[Margaret McNamara]

The Blackbird: A Lesson Plan for Junior Infants
Learning Objective
Students will be able to identify and describe the physical features of a blackbird, observe and listen to blackbird sounds, understand that blackbirds are living animals with needs, and create a visual arts representation of a blackbird.
Assessments
• Observation Assessment: Teacher observes children as they watch a blackbird video and listen to its song, noting if they can identify the bird’s black color, yellow beak, and distinctive features.
• Discussion Assessment: Children respond to simple questions: “What color is the blackbird?” “What sound does it make?” “Where does the blackbird live?” using single words or short phrases.
• Visual Arts Task: Children create a blackbird using collage, paint, or drawing materials, showing evidence of understanding the bird’s key features (black body, yellow beak, round shape).
• Listening and Movement: Children respond physically to the blackbird’s song (move like a bird, hop, flutter).
Key Points
• What is a blackbird? A blackbird is a small bird that lives in Ireland. Male blackbirds are black with a bright yellow beak and eye-ring. Female blackbirds are brown.
• Where do blackbirds live? Blackbirds live in gardens, parks, hedges, and woods. They make nests in bushes and trees.
• What do blackbirds eat? Blackbirds eat worms, insects, berries, and seeds from the ground.
• Blackbird sounds: Blackbirds sing beautiful, loud songs, especially in spring and early morning.
• Living things have needs: Blackbirds need food, water, shelter, and a safe place to live, just like all animals.
Opening
• Hook Activity: Play a short clip of a blackbird’s song (10–15 seconds) without showing the bird. Ask: “What do you hear? What animal makes this sound?”
• Engagement: Show a large, colorful picture of a blackbird. Let children point to and name parts of the bird (head, wings, tail, beak, eyes).
• Discussion Starter: “Have you seen a blackbird in your garden? What was it doing?”
• Transition: “Today, we are going to learn all about the blackbird, a special Irish bird!”
Introduction to New Material
• Show a short video (2–3 minutes) of a blackbird in its natural habitat, such as a garden or park. Pause frequently to ask simple questions:
• “What color is the bird?”
• “What is the bird doing?” (hopping, singing, eating, building a nest)
• “Where is the bird?” (in a bush, on the ground, in a tree)
• Introduce vocabulary with visual support: Use picture cards or drawings to label and discuss: blackbird, beak, feathers, wings, nest, song.
• Play the blackbird’s song again and invite children to listen carefully. Ask: “Does the blackbird sing? What does it sound like to you?” (Encourage descriptive words: pretty, loud, cheerful, musical.)
• Discuss where blackbirds live and what they need: “Blackbirds need a safe home (a nest), food to eat (worms and bugs), and water to drink. Just like you, they need food and a place to sleep!”
• Common Misconception to Anticipate: Children may think all birds are the same or that only one type of bird lives in Ireland. Clarify: “There are many different birds in Ireland, but today we are learning about the blackbird. It is special because it sings a beautiful song!”
Guided Practice
• Behavioral Expectations: Children sit on the carpet, listen carefully, raise their hand to speak, and take turns.
• Interactive Activity 1 – Blackbird Song and Movement:
• Play the blackbird’s song (30–60 seconds). Invite children to move like a blackbird: hop, flutter their arms like wings, spin around.
• Pause and ask: “How does the blackbird move? Can you show me?”
• Repeat with different movements (pecking at the ground, singing with mouth open, building a nest with hands).
• Interactive Activity 2 – Question and Answer:
• Ask scaffolded questions from simple to complex:
• Easy: “What color is the blackbird?” (Answer: black)
• Medium: “What does the blackbird eat?” (Answer: worms, bugs, seeds)
• Hard: “Why do you think the blackbird sings?” (Answer: to talk to other birds, to be happy, to protect its home)
• Repeat answers aloud to reinforce vocabulary.
• Interactive Activity 3 – Feature Identification:
• Show a large picture of a blackbird. Point to each part (beak, eye, wing, tail, legs) and have children repeat the words.
• Play a simple game: “I spy with my little eye, something on the blackbird that is… yellow!” (beak) or “…black!” (body, wings).
• Monitoring Student Performance:
• Observe which children can name the bird and its features.
• Listen for vocabulary use and correct gently if needed: “Yes, the blackbird has a yellow beak!”
• Note children who are engaged with the song and movement and those who may need additional support or space.

 

There is a huge amount of detail that was given in the lesson plan but I am unable to upload the full lesson plan that was given on Magic School AI.

[Margaret McNamara]

I agree. I have been using Magic School during this course and I found it a fantastic resource.

[Margaret McNamara]

I think going forward I would use AI as a creative support tool. I would use ChatGPT to generate a simple story about a topic that interests the students. The pupils would give prompts for generating the story. I would use the story in association with Scratch Jr. The pupils could recreate the story and they could code characters to move, speak and change scenes and then they could present their animations to the class. I have used Scratch.Jr in the past but at present it wouldn’t be suitable for Junior Infants. I think if I’m completing the Summer Programme next summer, I’d try and incorporate this idea with the 1st/ 2nd class pupils.

I see within Scratch.Jr there is ScratchGPT which can assist in helping the children to code and Scratch has several built in AI features.

 

 

[Margaret McNamara]

I agree. There’s definite potential for introducing this to the older classes. The use of a history topic works very well to focus on the idea of bias.

[Margaret McNamara]

Going forward I would hope to use AI and perhaps Reading Coach as a homework task. My school uses Seesaw as an app that pupil’s access at home. I record letter formation videos and send this on this app. I find it a great tool for home school links.

[Margaret McNamara]

Part 1
During the last term of school, I assigned 3 tasks to the pupils on Seesaw. It was part of our Digital Literacy Plan and self assessment in the school. The pupils read a decodable reader and recorded themselves reading. Going forward I would definitely use Reading Coach as part of the Digital Literacy Plan as a means of assessing reading. It’s user friendly and I would hope to focus on the use of decodable texts and build up a profile of progress for my pupils.

Magic School has hundreds of tools- a lot of resources to sift through. I was looking at lesson planning and building resources for my teaching in Junior Infants. I did a lesson plan on the Horse Chestnut Tree for Junior Infants. The content and use of questions was good but I was a bit disappointed with the visuals that were included. This could be down to my prompts so a bit of fine tuning on my part is needed.

Part 2
I have worked as an SEN teacher in my school in recent years and I definitely could see the value of Speaker Coach. It would help pupils develop oral language. Pupils can listen back to themselves and it encourages clear speech. It would build confidence speaking independently and one that works well in a smaller teaching environment.

[Margaret McNamara]

As I mentioned earlier in response to a post from a participant, cost is a factor in terms of AI development in schools. In terms of access to the AI platforms and also access to computer technology for the children.
I used the Chat Gpt platform last week to create a Reflection Log for my pupils who were completing the Summer Programme. I was amazed at the quality of the Log that was created. The use of key words was very important- must be child friendly, Canva style pictures etc. There was a bit of fine tuning and because I didn’t have the subscription for the platform I had used my number of changes for the day and I’d to wait to return to make changes the following day.
I can see the value of creating programmes of work and I have been looking at using AI for my programme of work for development of UFLI phonics in the classroom using the following prompts e.g. Create five engaging activities for the UFLI sound /m/ suitable for Junior Infants.”, “Generate a decodable story using only the sounds m, a, s, t.”, “Create a week’s worth of morning phonics activities aligned with UFLI Lesson 12.”

 

[Margaret McNamara]

Yes I agree. I’m very interested in the various AI tools and but cost will be an issue for schools. Of course, like a lot of teachers we end subscribing ourselves to various online resources as they can benefit our teaching by easing our workload in many ways. I presume with the formulation of school policy in terms of AI usage in schools, cost will be assessed by school management going forward.

[Margaret McNamara]

Like you I think AI is definitely a time saving tool for teachers. I think of the endless scrolling as a teacher I have done in the past looking for a certain visual to add to a PowerPoint presentation.

[Margaret McNamara]

I am very much looking forward to learning more about the potential of the various AI tools for my Junior Infant classroom. I was a little bit familiar with the tool Chatgpt prior to commencing the course. It’s great to become more aware of other chat bots such as CoPilot and Gemini. I have been teaching over 25 years and I have seen a huge increase in the planning and paperwork side of teaching. I feel this sometimes takes away from my time in being able to create engaging and attractive lessons. I’m hoping that I will be able to use these tools to help plan schemes of work for my classroom. Some of the tools mentioned in this module such as Vidnoz will also help create eye-catching and interesting content for the children to explore during lessons.
I am conscious of the errors etc that can occur when using AI and that we have to proof read and double check information given. There was an interesting chat on the radio today on the huge investment in AI by companies but there is a nervousness about taking away the human element. The discussion referenced the promotion posters that cafes have created using Chatgpt and that many are littered with grammatical and spelling errors.

[Margaret McNamara]

Thanks Deirdre – the rocket relay race is a lovely activity at the end of the week.

[Margaret McNamara]

Rockets/ Aistear/ Science Week

I would introduce the theme on Rockets with the song from Superkids ‘We’re Going On A Rocketship’.

I would involve an older class in this theme with the Infant Classes as part of Science Week, using Issue 19 the Marvin and Milo cartoon ‘Balloon Rocket’ as the introduction to this activity. The older children can support the children with the investigation by helping to thread the straw and placing the peg on the balloon.

As part of the theme of Space in Aistear, a junk art activity on making their own rocket. The pupils can use recycled materials to create their own rocket. Afterwards as part of their literacy,  the pupils can create their own story about their rocket and what mission their rocket is going on.

A nice picture book to read to the children about astronauts going to the moon  is ‘Roaring Rockets’ by Tony Mitton. It has a nice picture dictionary at the back of the book about equipment that astronauts use e.g. oxygen helmet, lunar lander, gravity boots.

[Margaret McNamara]

Animals In Cold Climates

To introduce the topic, I would read the story ‘ Little Polar Bear, Where Are You Going Lars? (Hans de Beer). This gives an opportunity to talk about different environments and introduce the idea about different animals and their adaptations due to a cold or hot climate.

Show the children some different animals that live in cold climates e.g. Artic Fox, Polar Bear, penguins. How have these animals adapted to the cold environment they live in ? e.g. Artic Fox (thickness of their fur, fur can change colour).

This short video about Polar Bears gives key facts about the Polar Bear and how they have adapted to their cold environment e.g. insulated by 10cms of fat, two layers of fur, a dense undercoat, black skin under their fur. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–xEE7K67Xo

A nice activity to finish with is the song ‘Polar Bear Pokey Song’ (a different take on the song Hokey Pokey song)

[Margaret McNamara]

 

Literacy

As an introduction to the topic of stars I would read the story ‘Laura’s Star’ by Klaus Baumgart. If people don’t already have the book, I use a great website called Internet Archive, which is a free online library. You can access the book online as an e-book to read with the children. It’s a lovely story about a little girl who befriends a star that has fallen from the sky. ( I usually read the story Laura’s Christmas Star at Christmas which is a follow on from this story). Science

I have found Dr Binocs Show good for kids. In this short video, Dr Binocs (cartoon character) talks about the types of stars in the sky. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSuAPFMXcYM

Math / Visual Arts

Star Origami: Depending on the age of the pupils, probably 1st/ 2nd Class, the pupils will fold origami stars. As part of the lesson we would discuss star formation and geometric shapes. This video demonstrates the technique very clearly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1c7FIQt5UE

[Margaret McNamara]

I was really fascinated by the https://stellarium-web.org/ website. Such an interesting site to navigate and I see that lots of participants thought the same too.

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