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Hi, I love the idea of making an alien drink. It makes the lesson more personal for the children. You can go on and create so much for your alien friend then – construct his rocket/launch his rocket / read aliens in underpants and create their favourite pants or draw a scenario or comic strip of the next adventure where alien in underpants save the world.
Junior Infants
Set: Rockets
Engage: pictures and PowerPoint on info
YouTube videos of rockets and launches
Stories: my bots love Aliens in underpants! Link to art.
Working and Exploring: construct rockets using toilet roll, card and crepe paper
Rocket name craft.
Rocket launching: balloon Rocket on string experiment
Egg Rocket- construct in groups a Rocket that when dropped does not crack an egg that will be placed inside.
Constructing and asking questions – show and tell of all rockets – predicting which rockets will / will not crack the egg
Conducting the experiment
Reflecting – why did the eggs crack/not crack. 2 stars and a wish.
Revision- Marvin and Milo cartoon
Use of Alien chemistry experiments and other experiments during Space Week – an experiment a day:
Day 1: Create a lava lamp (messy mixtures)
Day 2: Different Messy Mixtures – predict, investigate, evaluate : oil and water, oil, water and fairy, pepper and water, etc.
Day 3: Skittles experiment – changing the variable of hot and cold water. Predict what will happen, experiment and evaluation- why?
Day 4: Storm in a bottle (foaming and fizzing ) or and volcano eruption
Day 5: building a bridge using paper and tape that when finished will hold an orange – limited amount of paper allowed to use.
Write all experiments in Space copy – record predictions, drawings and evaluations.
Assessment : draw your favourite experiment of the week & through show and tell explain why it was your favourite experiment and what you loved most about it.
These are great suggestions Anita.
For infant classes it’s amazing how many stories and fairytales you can link with such topics. Houses – the three little pigs. Hot and Cold – Goldilocks and the three bears.
Then you can go and discuss animals too and how they cope with different weather. Polar bears/penguins/seals in Antarctica/The Arctic – their fur/fat etc. Camels in the heat and their eyelashes etc.
Stellarium & ESA Education Kids: I would use these websites in my previously noted lessons on stars from the last module. I would show videos from ESA Kids on space, differentiating them based on the topic. Stellarium would be used to star gaze, to look up the school on specific days where we are given report of a new phenomenon in the sky like when we saw the Aurora Borealus or when different constellations can be seen. We would map them out, draw them, construct them using playdoh and toothpicks, etc. I would the children identify different constellations by only giving them the name of the constellations and letting their imagination do the rest.
Milo and Marvin: For Marvin and Milo I would put on stories as revision and let them watch the cartoons during lunch breaks. It always amazes me the amount of information the children can gather visually and auditive.
I would also play the interactive games and solve space-themed puzzles, use the art themed props and craft ideas, as well as the different print outs and activities shown on ESA and ESA Kids to further develop and strengthen their knowledge on Space and the world around us.
Hi Áine I love the idea with the names never even thought of that! The children will have so much fun here. You could even provide them with some names to make it more lower order/middle order and they can guess which name suits the constellation best. And when they create their own constellations to name them – I’m sure the names created will be fabulous and hilarious!
Set: Stars
Space copy: what do the stars look like? (Before lesson)
Lesson and videos on stars & constellations.
Space copy: what do stars look like? (After the lesson).
Discuss at your table or in pairs were you close? What is your favourite fact about stars?
Constellation stations:
Station 1: constellations pictures and chalk/whiteboard activities to draw them.
Station 2: create constellations using playdoh and toothpicks.
Station 3: star chart and star plough activity as shown in video (with teacher scaffolding).
Station 4: create your own constellations – draw.
After all children have completed their 4 stations children as a class create their constellations using playdoh and tooth picks and in turns fo a show and tell of their constellations.
My boys from last year absolutely loved these songs!! They would make me play them as one of their 3 Rhymes of the day! There’s a dwarf planets song too if you wanted to follow on and teach about dwarf planets too.
Set: The Moon
I would do the following activities over the period of a month so the children are able to observe and record all phases of the moon.
Introduction activity:
In Space copy draw how they think the moon looks like.
Introductory video to the moon and the phases of the moon – Paxi & Our Moon.
Every week in their Space copy the children record the phases of the moon and 2 or 3 boys do a show and tell for each phase of their drawing – first hand experiences.
In their table groups children are given pictures of the phases of the moon to discuss and identify which phase it is. Each group can come in front and discuss their moon phase.
After a full cycle- fine motor stations to revise phases of the moon.
Station 1 – Oreo phases of the moon activity.
Station 2 – puzzle phases of the moon put together.
Station 3 – Whiteboard/Chalk drawing phases of the moon.
Station 4 – playdoh phases of the moon.
Art Activities after teaching moon appearance and craters : paper mache balloon art moon construction.
Second hand experience photos of craters and first hand experience drop ball in flour.
Draw appearance of moon in Space copy.
Next week set of lessons: multicultural- discuss and show how the moon is portrayed in different cultures through popular myths and fairytales.
Lead to drama- each table group takes a fairytale or myth and recreates it.
English & Art- children individually or in pairs create their own moon related fairytale – show and tell.
Inquiry-based activity:
Gravity & Mass
One really easy lesson that I’ve always done and got the children so engaged and curious was on the topic of gravity and mass.
Firstly I did a KWL chart and asked the children what they know about gravity. Then I would teach some vocab and show a video on gravity. Based on the video and what the children already know I would ask them what they would like to know about gravity.
I would then go onto doing 2 small experiments.
One is dropping an empty bottle and a full bottle of water on the floor – which would would hit the floor first. We would discuss and tally on the board which one would fall first and why.
After the experiment is done I would ask why they think the one that fell first fell, and why? After discussion I would tell them the answer and the science behind it.
The second experiment is dropping a flat piece of paper and a crumbled up piece of paper at the same time – which would fall first? The same process of prediction, recording, discussion and explanation would occur.
These experiments would be an introduction to gravity and after teaching lessons on gravity and how it works, the children would then use two different variables just as the experiments above and conduct an experiment in groups in front of the classroom. They would have to research and in conference with teacher discuss their experiment and its explanation. Then they would show it in front of the class with the same pattern as modelled by the teacher: stating the experiment- prediction – recording- experiment- discussion – explanation.
Then as a conclusion to the theme of gravity we would as a class complete the L part of our KWL chart, or this can be done after each lesson while the info is fresh in the children’s minds.
Hi Louise this seems like a fun activity and potential for so many more lessons. With the ball and flashlight you can go and teach about shadows and activities can include making shadows with their hands, tracing their shadows in pairs outside with the Sun, etc.
Pictures and vocab is very important especially as most children are visual learners. And I for one am always amazed doing a KWL chart at the amount of information children know about a topic beforehand and how much info they gather in such a short time. There will always be a space lover in the group of children you’re teaching, or at least one will be born after the topics are taught.
Hi,
My name is Naomi & I’ll be teaching Junior Infants this year. It’s my third time teaching Junior Infants and one theme I always do that my students love is Space. My favourite fact about Space is that because the Universe is always expanding, there are stars in the sky that we will never be able to see. I love stargazing and to think that of all the abundance of stars the sky will provide, there will always be stars the naked eye has never seen.
