https://trainlikeanastronaut.org/Senior Classes
-Science – Growing food in Space, investigate the growth of cress in different conditions.
-History – Apollo 11
-Geography – Observe and record the positions of the Sun when rising and setting and at different times of the day.
-English – Create a list of what you would bring to space with you, create questions for an astronaut.
-Art – Design a mission patchHey Laura, I love the idea of using the four hula hoops to sort the pictures/clothing into the correct season. This is a great way of doing this visually and using concrete materials. Thank you for this great idea!
Activity Set : Weather (Hot/Cold)
Start the lesson by discussing hot and cold, giving a simple definition of each word.
Watch the following video on youtube to help differentiate between hot and cold objects.
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=is+it+too+hot+or+cold+youtube&mid=66A4322BDB20CABC790366A4322BDB20CABC7903&FORM=VIREUse the knowledge of hot/cold to discuss hot/cold weather.
Look at a selection of pictures and discuss what they think the weather is in the picture. Discuss how do you know this? What kind of clothes are the children wearing in the picture? What activities are they doing in the picture?
Create a hot and cold corner in the classroom for the children to partake in a walking debate. Explain that you are going to tell them some short stories. They have to decide if each story is about a hot situation or a cold one. Then
they have to run to the hot corner or the cold corner. Encourage the children in the blue corner to act as though they are feeling cold, by shivering and rubbing their arms. In the red corner they pretend that they are hot, puffing, and panting for example. After each story ask a number of children why they chose the red or the blue corner.Give the children a selection of different pictures showing a range of activities and have the children sort them (cut and stick activity), stick the activities that happen in hot weather on red paper and and the activities that happen in cold weather on blue paper.
I have also done a lesson similar to this before with more of a focus on clothing we wear in certain weather situations, once again carrying out a cut and stick activity to sort different types of clothes, learning songs/poems about hot/cold weather, getting a teddy bear ready for hot/cold weather or for different seasons.
Lesson: Design a Martian
Trigger: Play this video about Mars for the kids https://youtu.be/rlBbkWJXoP0 and discuss the facts we learned about mars e.g it is cold, it has two moons etc. Create an anchor chart using pictures to demonstrate these facts.
Wondering: Discuss what you think it might be like to live on Mars?
Exploring: Look at pictures of Mars, describing its features. Look at Mars on google maps.
Investigation – Design a Martian
Start to discuss what you think a Martian would look like – think, pair, share. Sketch/Draw a picture of your Martian including all the relevant features – how many eyes/arms?, What colour is your Martian? etc
Listen to the read aloud of “Marshmallows for Martians” on YouTube.
Dis anyone see a Martian that looked like there drawing in the book? List similarities and differences. Give the children the opportunity to make changes to their Martian if they wish. Share their final sketch with the class describing their Martians features and explaining what materials they will use to create their Martian.(oral language) – Some children could write some simple words/sentences to describe their Martian.
Create their Martian using clay and appropriate materials. Paint their Martian a colour of their choice.
Follow up activity: Create a Martian Landscape for their Martian using appropriate materials and using picture of mars as a stimulus and display in the classroom.
Hey Eleanor, I love how much you can do with this classic nursery rhyme. I also am a big fan of integration so I love all the ideas for all the different subject areas using the nursery rhyme as a stimulus. Previous to this I would never have thought of this nursery rhyme as an invitation to teach about stars in our solar system. Thank you for this!
Hey Matthew, I love the idea of giving the children playdough to create the planets and allowing them to use the appropriate colours and adding the appropriate features. This would be a great idea for a station during aistear while covering the theme of space. Thank you for this!
Activity Set: Sun and Shadows.
I choose this topic as this a topic I normally teach in the infant class.
First we always start by identifying sources of light and differentiating between natuarl/man-made light (through a cut and stick activity). We also explore the difference between day and night through stories, songs and pictures. Then we just to discuss and become aware of our shadows and how shadows are made, to do this we go outside and see all the different shapes we can make with our shadows, trace our shadows with a partner, play chase our shadow with our partner, take out a selection of figurines and trace their shadow and then we finish off by working in groups to create a shadow show using puppets they have created to retell a selection of known fairy tales.
After engaging with this module I know have a lot of new ideas for when teaching day and night and shadows. I love the idea of using a large globe and sticking on two figurines to demonstrate the difference between day and night. I will also be very excited to use the story bear shadow when introducing the concept of shadows. Also the idea of using the term UV light when teaching sun safety is fantastic, I will defiently use these ideas in my future teaching.
Hey Fiona,
I love the idea of using pictures books as a stimuli for science lessons as this is a great way of integrating oral language into the lesson.
Your science investigation is very similar to the one I shared just with a different problem to introduce the lesson. I love the idea of leaving the teddy outside as this is much more visual then just giving the children an oral problem. I can just imagine how concerned/worried the children would be about the teddy bear therefore would be very eager/engaged to help the teddy.
Hey my name is Lauren and I am a junior/senior infant teacher. I am also the newly appointed STEM coordinator in my school so I am looking forward to getting some great ideas to do with space as I would love for my school to take part in space week in the coming school year.
My favoutite space fact is that footprints left on the moon won’t disappear as there is no wind!
An inquiry based activity/lesson I use in the infant classroom is “What material is waterproof?”, we normally cover this when doing the theme of sea creatures/aquarium. The trigger I use is a note/letter from a mermaid who has damaged some of her tail and she is wondering what material would be best to repair it (and it needs to be waterproof). So first of all we discuss what waterproof actually means and highlight why it is important for her tail to be waterproof. Then as a class we make a list of materials that we think might help the mermaid, and then we investigate which of these materials are waterproof. We also discuss how are we going to test this. The children work in groups and record their results. We then draw a picture of the mermaids tail and stick down which material we discovered was best. Then a nice follow on activity is to design and create a waterproof jacket/umbrella for our class teddy bear.
