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So many songs and poems and music to inspire us.
I think most learners when they start an instrument learn ‘Au Clair de la Lune’ and ‘Twinkle Twinkle’.
AS I mentioned in a previous post Coláiste Lurgan do a fabulous version of Sky full of Stars called Faoi na Soilse – it’s class.
Big Bang Theory theme song.
The Galaxy song – Monthy Python – just change the last line and don’t show the video!
Solar System by the BEach Boys
The Planets song- Story Bots (reminds me of lockdown!)
Starman – by David Bowie
Space Oddity – by David Bowie and performed by Chris Hadfield on the International Space Station.
A Spaceman Came Travelling – Chris de Burgh – Celtic Woman do a better version.There are so many fabulous classical pieces and instrumentals in other genres that would work beautifully as well!
X Files theme tune
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
ET The Flying Theme – John Williams
Chopin – Nocturne no.11
The Planets – Holt – much like Vivaldis Four Season’s but for the planets and could tie in nicely with any research the children might be doing on the names of the planets.
The Imperial March – Star Wars, John Williams
Moonlight Sonata – Beethoven.
Cornfield Chase – Interstellar, Hans ZimmerYour post reminded me that our school is right beside a housing estate and while the school has some measures in place regarding minimising light pollution. We could investigate the lighting situation in the estate and investigate how that affects our school grounds.
Our Green School’s committee would love to do a biodiversity survey and present it to the different classes either by visiting individual classes or at our monthly assembly. As part of the Climate Ambassador programme we are aiming to create a pond on the school grounds to improve our biodiversity. A survey before and after would provide evidence of success and we could also look at light pollution with regard to where the pond would go.
The project could be carried out by my third class or the Green Schools Committee or a combination of both.
Picking the right location, marking it out, lining it, filling it, planting around it, signage etc would definitely engage all children and would hopefully provide great excitement throughout the school for the whole school year.
Possibly frog spawn in the spring, pond skaters, dragonflies, damsonflies – the learning opportunities would be endless and would be a fabulous legacy.
I was planning to get the Tidy Towns Committee in again in September to advise us on planting because we won a voucher for plants, trees, flowers and shrubs. They could also help advise us on optimum conditions that we could create to attract the most biodiversity.
The Green Schools programme is also great for advising and guiding. I’m not green-fingered at all so I need all the help, support, guidance and advice I can get!Poems and songs are a great way to engage learners. I particularly love picking songs that tie in with what we’re learning in the classroom. Starry night immediately sprang to mind when I was reading and listening to the slides. Sky Full of Stars is also perfect and more modern. It’s also covered by Coláiste Lurgan as Gaeilge!
That’s given me a great idea in terms of comparison. My class could compare light pollution or perceived light pollution differences between our town and neighbouring towns. Christmas time could be an interesting time to do it and discuss with our local Christmas lights committee what we could do to make the displays more energy efficient and decrease light pollution without losing the magic of Christmas light displays.
Actually in our local area we have already had a light pollution survey and a plan has been implemented. The flagship achievement of the programme I think is the fact that our local church has completely re-imagined how it is lit. It hasn’t been easy, there has been some local resistance. The church was visible for miles around, quite the landmark, but our local parish priest was so open and co-operative and understanding about the effects of light pollution. It is still visible but in a muted, understated way. It has also saved money and energy by switching the light bulbs to LEDs. Another fabulous development has been to project our famous Harry Clarke stained glass windows onto the ground outside the church – which has become a tourist attraction.
Many local agencies worked together to reduce light pollution in the town of Newport and in so doing they have improved the conditions for biodiversity.
However, there is always room for improvement! I would encourage my class to identify further areas of light pollution, around the town, school and their own houses. I would also invite those involved with this survey and the plan into the school to discuss their findings and the plan with the class.
Separately the class could study common nocturnal, native animals and we could discuss how light pollution affects them.I think both resources Stellarium and Worldwide Telescope are fabulous and they both have the wow factor to impress any age group.
To start with I would ask them to name some constellations and record these in their copies. They could work together in a group with a partner or individually.
Then I would show them Stellarium, I’d set it to our location and then I’d set the time to 10 pm.
We would locate the moon, a planet and a constellation. We’d discuss brightness and movement. Especially the direction the stars move in. There are some fabulous youtube timelapse clips of this happening as well.
I’d move the time controls again and ask them if the stars move, what happens to the moon etc. They could do ‘Think Pair Share’about their observances.
During art we could draw some of the constellations or planets and draw lines between the stars.
For English reading there are a number of space themed texts in the Starlight reader.
In English writing the children could research the stories behind the names of the constellations and present their findings to the class. This would promote their digital literacy.
They could also research and create a basic fact file about each planet – it would make a great classroom display as well as a super presentation.
I think my 3rd class next Sept would love this I could tie it in with the local Dark Skies festival or Space Week.Great idea Christine, it reminded me that I bought my husband a great pair of binoculars. There could be some more binoculars languishing in different houses. We could set up a library of sorts letting the children bring a set home and observe the sky at night using the binoculars, to get a closer look. They could compare what they see with the naked eye and what they can see with the binoculars. This could be recorded verbally through a sound file or they could write or draw what they saw.
I had hoped when I read the ‘Unravelling STEM’ paper that there would be more recognition of the difficulties faced by teachers, especially primary school teachers, in teaching science and engineering. We don’t get prep time, we go straight from one subject into the next. Prep is done outside of school hours – along with all the other subjects. Schools are seriously underfunded so we are relying on ‘leftovers’ essentially. While this is great from a sustainable point of view it’s not great from a teaching point of view. I know we can integrate and be creative but that is a huge burden on us, as we’re supposed to be creative and innovative with all our other subjects and that takes a lot of time. Recognition of the lack of support, resources, time and funding would be nice.
Having said all that I’ll have a go at the sundial question.
In fairness making a sundial is one of the easier activities you can take on during the year. We could use a paper plate and a pencil.
The children could discuss sunlight and shadows and the earth’s rotation (science), design and build it (technology), test improve and evaluate it (engineering) and measure the angles, tell the time (maths).
Teaching beyond STEM would be the vocabulary around the sundial and as other contributors alluded to – discuss civilisations who used sundials (history) etc.
It’s an activity that the kids could choose whether to do as a group or individually. Further challenges could involve making it waterproof.Love this idea Geraldine, exploring shadows is a great introduction to it. Drawing shadows in art outside might be a nice extension of it as well – they could draw the shadow outline of simple shapes or draw the shadow of their partner.
A student teacher I had recently did sundials and the class really enjoyed it so I’d like to try it as well. Really like your integration with history and geography there too.