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In teaching the children in my class about stars, I would begin with the marbles activity in the Lots and Lots of Stars resource. This would be my introductory discussion with the class. The children would then create their starry sky pieces of art, using A4 paper painted to look like the night sky, and then splatter painting with white or yellow paint to represent the stars. I love the idea of representing the Plough in 3D to show perspective. However, I agree with the narrator of the Module that infant classes would be too young to do it as described in the video. I would use precut straws to help the children create the 3D models. I would also incorporate and integrate the topic of stars into several subjects and lessons. In English, I would use Wishing Upon a Star as a creative writing prompt for the children to discuss what they would wish for. We would also learn and recite “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. In Maths, stars can be used for counting, simple addition and subtraction, shapes, comparing (bigger or smaller), and several other topics. In P.E., I would incorporate stars into a warm up game, where the children would carry out different actions according to my instruction (star jumps, fast as a shooting star, etc.). Thematic learning is a fantastic way to embed and reinforce learning across a range of subjects.
Learning about the moon is a great introductory point to exploring space with younger classes. Children will already be aware of its existence and the fact that it goes through a cycle every month allows the children to observe frequent changes in its shape as well as its position in the sky. I would use several resources from this Module in a unit of learning about the moon. I would start with a general class discussion on the moon to ascertain what the children can tell me about it. I would use a mind map with pictures to show this. We would then recite and learn the Man in the Moon poem. In the next lesson, we would watch an appropriate video on the moon landing to prompt further discussion and imagination on being an astronaut. This would be used as the theme for our Aistear activities for the week, including Role-play as Astronauts, Small World play using astronauts, and construction activities building rockets/ spaceships. The main body of this lesson would be the Make your Own Moon project in the activity set. The third lesson would introduce the phases of the moon. There would be some direct teaching here but this would hopefully be heavily influenced by the children’s questioning. I would introduce the worksheets tracking the phases of the moon each week, and the children would complete the first week’s entry. This would continue in discretionary learning time throughout the month. The final lesson I would do with the children would be part of a PE lesson. The children will do the |”Dance the Phases of the Moon” activity from the activity set. This unit of work would provide a great introduction to exploring space while keeping the lessons fun, active, and child- centred.
Hi Gwen, I really like your inquiry- based lesson idea. It is visual, uses concrete materials, and encourages the children’s imaginations.
A relatively simple inquiry- based activity that I have done with several classes involves predicting and then observing the comparative speed with which ice melts. In younger classes, I tend to keep the predictions fairly simple. The children will predict which will melt the ice more quickly, warm or cold water. With older classes (usually 3rd class and up), I have added some complexity. With this activity, we have four bowls of ice (usually I colour the ice with food dye and use molds to make the ice into interesting shapes). One bowl is left alone completely and the second bowl of ice has salt added to it. The third bowl has the ice in fresh water and the fourth bowl has the ice in salt water. The children are then asked to predict the order in which the ice in the bowls will melt. Usually, there is a mix of predictions, with some children believing the water will make the ice melt more quickly, while others predict it will make the ice melt more slowly. However, nearly always the general consensus is that salt will make the ice melt more quickly. This is true for the first and second bowls, as the salt will melt the ice in the second bowl more quickly than the ice in the first bowl. However, interestingly, the ice will melt more slowly in salt water than in fresh water. This realisation makes the class discussion on our conclusions very interesting, as the children develop an understanding of how different properties and circumstances can affect how materials react to their environment.
Hi my name is Mark and I will be teaching 5th class this year, however, I have recently moved from a senior school (3rd to 6th) to one that has junior infants right up to 6th. Therefore a course specifically dealing with teaching junior classes appealed to me.
My favourite space fact is one popularised by Carl Sagan. It is that there are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on all of Earth’s beaches. While I have since heard that this may not be true, I still love it and use it to try to contextualise the vastness of space to the children in my class.
