Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi Mairead,
What a fantastic local connection to bring into this lesson, having the Leviathan of Parsonstown right on your doorstep is an awesome connection.
A great fact worth mentioning, when it was built in 1845, the Leviathan was the largest telescope in the world, and it actually held that title for over 70 years, right up until 1917. It’s also the telescope that first revealed the spiral shape of galaxies, including what we now call the Whirlpool Galaxy!Hello Siobhan, If you’re bringing photographs into your lessons, one nice question to ask is what the children notice in common across photos taken from different parts of the world, since the Moon always shows us the same face, no matter where on Earth you’re looking from. You could even show them a photo of “the far side of the Moon” for comparison, the side we never see from Earth, which we only know about thanks to photographs taken by spacecraft that have flown around it.
Hello Fiona,
GReat adaptation for SET, grounding the abstract concept in their own daily routine first (school, lunch, bedtime) before introducing the more complicated idea of day and night.
Hello Caitriona,
Lovely inclusion of moon stories from different cultures, that’s a nice way to broaden the lesson beyond just the science. You could extend the lesson by asking them what they think the moon will look like tomorrow and record their observation to compare to.Hello Nicole,
nice clean structure with a prediction before going out, then comparison outdoors gives 2nd class a way to see the concept for themselves.
One small correction, it’s technically the Earth rotating that makes the Sun appear to move across the sky, the Sun itself stays still, so it might be worth framing it to the children as “the Sun appears to move” rather than “the Sun moves,” to avoid embedding a small misconception early on.Hello Dolores,
really nice thinking around the combined class setting, adapting questioning and recording by age rather than running two separate lessons keeps the shared discovery moments intact while still differentiating appropriately.
Good vocabulary choice too, introducing “opaque” and “transparent” alongside shadow and light source at this stage. If you want to extend this lesson a little bit into exploration of light you could add a few coloured translucent materials (like tissue paper or a plastic cup) over the torch to produce different colours in the shadowsHello Laura,
One small addition worth considering, since children will likely make a real mix of shapes and colours (crescents, full circles, different shades), it could be a nice moment to gently introduce that the “man in the moon” pattern people often see is actually the moon’s own craters and dark plains. They might see something totally different in the moons shapes!
Hello Kevin,
I like your question about what would happen without the sun.
If it’s useful for the art lesson on the sun’s importance, NASA Space Place has a simple, visual page on why the Sun matters for life on Earth that would suit this age group nicely: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/menu/sun/Hello Markey,
Pairing the Planet Song with the Planet Game gives them both the names and the physical, whole-body reinforcement that really helps this age group.
For the video on why Earth is best suited to life, there’s a nice age-appropriate clip from the PBS show Ready Jet Go that introduces the “Goldilocks” idea in a simple way:
https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ready-get-go-goldilocks-or-not/goldilock-or-not-ready-jet-go/Hello Michaela,
Great enquiry structure in your lesson, graphing the shadows over the course of the day is a great way to bring maths in visually alongside the science. If it’s useful, NASA has a simple printable sundial template and activity guide here: https://science.nasa.gov/learn/heat/resource/create-a-sundial-activity/ NASA ScienceHello Paula,
I agree that the planets are a great topic with plenty of potential for adaption with visual supports, sensory experiences and movement making it accessible to everyone. Great point about caring for our planet, you can describe earth as being in the goldilocks zone. The perfect distance from the Sun for liquid water to exist, not too hot, not too cold, which helps children grasp just how special and rare our planet is and why it’s so important to look after it.
Hello Emma,
nice tight structure you have for Junior Infants, moving from prior knowledge through story, into hands-on art, and finishing with a quiz to make sure its all gone in.Hello Chantelle,
Starting indoors with the beads in their neutral state before revealing the change outdoors is a lovely bit of lesson design, that build-up really sets the prediction and reveal up as a genuine moment of discovery rather than something explained upfront.
Great to tie it in with sun safety. This is an opportunity to explain the beads change colour because of UV light specifically, not heat or visible brightness. This is a good thing to explain to children since it helps explain why sunscreen is still needed on cool or cloudy days (of which we normally have many).Hello Caoimhe,
Love the idea of using the planet dance as a year long warm up. You could take it further by scaling the distances loosely to reflect reality, the inner planets are all fairly close together, but there’s then a much bigger gap out to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, so some hoops might only need a small hop apart while others need a proper sprint!
Hi Emily,
Its a great activity to compare drawings of the moon between the children. You can also ask them what shapes they see on the surface of the moon and how they think those shapes got there: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/craters/en/
