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Colin, I like your ideas for how the children will record their results. Providing different options for recording their learning really supports inclusion and recognises that children have different strengths and preferred ways of demonstrating their understanding. Giving them choice in how they present their findings will help to increase engagement and allow all children to participate in the activity.
I love the idea of Space Week, and after completing these modules I will definitely be suggesting ideas to my school for participating in and celebrating the week when we return in September.
This module provided so many engaging activities for the junior classes that I know they would thoroughly enjoy. Anything that moves at speed or has an element of surprise always creates great excitement in a First Class classroom!
The activity I would most like to try with my class next year is the balloon rocket investigation. I would begin the lesson by reading both a fiction and a non-fiction book about rockets. For fiction, The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers is a great story that captures children’s imaginations through a space adventure. For non-fiction, DK Super Readers: Spaceships and Rockets by Deborah Lock introduces young readers to rockets, the parts of a rocket, and how they travel into space using age-appropriate language and photographs.
After reading, we would examine photographs of real rockets and discuss their shape, structure, and purpose. I would then show the video of the rocket launch from this module, encouraging the children to observe carefully and share what they notice. We would discuss why rockets are designed the way they are and what helps them travel into space.
The children would then work in pairs or small groups to construct their own balloon rockets. I agree with the speaker in the module that the straw rocket may be a little too fiddly for younger children, so I think the balloon rocket would be more suitable for First Class. The children could decorate their balloons to look like rockets or attach a picture of a rocket that they have designed themselves.
After completing the experiment, we would come together to discuss why the rockets launched. The children could share their observations and ideas before we explore the science behind the activity. We would discuss how the air escaping from the balloon creates a force that pushes the rocket forwards, helping the children to develop an age-appropriate understanding of forces and motion.
Una, I really like your idea of using the Astronomy Picture of the Day as a stimulus for learning. Revisiting the image throughout the week would gradually build the children’s enthusiasm, curiosity, and understanding as they engage in ongoing discussions and observations. I particularly like that the learning is not confined to a single lesson. We often feel the need to fit activities like this into one session, but returning to the same image over several days would give the children time to notice new details, ask more questions, and develop their scientific vocabulary. It would also encourage more oral language as they build on each other’s ideas and make new connections. I think this is a lovely way to promote sustained inquiry and meaningful learning.
The theme “Where Do You Live?” was one of my class’s favourite topics last year. The children particularly enjoyed creating junk art houses, and I was amazed by the creativity and originality they demonstrated. Each child designed and built their own house using recycled materials, resulting in a wonderful variety of different creations. It was fascinating to see the ideas they came up with—many of which I would never have thought of myself. The activity encouraged imaginative thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making as they selected materials and worked out how to construct their houses.
Following on from this, we completed another lesson where the children recreated or redesigned their homes using a range of construction resources, including playdough, LEGO, Magna-Tiles, straws, and links. This open-ended activity encouraged them to think carefully about shapes, structures, and how buildings are constructed. It also provided excellent opportunities for collaboration and experimentation as they tested different ideas and adapted their designs.
Throughout both lessons, the children were eager to explain their thinking and discuss the features of their homes. The activities encouraged oral language as they described their designs, explained their choices, compared their work with others and used appropriate mathematical vocabulary.
Hi Kate Anne, I agree. The Universe in a Book Booklet is a great resource for teaching Space. It has a lot of really good practical ideas that the children at the junior infant level will really enjoy doing. The nursery rhyme Twinkle Twinkle is a great idea to add into your lesson here. It is a good way of holding interest and linking to the constellation. It is a familiar song too so they will enjoy revisiting it and linking it to their new learning. The video is another engaging way of furthering their knowledge of the topic.
The “Martian Landscape” investigation from the Discover Primary Science Space Week Workbook looks like a great lesson I could use for my First Class. I think it would be engaging and would provide many opportunities for discussion, creativity, and scientific observation.
I would begin the lesson by showing the children a photograph of the Martian landscape. This would encourage them to observe carefully and share their ideas about what they notice. I would then show them a photograph of Earth, allowing the class to compare and contrast the two landscapes. The children could identify differences in colour, surface features, and the presence or absence of water and vegetation, helping them to develop an understanding of the physical characteristics of Mars.
To reinforce their learning, I would introduce the song “Mars”, which is a fun and memorable way to help young children recall the key features of the planet found at this link. Junior classes always respond enthusiastically to music, and the song would support vocabulary development while maintaining their interest.
The children would then use clay to create a model of the surface of Mars. As they work, I would encourage them to talk about the features they are including, such as craters, mountains, and valleys, and explain why they have chosen to add them.
Once the clay models had dried, the children would paint them the distinctive reddish colour of Mars. This final step would reinforce their observations.
This lesson encourages children to observe, compare, discuss, and create while developing their understanding of the similarities and differences between the physical features of Earth and Mars.
<p class=”isSelectedEnd”>This is such an great lesson to carry out with a junior class. Pupils will really enjoy building the origami boat as part of their enquiry and using it as a visual tool to explore and address any misconceptions they may have. Its a great hands-on way for children to develop their understanding of the horizon, the shape of the Earth, and the role of gravity. I love the follow up activity of looking at photos or videos taken from space to see the disappearing ships in real life.</p>
I chose the activity lighter or heavier from Universe in a box where the children will learn about the influence of gravity on the weight of objects on different
planets. I think it is a topic that will challenge my first class. I love the background story first of the astronaut dropping a hammer and a feather at the same time. This is a nice introduction to the enquiry, allowing for predictions and discussion from the start. I would use a teddy and get the children to predict whether he weighs the same on each planet. We would then look at a simplified chart with the weight of a 1kg teddy using space units (SU) eg earth 10 SU, moon 2 SU etc. The children could order the teddy where he would feel lightest to heaviest. Discussion questions could include where did he feel lightest/heaviest, did he get bigger or smaller, why do you think this happened, eventually guiding them to The teddy’s mass stays the same, but gravity is different on each planet, so its weight changes. This activity could also be effectively linked with Maths, particularly the strand of Measures, through exploring and comparing weight.An inquiry based lesson that I have done with my first class is exploring slopes. I would have done some work prior to this on forces, push and pull. I would introduce the lesson with a song revising pushes and pulls. This is a nice one aimed towards a junior class. Link here. We would discuss how we use forces in our everyday loves.
I would then introduce our investigation: Does a slope affect how far a toy car will travel. I would arrange the children in small groups. They would be provided with a toy car, a smooth surface and some work books.
They would be asked to place their toy car on the surface. Ask questions such as Does it move? Why not? Allow them to move the car along the surface. Encourage them to describe how it moved. Note how far it travelled.
Show them how to create a slope by putting the surface on some of the books under one end. This is how a slope is created.
Encourage predictions.. What will happen when we put the car at the top of the surface and let it go?What effect will this have on the distance the car will travel?
Allow the children to investigate further by raising or lowering the slope and observe how far the car travels each time. They could put a counter at the point the car stops to compare the distances the car travels at different heights.
Niamh I love this idea for a lesson plan on Materials and change /heat for a junior class. The children will love the idea of saving the penguins from the ice cubes and will really get their creative brains working to solve the problem. You’ve included lots of questions as well as support material which will further inspire their thinking. The link to the story Lost and Found is also a really nice idea. I teach First Class so I think I may be using this idea with them in September.
Hi my name is Mary. I am not the most knowledgable on space so from reading through the other participants fun facts, I really enjoyed Ciara’s fact where she said astronauts can’t cry in space because, instead of their tears running down their face, they float around their eyes in little bubbles. I also did a little research and I was fascinated to find out that there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth. That’s a lot of stars!