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I think that my class next year would really enjoy the Rocket Mice experiment. I find that all infant classes love doing space based experiments and creating their own rockets and launching their mice would be something they’ll really enjoy. To begin we would do a song such as We’re Going on a Rocket Ship. We will then discuss what we know about rockets and how they work. For the experiment itself, I would put the children in pairs. Within their pairs they could create their own individual mice but work together on the experiment itself. I would provide different sized bottles for the children to choose from and also let them experiment with different sized bottles asking them to predict what will happen with the different bottles and then check whether their predictions came true. Weather permitting, we would also experiment with launching their rocket mice outdoors and see if their predictions and results changed by being outdoors.
This sounds like a great lesson and one I’m definitely going to try with my Junior Infants. I think they’d love to make a bubbling alien potion.
For my lesson of choice with Junior Infants I would choose to do the ‘What Clothes to Wear’ lesson. This lesson is a great way of teaching about the seasons. We will start with the Seasons song on YouTube from Have Fun Teaching. I will check if the children can name the four seasons and how they differ/what happens during different seasons. The children will then do the colour the seasons worksheets. They will explain how they could tell what season it might be by looking at the pictures and what made them come to that decision. Following on from the colouring we will do the ‘What Clothes to Wear’ part of the lesson. The children will love the opportunity to dress up and explain their choices of different clothes for different seasons. We will discuss how some clothes choices can overlap and be used in multiple seasons. This is especially true in Ireland and we will look at how in other countries they may have more defined seasons. We will also discuss the reasons why we maybe need fewer layers in the summer and how the sun plays a role in this. This will lead to a discussion to the different types of weather we see in Ireland and what is most prevalent during which season.
I love the idea of using vaseline as a way of showing the children exactly what is meant by waterproof and how these is what many animals have which helps them to stay warm in Arctic conditions. I also really enjoy the book ‘Say hello to the Snowy Animals’ as a way of having the children think of different Arctic animals and maybe getting them thinking of how these animals manage to stay warm in cold places.
With my Junior Infant class I would look at the activity set of Space and Aliens. This is a topic that the children really enjoy and I find I get great engagement from them. The Claire Freedman Aliens In Underpants books are a great stimulus for lessons on Space and Aliens and any class I have had always loves these books. After reading one of these books we would discuss what Aliens look like, are they all the same, what similarities or differences might they have. I would then task the children with creating their own Aliens using play doh or just colours/markers if they would prefer. I would encourage the children to create their own individual and unique aliens explaining that there is no right or wrong way to create their alien. I will also provide extra materials such as sequins, pipe cleaners, buttons, match sticks etc which they can use if desired. Once finished we would discuss their different aliens, looking at any similarities or differences. Children would be given the opportunity to discuss any changes they might like to make to their aliens. Children will then be asked to name and describe their own alien. To finish off the lesson we might do an activity such as the alien boogie from Go Noodle.
Sinead I love your idea of darkening the room to show the children a video and pictures of stars in the night sky. This would I feel really engage the children in the lesson. The splatter paint idea for the art lesson is one that I think would also work really well amd I am going to try with my infant class.
For this module the activity set I would choose is The Moon and the lesson The Man in the Moon. As I will have Junior Infants I will need to keep the lesson quite short and as hands on as possible. I find music is a great way to start a lesson so to begin I would play the Eric Herman song ‘The tale of the sun and the moon’. We would then have a discussion about the sun and the moon and when we would see each and also what we do at these different times. We would discuss how the moon appears to change shape in the sky at different times and the children would be asked what different ways they have seen the moon look. I will then tell the children that we are going to find out what the moon looks like and why it looks like we can sometimes see shapes
Children will then be given a variety of materials such as coloured and white paper circles and crescent shapes aswell as polystyrene spheres and then scissors, glue etc and told they are going o make their own moons and can use any of the materials provided. As a class we will then discuss the children’s individual moons and they will be asked why they chose the colour and shape they did. The finished moons will also be displayed so that the children can compare all the individual projects. I would then finish off the lesson back on the carpet with the Moon Rhyme and a final discussin on what they have learned about the moon.
This sounds like a lovely simple lesson Jessica that I think the children would really enjoy. I love using songs as an introduction to a lesson aswell as it not only helps trigger their interest but also can give them a bit of movement before the lesson begins.
I love using floating and sinking with infants as it’s such a hands on lesson which they get so much enjoyment out of, often not even realising how much they’re learning at the same time.
For my inquiry based lesson I would look at the idea of Gravity. This is something that I feel always piques the interest of children and even at infant level. We would begin the lesson by talking about Space and seeing what the children’s prior knowledge is around space. I would then show the children a video of things floating around in space and ask them if they know why this happens. This would lead us onto the idea of Gravity and the lesson of What does Gravity do?
We would start by looking at a song on gravity and then discuss both gravity and the idea of forces and what a force is and how there are different forces. We would brainstorm different forces and how things move by push or pull. I would then ask the children to stand up and jump in the air asking them what happens when they jump up? We would explain that gravity pulls them back down and that is why they come back down. We would look at also throwing different items up seeing that they too fall back down due to gravity. I would explain that gravity holds people and animals on the ground so we don’t all float around in the air. Children would then get the chance to work in pairs to explore how different items fall. They will discuss how different items fall faster/slower and also look at it they all fall in the same direction. They will be asked to think of reasons why they think something might fall faster or slower being encouraged to think of the size or weight of an object. We will also think if there are ways which we can speed up or slow down how an object might fall.
As a follow up lesson on another day I would introduce the magnets here showing the children how the magnet will attract the paperclip, explaining to the children that this is due to the force from the magnet. Children in pairs or groups will then get the opportunity to explore with the magnets to do the ‘What do Magnets Do?’ part of the lesson. They will be given a magnet and a variety of objects to see which are attracted to the magnet and which aren’t, making two separate piles with the magnets. They will also be given time to go around the room exploring with the magnets to see what else they can find that the magnet is attracted to. Children would then discuss their findings with the rest of the class.
Hi my name is Laura and I’ll be teaching Junior Infants in September.
My favourite space fact is that it rains diamonds on Neptune!
As I work with infants I would be looking at a simple enough research area that we could discuss and look at. For me a good research question would be ‘What are some simple things that we can do to reduce our Carbon Footprint?’. To begin with we would look at what is meant by the term Carbon Footprint and how this can affect the environment. I would put the children into small groups to think of different things we can do to reduce our Carbon Footprint. We would then come back together and discuss the different ideas that the children have come up with. I would further question then and encourage them to consider other ways if needed. The children would then go back into their groups and work together to make posters to put up in the school of ways we could encourage people to be more Climate aware and to reduce our Carbon Footprint as a school. Following on from this I would tell the children that they are Climate Detectives and they need to ensure that we as a school are working to reduce our carbon footprint so it’s up to them to remind other pupils and teachers around the school of ways to conserve energy and to reduce our carbon footprint.
Irene, these are great ideas and I also agree that the topic of trees would be a great research area for younger children.
This sounds like a great way of including all the children and I like that you linked it to their everyday lives making it more ‘real’.
I looked at the ESA Nose Up High resource and think that it could be a great activity to do with the class. Despite having Senior Infants in September I think it would be possible to adapt this lesson to make it useable and engaging for my class. This resource entails looking at different viewpoints from which you can observe different objects and the differences between pictures taken on earth and from satellites, what rivers, lakes, mountains etc look like from space. I would use it with younger children to look at some objects or places/landmarks that they are familiar with from their local area and see how these pictures might look different especially when we look at different satellite images. We would look at pictures of lakes, rivers and mountains that we are used to seeing and then compare the similarities and differences when we see these pictures when they are taken from space.
