Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I have made a list of songs, poems, art (paintings and ideas) and also books that are child friendly and connect us with the Night Sky.
Poems/Nursery Rhymes:
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
The Moon – Robert Louis Stevenson
Star Light, Star BrightSongs:
A Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay
Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, We’re Going to the Moon by The Kiboomers
Starman by David Bowie
Across the Universe by The Beatles
Fly Me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra
Rocket Man by Elton JohnBooks:
How to catch a star by Oliver Jeffers
Papa, Please get the Moon for me by Eric Carle
The Darkest Dark by Astronaut Chris Hadfield
On the Moon by Anna MilbourneArt:
Vincent van Gogh — The Starry Night ~ Sponge – paint a starry night sky.
Create constellations using stickers or cotton buds dipped in paint.
Make a moon collage with silver paper.
Scratch – art night skies using colourful crayons and black paint.Hi Maria, inviting local wildlife groups into the school to run a workshop is a lovely idea that all children would really enjoy.
How you would engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and the possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity.
To engage my Senior Infant children in exploring biodiversity, we will go on a nature walk around our school grounds and a nearby green space just outside our school. The children will be paired up, they will have a magnifying glass and a checklist of plants, birds, insects and trees that are found locally (I will have researched these before the lesson and activity). The children will observe and identify different items from their checklists. Through discussion and drawing, they will learn that different habitats provide food and shelter for living things.
To introduce light pollution, I will begin this part of the lesson with a book called ‘Owl Babies’ as owls are nocturnal animals. We will then discuss how these animals need darkness to find food and stay safe. In our classroom, children can compare a dark habitat with one lit by a torch, using toy animals to explore which environment would be more suitable. This simple investigation encourages children to think about how excessive artificial light can affect wildlife.
During the plenary the children will have a discussion about ways to care for local biodiversity, such as planting flowers for pollinators, creating bug hotels and turning off unnecessary outdoor lights.
Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
In Dublin, light pollution is increasing due to streetlights, illuminated buildings, and outdoor lighting. This creates a bright glow over the city, making it difficult to see stars and disrupting the natural habitats of nocturnal wildlife such as bats. Excessive artificial lighting also wastes energy and can affect people’s sleep by interfering with natural day and night cycles.
To engage my Senior Infant children, I will use a playful, inquiry – based approach. We will begin by reading a book called ‘The Sun Thief’ which is about day, night and changing daytime changes. It is a very engaging and funny story that the children will love. We will then discuss the difference between day and night. Then the children will compare pictures of a starry sky and a brightly lit area that is local to our school and ones the children will be familiar with. As their homework for the night/week I will ask them to take a short evening “star hunt” walk with their grown ups to count how many stars they can see and if they are able to take a photo and send it to be on Class Dojo. In class, the next day/week we will discuss their photos and how many stars they found. We will then explore light using torches and simple materials, discovering how covering a torch directs light more effectively. This hands-on approach develops observation skills, curiosity, and an early understanding of caring for the environment through simple actions like switching off unnecessary lights.
Hi Claire, I love the idea of showing the children two completely different areas (urban & rural) and how each are affected by light pollution
Create a short teaching resource using Stellarium/ WorldWide Telescope
I would start my lesson with my Senior Infant class by singing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ as we all know this nursery rhyme. I will ask them what they know about stars and when do we see them. Next I will show them Peppa Pigs ‘Stars’ episode https://youtu.be/_qSpPTWSfc4 and we will discuss what Peppa saw ~ North Star, & constellations.
I will then put Stellarium on the interactive whiteboard and show them the stars that are over our location and how to use the website. We will look at the different stars and constellations that are over us. Next I will split them into pairs and give each pair an iPad that is already set up with their location so they can look at them themselves and explore the sky. They can lie under the tables if they would like a darker place to carry out the activity.
As a follow up activity we will carry out an art activity where the children make the night sky using A3 black or dark blue paper, white and yellow paint, toothbrushes or paintbrushes & glitter. They will use the toothbrushes to splatter paint on the paper like stars.
Hi Áine, I love the idea of using it for comparing the way the constellations appear in different locations across the world.
Hi Valerie, I really like your idea of using music to help the children understand the passing of time.
Plan how your students could “observe and record the positions of the sun when rising and setting and at different times of the day”
Firstly, I would start the lesson by showing my Senior Infant children the video of ‘Paxi – Day, Night and the seasons’. I would only show them until 1:55 as this introduces to the children that it is Earth that is constantly spinning and how we have day and night. We will discuss what we learned from the video and then we will observe and record the position of the Sun at different times during the school day. After discussing where they think the Sun rises and sets, the class will make three observations: after they come into school (9:10), before lunchtime (12:10), and before they go home (1:30). Standing in the same safe location each time, the children will identify where the Sun appears. They will use simple drawings or even use chalk on the ground or wall to record whether the Sun is low, high or lower again in the sky and compare their observations throughout the day. Children will also notice the direction and length of shadows, helping them recognise that the Sun’s changing position affects shadows. As sunrise and sunset cannot be observed during school hours, I will encourage the children to observe these at home with the support of a family member and share their findings with the class the following day. We will continue this over the course of a week and then we will discuss what we observed, introducing the ideas that the Sun appears to rise in the east, travel across the sky during the day and set in the west.
Question: What impact do trees have on our climate and why we need them?
As my class are Junior Infants and too young to carry out the actual project we will start by reading the book the ‘Lorax’ by Dr. Seuss – it teaches children to treat our planet with kindness and to speak up when people are mistreating it. We will then carry out a KWL chart and a mind map to ascertain their prior knowledge of what trees can do for us.
Watch videos ~ ‘Climate heroes – the importance of trees’, ‘What if everyone in the world planted trees’ and more. I feel these are the best methods to engage the children in this project as they are too young to carry out other methods.
Data collection – going on field trips to Marley Park and Bushy Park ~ observing the trees and how many buds they grow in Spring and then return again before the summer holidays to see how many leaves there are. They can also use measuring tapes to measure the trunk of the trees and then measure again to see if they got bigger. The children can also observe trees that have been cut down – they can look at the rings and count them as you can tell a lot about the conditions during the years by looking at them. The children can do leaf and bark rubbings. If we have the space in our new school, the children can choose a suitable location to plant some native trees as a next step while we wait for the new build they could plant some pollinator friendly herbs or flowers in pots and observe their growth everyday.
The children can do earth observations by observing, measuring ~ taking pictures and using a measuring tape. The children can make a collage of their findings by using photographs and also drawing pictures of their findings.
Once the children have carried out their research and concluded their findings we will share their results by holding an assembly with the rest of our stream where my class can present them with their project and tell them about their findings and get the other children involved so they too can help us make a difference.
Teacher Guide & Pupil Activities for the ESA Resource ‘ Nose High Up in The Sky’ (slide 19)
After carrying out all these activities I found all three very interesting, engaging and fun to complete. I would definitely use these resources and activities with my class. The activities are suitable for all ages and abilities but the activity sheets will have to be differentiated to suit individual needs in each class. It makes Space more accessible for children – they will have a better understanding of what it is like to look down on earth from Space.
Activity 1 – The Earth seen from the ISS
This activity will appeal to the children of all ages. They will know the size of the ISS as it is the size of a football pitch which they all know the size of and they will be able to imagine it floating around space. Being able to see the photos from five different astronauts was fun and interesting and the children will love looking at them.
Activity 2 – Match the photos & Activity 3 – Higher up
The children will love carrying out this activity as they will be able to pretend to be astronauts looking out the window and they can match the photos to what they are – mountains, lakes, rivers, etc – this activity is very hands – on and accessible for all.
Hi Sinéad,
I agree that hands on activities for children is very helpful for their learning and understanding of a topic.
The film ‘HOME’ by Yann Arthus-Bertran is a fascinating and powerful video that shows us the impact we, as humans, have had on this planet so far. For children in a junior school it would be too much to show them this video in full – I feel breaking it up into much smaller sections or even just some of the pictures that are related to the topic we are doing that day would be more beneficial and the children will be able to concentrate and understand the topic better.
I believe that we need to focus on the positives for young children, things that they can do themselves that will help – recycling both in school and at home, walking to school or getting the bus instead of taking the car, using LED bulbs at home, turning off their tvs, games and lights once they are finished using them. Every small bit will help.
I enjoyed using the carbon footprint calculator but it was scary to see what impact I am having on the climate. I feel this calculator would be a fantastic resource to use with the senior side of the school as they will be able to use it themselves and they can also understand their impact on the climate.
