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Describe how you would involve your pupils in an art, music, drama or creative writing project based around your local natural or scientific heritage
This project blends art and creative writing, encouraging 1st/2nd class students to explore and appreciate Rathfarnham’s natural and scientific heritage.
We would take a nature walk along the banks of the Dodder River and in some of the many parks in Rathfarnham (St. Enda’s, Marlay Park, Rathfarnham Castle, Bushy Park) to observe flora and fauna, draw what we see and collect small natural items.
Following this walk we would create drawings or collages based on this walk, each group would focus on a specific element such as trees, flowers, wildlife, etc.
Another element we could incorporate would be creative writing and write an acrostic poem to the word ‘Rathfarnham’ which would describe some of the sights and sounds we experienced on our walks.
I would also like to take the children to The Nature Study room in the nearby Pearse Museum which exhibits many of Irelands native flora and fauna.
To conclude our project work on the local area I would invite the children to display their artwork and writings and present them to other classes as well as parents/grandparents who would love to learn more about the local natural heritage and see their child’s work.
What a great person to focus on Emily, Kathleen Lonsdale would be a great inspiration as you say when things aren’t working out so well but also I think an inspiration to young girls to keep pushing on even when you might be in the minority or in a male dominated field. I’m sure this will be a fantastic lesson.
Using the suspension bridge in Birr Castle Demesne or a bridge in your local area as inspiration, describe how you would plan a class or whole school challenge to design and make a bridge. How would you integrate mathematical thinking and incorporate the maths skills appropriate to your class level.
I will begin this lesson by showing the pupils the video from this module ‘A Farmer Builds his Own Bridge’ I feel this will set the tone well for this lesson and what will be expected of them. I will also show them photos of the Suspension Bridge in Birr Castle as well as other famous bridges in Ireland such as the Carrick-a-Reed Rope Bridge and famous bridges from around the world like the Golden Gate Bridge and I might throw in the Bloukrans Bridge in South Africa which I bungee jumped from! We would discuss what shapes they can see in the different bridges, how they are similar and different and how they think it was designed and built.
In groups of 4/5 the pupils will be asked to design a bridge. It will need to be able to bear the weight of one toy car which I will provide to each group. They will be asked to draw/sketch a plan of how they will design their bridge, materials they will use, shapes they think will work best, etc. We will link to the Maths Curriculum by discussing, measurement, weight, shape, and height. In the next lesson I will provide the groups with the materials they require for their bridges and they will embark on building them from the blueprint they designed. They must test their bridge to ensure it can hold the weight of the toy car.
As a conclusion to the lesson each group will present their plan firstly to the class and explain their thinking. They will then present their bridge, tell us what went well, what they had to change and what they would do differently if they had the chance again. We will also put our bridges on display in our classroom during science/maths week for students from other class levels to see.
Register your garden with the All Ireland Pollinator Plan and record your actions for pollinators, then outline how you would register your school and what actions you could take to help pollinators
We’ve recently bought a house with a nice garden and we want to make this a place where pollinators thrive and we see a wide variety of wildlife and biodiversity. I have registered our garden with the All Ireland Pollinator plan and recorded our actions in our own garden. We have a dedicated no mow area which has developed into a small natural wildflower meadow. We have built multiple bird boxes for nesting and have two small bee hotels in our garden also. Our plants of choice are ones which are good for the local wildlife and pollinators. We are also making an effort to cut out insecticides and herbicides in our garden, however we are tacking some Japanese knotweed from the golf course behind us so this has been difficult!
In our school we have a school garden where we grow vegetables mainly and a woodland area which is used for play. I would love to suggest to our green committee to consider creating an area of the garden as a wildflower meadow. We have recently installed a bee hotel in the garden. We could also research about plants for the garden that would be pollinator friendly for all the different seasons. We don’t use any insecticides/herbicides in case any child would touch/lick/eat any plants in the garden. It would be fantastic to get our school garden registered with the All Ireland Pollinator Plan also as I noticed there are not many gardens/areas registered in our area.
Hi Mary, I hadn’t heard of the story ‘Martha Maps it Out’ but it certainly looks like a wonderful resource and entry point for a mapping lesson for the younger classes! I’ll be ordering it for my classroom in September. Thanks for sharing
For younger classes, describe how you would plan and conduct a lesson on map making and explain how you might incorporate some online tools such as Google maps or Geohive
A few years ago I did a lesson with infants on map making which I think worked very well. I started the lesson by reading the book ‘Rosie’s Walk’ to the children and then in groups they worked together to make 3D models of the different things that Rosie walked past on her walk such as the pond, the haystack, the mill, etc. This helps the children to recall and sequence the story linking to history as well as mapping out her walk.
I have 1st class this year so I might start with that activity as an introduction and then progress to making a 3D map of our local park which we visit very regularly. The children could use sticks, stones, plants, grass, etc to create a 3D model of the park as explained in the video from heritage in schools. The boys I teach love playing with anything they’ve picked up along the way and using their imagination so this lesson would be perfect for them. I would use Google Maps to help them understand the idea of a birds eye view as this is often a very tricky concept for younger children to grasp.
Patrick, the idea of the fun house mirror video is brilliant as I’m not sure how many children nowadays would ever have seen or experienced these before!
Describe how you could apply some of the concepts and skills you have learned in this module to your own teaching practice in line with the STEM Education policy statement
This module has provided me with many useful concepts and skills which I look forward to using in my own teaching come September. The Curious minds framework for inquiry is an invaluable tool to allow me to plan engaging and inquiry based lesson which will allow students to investigate and discover for themselves which is central to the STEM Education policy statement. This inquiry based learning is so valuable and can enhance many areas of children’s education, such as, developing their critical thinking skills and also problem solving abilities.
As the STEM Education Policy states STEM is interdisciplinary and should be integrated with a wide variety of subjects in the primary school context not purely as stand alone maths and science lessons. I look forward to using some of the resources shown in this module such as the ESA Rainbow Spinner lesson, which can be linked to art and the making a telescope lesson to teach about light, lenses and telescopes. I imagine I would do this is small groups as I will be teaching 1st class so they might find it tricky to do individually. I also loved the information on the great telescope as the ‘Take the next step’ this will really engage the children and help them see these concepts in a real life setting, in Ireland!
Activity-Based Lesson: Animals in the Cold
Materials:
Pictures of Arctic and Antarctic animals (polar bears, penguins, seals, etc.)
Printable animal worksheets
Crayons
A large bowl of ice water
Rubber gloves
Short video about Arctic animalsIntroduction
Engage: Show a short video about Arctic animals. Discuss what they noticed about the animals and how they survive in the cold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-9xDztBhzE
Development
Animal Adaptations:
Show pictures of different Arctic and Antarctic animals.
Explain how each animal stays warm. For example, polar bears have thick fur and fat, penguins huddle together, and seals have blubber.
Interactive Discussion:
Ask questions like, “Why do penguins huddle together?” and “How does blubber help seals?”
ActivityInsulation Experiment:
Explain the concept of insulation.
Have a student put their hand in the ice water without gloves, then with rubber gloves, to feel the difference.
Discuss how the gloves act like blubber to keep the hand warm.
Worksheet Activity:
Hand out worksheets with pictures of cold-weather animals.
Students colour the animals and draw one feature that helps the animal stay warm.Conclusion
Review how different animals stay warm in cold environments. Answer any questions. Draw and describe their favourite cold-weather animal and how it stays warm.
Extension:
Classroom Huddle: Simulate a penguin huddle by having students group closely together to feel how warmth is shared.
Activity – Rockets – (2D Shape integration)
Materials:
“Roaring Rockets” by Tony Mitton
Construction paper
Scissors
Glue sticks
Markers
Toilet paper rolls (one per student)
Aluminum foil
Star stickers
Templates of 2D shapes (circles, triangles, rectangles)Introduction
Read Aloud:
Read “Roaring Rockets” by Tony Mitton to the class.
Discuss the story, focusing on the parts of the rocket and what rockets do.
Interactive Discussion:
Ask questions like, “What do rockets need to blast off?” and “Where do rockets go?”
Link to the previously taught maths concept of 2D shapes. Show examples of circles, triangles, and rectangles.Activity:
Rocket Craft with 2D Shapes:
Hand out toilet paper rolls, construction paper, markers, glue sticks, scissors, and shape templates.
Demonstrate how to wrap the roll in construction paper and use markers to decorate it.
Show how to cut out 2D shapes (triangles for the top, rectangles for the body, and circles for windows) and glue them onto the rocket.
Add aluminium foil for shiny details and star stickers for decoration.
Allow students to create and personalise their rockets using the shapes.
Conclusion:Have students present their rockets to the class, identifying the 2D shapes they used. Review the key points from the book, the activity, and the 2D shapes. Early finishers can draw a picture of their rocket blasting off into space, using and labeling 2D shapes.
Extension:
Shape Hunt: Have students find and identify 2D shapes around the classroom or at home, relating them to parts of a rocket.
How clever to use the gloves and get the children to complete otherwise simple tasks while wearing these, definitely doing this in September, thanks for the idea!!
This sounds like a fantastic idea Ciara, I think it would really appeal to the children, they love nothing more than inventing and designing! A great way to engage them!
Activity Set: Space and Aliens
I would combine the special life lesson from ESERO and the Mars lesson from the science week website to create a fun lesson on Aliens.
Introduction:
Discuss that we do not know of any other life forms in our solar system so we are unique and special here on earth, as outlined in the ESERO lesson I would get the children to think about what they would like to show an alien about life here on earth if they did exist. They will work in pairs and act these out.
Development:
Children will be given paper and pencil to sketch out what they think an alien would look like and will then be given clay to create their own alien, however they wish.
Conclusion:
Children will present their alien to the class and give a description about any interesting features of their alien. They will also be asked about the environment where the alien lives and what they need to survive.
Extension: In an extension activity as a whole class we will design a home for the aliens on a large IKEA roll of paper which will form the ground and backdrop to display the clay aliens. Each child will help to create this and ensure that they include whatever their own alien needs to survive.
Great idea to use the star stickers Ursula, the kids always LOVE using teacher’s stickers so I can see this being a huge hit!
I would focus on the moon as I think this is a great starting point especially for younger children.
Materials:
Video clip of moon landing
Picture book about the Moon – ‘Whatever Next’ & ‘Moon, Earths Best Friend’
Flashlight
Styrofoam ball
Darkened roomIntroduction:
I would show the children the video clip of the Apollo 11 moon landing and ask them do they know where the video was taken or what is happening in it? I would then ask students, “What do you know about the Moon?” Record answers on the board.
Development:
Read Aloud: Read ‘Moon, Earth’s Best Friend’ to the class
Discussion: Discuss key points from the book in particular the phases of the moon.
Phases of the Moon: Using the flashlight and Styrofoam ball, demonstrate how the Moon’s phases occur. Darken the room, have one student hold the flashlight (representing the Sun), and another hold the ball (the Moon). Show how the light changes on the Moon as it orbits Earth.
Interactive Activity: Have students take turns modeling the Moon’s orbit to see the phases.Conclusion:
Review what was learned about the Moon’s phases and features. Answer any questions students have. Read ‘Whatever Next’ my favourite book as a child about a bear travelling to the moon.
As an extension activity if the class are able, we could track the moon’s phases each day for a month and log this in our classroom
