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Orla I love your ideas. I think speaking to family and neighbours is a great way to gather information and one the children will really enjoy and remember. The evening event is another great idea, one which wouldn’t be the norm making it even more special.
Consider how many Songs/Poems/Art you can think of to connect us with the Night sky?
I think there are a multitude of songs, poems and art that link us with the night sky. The sky is something that influenced so many creative people and still does to this day. I love to integrate Art, music and poetry into any themes i am exploring with the children and here are some examples of what I would incorporate into my teaching when learning about the night sky.
Songs:
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Sky full of Stars, Coldplay (Also a version as Gaeilge on TV Lurgan)
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, The Beatles
Skyfall, Adele
The Moon and the SKy, Sade
Fly me to the Moon, Frank Sinatra
Poems:
The Moon – Robert Louis Stevenson
Stars by Gareth Lancaster
The Night Sky, Unknown:
All day long
The sun shines bright.
The moon and stars
Come out by night.
From twilight time
They line the skies
And watch the world
With quiet eyes.
Lots of thematic poems on this website:
https://www.kidspoetryclub.com/poems-about-sky
Art:
Starry Night, Van Gough
I would also let the children create art pieces based on the moon/Dark skies.
I like the idea of having a Biodiversity team in the school. Our green school committee would usually be given tasks such as these so having a separate group is a great idea, both to include more students and to give the children more time to focus on their tasks.
The webcam idea is a brilliant idea too, such a great way to show the nocturnal activities happening around the school which would otherwise be unknown.
Biodiversity is a topic that I feel needs a lot of explicit teaching prior to trying to tackle it as an environmental issue. We did a survey last year as part of a green schools initiative asking the children about biodiversity, its meaning and what impact it has on us and our lives and the children knew very little about the topic. The hope was that the survey will be completed again,following teaching on the topic, and the children’s knowledge will have improved by then.
The two videos at the start of the module, ‘Gardening for Biodiversity’ and ‘Biodiversity and Ecosystems’ are a good way to begin the topic to give the children a good introduction and understanding of the term Biodiversity.
I would bring the children on a walk of the local area, around the school grounds and to the local park and use this as an opportunity to explore local plants and wildlife species. We would use the websites mentioned in this module to identify as many plants and animals as possible. I have used the ‘Picturethis’ app to identify plants and it would be a good resource for the children to use too. Pictures could be taken using Ipads and then projects completed on our local biodiversity. We would also record our sightings on the biodiversity Ireland website.
We would follow on from these projects by exploring the light pollution in the area and the impact it has on biodiversity. As the children live in a town with a lot of light pollution we will discuss and plan for how we could make changes to protect the animals in the local area.
I would try to arrange with the Heritage in Schools scheme for a specialist to come to our class and do a workshop. This would be a brilliant learning opportunity for the children.
You have mentioned some brilliant activities here to aid in teaching about light pollution and the night sky.
I really like the interactive storytelling idea. Any chance to integrate subjects with Drama always goes down very well with the children and gives me a good indication of their learning at the same time.
I also like the idea of the night sky journal. It could be included as a small bit of their homework, a fun and engaging activity they would enjoy doing.
Light pollution is an important topic and something that is very topical today. I personally live in a small village and grew up in the countryside with somewhat little light pollution. However, I teach in a town and the children I teach would be used to a lot of light pollution at night and would be very rare. They would see a dark night sky where they live.
I think the video is a great introduction to the topic of light pollution and would lend for much discussion in the classroom. As was mentioned in the module, light pollution is probably a lesser known pollution but is certainly something that is easy to fix. I would begin with my class by showing them the video as I mentioned above. Following that I would show a series of photographs and we would discuss if light pollution is or is not present, and if so how we could fix the problem. They would brainstorm in groups about ways to reduce light pollution, particularly in the area in which they live, where there is a lot of light pollution.
I would then discuss with the children about dark sky friendly lights and see if we could come up with ways to use these in our own homes/environments to help with the problem of light pollution.
I think the light pollution interactive map is a very effective way of showing how light pollution differs from place to place. I would use Ipad time to let children compare their area to other areas in Ireland and throughout the world.
This is brilliant information to have and I will certainly begin to study the moon with my class in September too. I think the children will be really excited to see the super moon and partial lunar eclipse too especially after studying it. It will also be a lovely activity to share with parents and guardians too, maybe even a night off homework to make the children more excited!
I love the idea of integrating it with Halloween art, etc too.
I really like the idea of designing and creating a 3d constellation in my class. I would begin by teaching about constellations and doing some of the other ESERO activities included in this module, drawing constellations, etc. I would then complete the 3D constellation activity in groups. I would get each group to plan and design their constellation first and then each group would gather their resources and work together to create their planetarium. I thinking it is a simple and effective way for the children to see what their design would look like in the night sky.
I think all aspects of STEM learning could be included in this activity using science exploration of constellations, technology to create their design on a tablet using slides or book creator, engineering and maths to create the structure using proper measurements.
I agree that making a sundial is a perfect activity for 5th class and one that they would really enjoy. It is very hands on and educational and would teach them about the sun and its movement. In fifth class in my school we always complete a unit in history about the Aztecs and I think this activity would link in really well with learning about the Aztec sun stones.
I think the ESERO 30 day and night in the world is a lovely activity.
I would begin by giving each group of children the pictures of the animals and asking them to group them in any way they can and report back what they did. Some groups may group them into nocturnal and diurnal but if not I will give this task to each group too. We will then discuss the features of nocturnal animals and go into more detail about some animals.
I would then assign the children a task in pairs to investigate the nocturnal and diurnal animals that live in Ireland, half of the class for each.
I really like the ‘Children in the World’ and the ‘Day and Night in the World’ activity too. I would begin by accessing the children’s prior knowledge using think, pair, share. I would speak to the children about Australia and if they know anyone living there. We would speak about how they are on the opposite side of the world and how their day is our night and vice versa. I would then use the day and night activity to show this and for the children to explore other countries who are on opposite sides of the world.
I love the idea of getting the children involved in upcycling projects. This would not only prove a popular activity with the children but would also get them used to reusing rather than creating waste. My own sister is brilliant for upcycling and has great ideas so I would love to try this with my class, drawing from my sisters experience. It could be something as simple as upcycling old wood materials to make a fraction wall, etc.
I love the idea of getting the children involved in upcycling projects. This would not only prove a popular activitiy with the children but would also get them used to reusing rather than creating waste. My own sister is brilliant for upcycling and has great ideas so I would love to try this with my class, drawing from my sisters experience. It could be something as simple as upcycling old wood materials to make a fraction wall, etc.
Climate change is very evident in my local area, as it is throughout the country and the world. The weather has changed greatly and there are a lot more storms and flooding impacting my local area as a result with fallen trees, blocked roads, flooded roads, etc.
I think climate change is a very important topic to raise with students and one that will impact them and their lives. I couldn’t believe that Ireland is ranked worst in the EU for their performance on climate change action. This certainly needs to be addressed. I think the lessons in this module are a great starting point and they will make the children more aware of the problems we face as a society in relation to climate change.
Actions i would introduce in my school to help climate change:
School wide recycling and education around recycling and waste. There is so much paper waste in our school and I think it is something we could address as a staff as well as with the students, making sure correct bins are used etc.
Energy conservation in school and at home. Complete surveys both in school and at home, monitoring how much electricity is used and trying to improve on results.
Encourage use of public transport and initiatives such as Walk on Wednesday. The majority of our students live close enough to walk/cycle/scoot to school and there are plenty of public transport options in the town also.I love the idea of the intercultural week and the intercultural exhibition sounds fantastic. It is a brilliant way to let the children experience all the cultures in the school and I think all the children would really enjoy it. Also having parents speakers would make the children more aware of the difficulties some people faced in making their decision to relocate.
My school and students are very used to supporting and welcoming refugees into the school community. We are a school in close proximity to Mosney and our student body is very diverse and we have a lot of children living in Direct Provision there as well as Ukrainian children in the past few years.
There are lots of supports for all of these children who come into our school. We have very efficient EAL teachers as well as a home school liaison teacher to build links with parents and help with the transitions. We have a school completion programme.
Although we are a catholic school we enjoy celebrating other cultures and religious celebrations that students in our school are passionate about. The children are very welcoming to all new children as it is almost commonplace in our school for students to come and go.
I fear with all the anti immigration demonstrations lately that these children will feel less welcome but I hope through correct education on these topics, using some of the PLAN international lessons provided in this module, this will not be an issue.
