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Thanks Ciara for the lovely plan for Science week and for your story suggestion “The First Hippo to the Moon”. Frances’s link to the resources based on the book is brilliant for my class.
Plan for Space week
Monday
Begin with reading the book “The Way Back Home” by Oliver Jeffers.- a book about helping a Martian get back to the moon.
Ask questions about the story. Ask children to point to the alien or the boy. Identify differences. Talk about the sky and what we see in the sky. Introduce the words suggested and their corresponding pictures and create a Space Corner.
Follow up activity: Sponge paint paper plate to create a moon.Tuesday
Revise things we can see in the sky. Focus on the sun. It gives us light and heat, dries clothes, is yellow etc. Explore night time and daytime by showing pictures of the sky. No sun – it’s dark, cooler, no sun in the sky, stars, moon. Add the I
Follow up activity: Experiment with a cube of ice placed in direct sunlight and a cube of ice placed in the shade. Predict which will melt first. Time both and record the number of minutes it took for each to melt.Wednesday
Show a YouTube clip of a shuttle launch eg Shuttle Launch (Hubble 2010- STS 125) to the first landing on the moon.
Talk about the astronauts and what they are wearing. Where are they going? How did they get there? What did they wear on their heads? Add some of these words with pictures to the Space corner.
Create a simple rocket – See Rocket mice on YouTube. Cut a quarter circle of paper and roll into a cone shape and tape together. Draw eyes and whiskers on the paper. Place on an empty plastic milk carton. Predict what will happen to the mouse. Squeeze hard. The paper mouse should pop upwards. Mark the place it lands. Repeat changing the force you squeeze the carton each time. Don’t forget to predict where the mouse will land and record the distance each time. Put a rocket in the space corner.Thursday
Show a presentation on Google slides of different night skies. Children name what they can see. Introduce the constellation of stars which make the plough. Draw lines on one slide to mark the plough clearly. Remaining slides should all show the plough and ask children to find it in the night sky pictures. Follow up activity: paint a star and decorate with gold glitter. When dry hang them and the moons in the Space corner.
Friday
Two experiments
1. Dancing Raisins.
2 Alka Seltzer rocket.Hands on classroom themed activities
I chose this as the children I teach are very young and some have learning difficulties. As it is we record the weather every day. Children are taken to the window or outside to look at the sky and name what they see eg the sun, white/ grey clouds, blue sky, snowflakes etc. Then the child chooses the correct picture to record the weather each day. At the end of each week we count the wet/ sunny/ cloudy days and record this.
Google Slides : Weather pictures
Show Children pictures of different types of weather. Identify the type of weather in each picture. Follow this up by sorting hard copies of these pictures into categories – the seasons. Depending on the group I might only have 2 seasons winter and summer.
Drama: Role Play. Give a report on today’s weather.Coats: Bring in a variety of coats. Look at the coats – the colour, size, material. Ask questions like- what would the weather be like if I wore this coat? Will this coat keep me warm? Is this coat good for a rainy day?
3 Hoola Hoops with a card on each. Raining, Cold/frosty, sunny Sort the coats into the correct hoop.
Experiment with different materials. Have 5/6 squares of different materials e.g. plastic sheet, kitchen paper, cotton cloth, cloths from other materials, newspaper, magazine. When I pour water on which is best at soaking up the water/ best at staying dry?
ESA Kids: Just for fun children could play the Space Memory Game.We could also do the What clothes Activiy or explore the topic of Hot or Cold or look at animals who live in warm or cold parts of the world.
Hi Michelle
I really like your ideas for aistear. They are simple and enjoyable for young children. I’m very impressed with the themed aister station.
Hi Sinead
I agree
You have some lovely activities for the children to do in your lesson. I’ve tries the flying ballon one and the children really enjoyed it!
Stars
To begin we would sing the nursery rhyme Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and I’d read the story ‘ How to Catch a Star’ by Oliver Jeffers.
Question children about stars e.g.Have you ever seen a star? When can you see the stars? What can sometimes prevent us from seeing the stars eg clouds or too much artificial light. Can you see stars during the day. Explain to children that the sun is a star. Revise what we know about the sun i.e. light, heat, supports life.
Show pictures of some star patterns such as the Plough or Orion’s Belt. Show different pictures and ask them to identify a pattern.
Construct a 3 D model of the plough pattern using straws cut at the correct length, blue tack and tinfoil. Look at the pattern from different angles and choose the best position to view it in order to see the pattern.
Conclude the lesson by singing Twinkle Twinkle and displaying the model of the Plough on the ceiling.
Lesson: Day and night
objectives:
1: identify pictures as night or day,
2: Name things in the picture
3: Identify things we only see either at night or during the day.
identify the sun.4: Become aware that the sun give us light.
Trigger: We’re going to have a game. Look at the pictures and tell me if it’s day or night.
Children will say day or night as each picture is held up.
Next we will look at one day time picture and discuss what we can see in the picture. Is there anything in this picture that can be seen in other daytime pictures? Lead children to identifying the sun.
Repeat the activity first looking at one night time picture and naming everything they can see. Add a few more nighttime pictures and children should hopefully see the moon or stars in most pictures.. identify what is missing from the sky at night time – the sun.Play a game: Darken the room. Place a lamp at one wall and switch it on. Children and adults will look at a light when we say sun or show a sun picture and turn away from the sun when we say night or show a picture of the night.
Conclusion: Sing the Sun Song and turn towards or away from the light as appropriate.Thank you for posting this link. The Sun Song is very catchy and I find younger children learn so much from good songs. It a great addition to any lesson on Day or Night and the Sun.
Hi
My name is Lucy and I teach in an Early Intevention class. The children are aged 3 to 5 and most are non verbal.
Everything I use has to be very simple. The topic I’d choose is materials and investigate water absorption.
Trigger: 50 ml water spilled on the table.
Have 4 different materials ready i.e. kitchen roll, a newspaper, a small sheet of plastic and a magazine. Each time spill 50 ml of water and use one of the materials to soak up the water. Take a photo of the table each time. After each child should touch the materials and observe if it is wet or not. Sort into 2 categories i.e. wet or dry.
Photographs could be ordered from the one which has the most water left on the table to the one with the least or vice versaThis could extended with coats made of different materials. Pour water on 3/4 coats and identify the one which is best to keep out the rain ( waterproof )
