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Lovely ideas Elaine regarding the play doh aliens and the sensory element of bringing them to space. Open-ended art activities always go down a treat and add an element of playfulness. In the past I have also used rice, lentils, weetabix and other inexpensive materials to create sensory experiences too.
I would like to do the activity Special Life – Life in Space with my class. I would introduce life on earth with the story “Here We Are” by Oliver Jeffers. It is a really nice way to open the idea of all the different elements and things that are found on planet earth. I would encourage the children to think of an animal on planet earth that is special to them. The children would be introduced to an alien who has never heard of these animals before. They must illustrate their animal before acting out how their animal walks, moves or sounds. The other children must help their new alien friend to identify the animal in question. As a class, the children would brainstorm about aliens and what they could look like. They would then use their imagination to create a drawing of their alien. Linking with literacy they could write a short description of their alien and what they enjoy doing. This activity could also work across different art strands such as clay, fabric and fibre or construction. Using a range of materials the children could bring their alien ‘to life’ in further lessons.
That’s a clever mnemonic that I haven’t come across before! Adding an element of humour, especially with the older classes will definitely help them to remember. You also have some great ideas for cross curricular integration which ties it all together nicely.
I would introduce the sun and shadows enquiry based activity set with infants by reading the story “The Black Rabbit”. We would discuss who the black rabbit is and when/ how they appear in the story. The children could then further explore shadows by playing a game ‘What could I be?’ using animal and other easily recognised silhouettes. They would work together to identify or match the silhouette to the correct item. The children would then go outside to explore shadows on a sunny morning. The children would be encouraged to move about, jump up and down, move their arms and legs to see how their shadows change. Using chalk, the children could trace around one another’s shadows. In class, the children could then investigate how shadows are formed by using natural sunlight or torches with a variety of objects. The children would be encouraged to observe, predict, question, and test their ideas by changing the position of the light source and the objects to see how the size, shape, and direction of shadows change. Later in the day, the children could return to their previously traced shadow to see if it has now changed. As previously stated, this activity lends itself well to cross curricular integration such as oral language, maths and works particularly well with visual arts. The children could also bring dinosaurs/ animals outside and trace their shadows using paper and the sun before designing them.
I love the idea of this activity Sharon and how visual it is for the children. It’s definitely one I’ll be using with 2nd class. The use of chalk and going outside brings a playful element to the activity which I think the children would really enjoy.
Hi,
My name is Saoirse and I teach in Dublin. I’ll be returning to 2nd class having been on maternity leave for the last school year. Prior to this I thought infants for 3 years.
Mind map of space: sun, moon, stars, darkness, astronauts, missions, gravity, rockets, craters, orbit, satellite, vacuum, asteroid, meteor, black hole.
Favourite fun fact: The sun is a star.
Enquiry based learning with infants: Exploring shadows
Children are introduced to shadows by playing a game ‘What could I be?’ using animal and other easily recognised silhouettes. We discuss how they think shadows are formed before allowing the children time to explore and investigate. The children then investigate how shadows are formed by using natural sunlight and torches with a variety of objects. The children are encouraged to observe, predict, question, and test their ideas by changing the position of the light source and the objects to see how the size, shape, and direction of shadows change. This activity lends itself well to cross curricular integration such as oral language, maths and works particularly well with visual arts. The children can then bring dinosaurs/ animals outside and trace their shadows using paper and the sun before designing them. This enquiry based learning activity is open ended but also play based which will make it more meaningful for young children.
