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There is also a great drama activity on Twinkl for young children to teach them about the planets – https://www.twinkl.ie/resource/originals-explorers-space-role-play-movement-powerpoint-t-tp-1631807471
My kids in Senior Infants loved it!
The activity I would use with my infants class would be based on learning about the moon. I would first ask the children to observe the moon over a number of weeks, and tell me what patterns they have identified. I would ask them to draw the moon, using a simplified worksheet of the one provided in the resources to help them. I would also ask the children to think of stories they know about the moon, especially from different cultures – and to share any facts they may or may not have heard about it. I would show the children photos of Nasa landing on the moon and ask them to imagine they are astronauts – what would they think the moon would look, sound and feel like? I would bring the children on a “Tour of the Moon” following this using Nasa’s website https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3874/. Following this, I would carry out the additional activity of “Meet our neighbours: Moon” with the children. Before beginning, we would act out being the astronauts on the moon, driving in space buggies up mountains, into craters and around the maria. We would then make a large model of the moon as a whole class activity, and I would give the children toy cars to drive over it pretending to be astronauts.
The activity I would carry out with my class would be making rockets. In Junior Infants, we generally carry out the activity making rockets from straws and paper, as I described in my first post on the forum. For senior infants, I would like them to create Balloon rockets based on the lesson from Primary Science https://www.sfi.ie/site-files/primary-science/media/pdfs/col/rocket_launch.pdf.
I would begin the lesson by recalling the paper rockets made in Junior infants, and discussing how they worked, what made some better than others and how could they be improved? Next I would discuss the meaning of “force” and ask the children to consider what this means to them. We would consider some examples of when we have seen energy released as a force on an object. For example we could talk about the effort involved in kicking a ball and how far it can travel, the size and strength of an elastic band used in a catapult and the object being thrown, or how we can do the biggest jumps on a trampoline. We would also discuss the topic of gravity and how it returns all objects back to earth.
Next, we would examine how balloons travel by air escaping from them, and compare this to how a rocket takes off when gas is released. We would discuss how we could make the balloon travel in the path we want it to take, and discuss what could happen if a rocket did not go along the right path. I would demonstrate the experiment for the children first, of setting up string and a straw between two points, and attached the balloon with Sellotape already full of air contained with a clothes peg. I would ask the children to predict what will happen when I release the air from the balloon. I will ask the children to estimate how far they think the balloon will travel.
Following this, I would give the children time to plan, design and make their own balloon rockets. I would ask them to make observations as they tried their design out – such as what happens if the string is not tight enough, or what happens when there is more or less air in the balloon?
Following this lesson, I would show the children a model of a foam rockets, based on the lesson from Curious minds https://www.sfi.ie/site-files/primary-science/media/pdfs/col/curious-minds-resource-make-a-rocket.pdf. I would ask the children to compare which rocket has more force and to consider reasons for this.
I love the idea here of racing the rockets – that would definitely increase kid’s motivation to try and test out new solutions!
The activity I would choose would be based on the lesson Hot or Cold using the sun https://esero.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/12_Hot-and-cold.pdf.
For infants, I would set this lesson up so that in the yard I would ask them to find the place that was hottest, or coolest, by walking around. We would then put discuss times we were very hot (eg. at the beach) or very cold (e.g. during snow). What was our body like? What clothes did we wear? How did we react?
I would give each child 2 icecubes and as them to place them in the hottest and coldest spots they can find. I would ask them to predict what they think would happen to each of the icecubes. I would also ask them to estimate how long they think we should leave them out for, and come back at 2 or 3 of these suggested times. On returning to collect the results of the experiment, I would ask the children to explain why one ice cube melted faster than the other. I would especially emphasis the use of new vocabulary during this lesson, e.g. “Which ice cube had more sunlight?”, “Were the ice cubes the same equal size at the beginning?
I would follow this lesson up next with a second experiment, based on insulation https://www.seai.ie/sites/default/files/plan-your-energy-journey/schools/schools-documents/Hot___Cold_lesson_plan.pdf.
In this experiment, the children would wrap the icecubes in different materials and predict which icecubes would melt the fastest. I would use the worksheets recording data on what is a good/bad insulator and time taken to melt from this resource. To conculde this lesson, I would introduce the children to the idea of saving energy in the home and the use of solar panels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE4blc-4jqE
Hi Shona, I used to play a great game with the kids to keep warm out in yard called a “Penguin race”. They have to flap, by hitting their thighs and pretending to be penguins and “race” by doing jumps, pretending to ski, starjumps, pretend to hop over obstacles etc. The kids loved it!
The marbles in a container is a very useful idea. I especially always find children really struggle with the idea of an “estimate” over knowing knowledge in the infants classes. This would help them realise we can only ever estimate certain information, as we can never know the exact number of stars in the sky.
I would like to teach the activity with my children in Junior Infants based on Special Life and Space and Aliens. I would begin this lesson by using a drama activity, where all the children have to pretend to be each planet in space. For example, become small like Mercury, show a storm on Jupiter, make a ring around other people like on Saturn etc. We would then focus on discussing Mars – what it is like as a planet, and the potential it has for special life. We would discuss what this means using the resource https://esero.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/19_Special-life.pdf.
Next, I would ask the children to draft pictures of what a Martian might look like. We would combine our questions with knowledge from the Primary Maths Curriculum alongside using Scientific inquiry. For example – what spaces might a Martian’s body be? Circular, square or irregular? How would this help them move, could they roll quickly or would they need feet to help them walk? Would they have a long or short tail and would this be useful or not useful for them? How many arms or legs would they have compared to humans and would this make more sense for them on Mars? What would they need to help them in the heat? Would it help them to have lots of hair or no hair? etc.
After the children had drafted their own Martian, we would decide on all the best features and create one group “Martian” together, on a large roll of paper on the ground. We would play a hotseating activity, giving this martian a name and asking him lots of questions about Mars together. I would also use page 5 of the Space week booklet to help me extend this lesson https://www.spaceweek.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Classroom-Resource-Booklet-Mars.pdf
Love the sound of this. Another great story is on Twinkl called Back to Earth with a Bump – my kids loved it!
This is a lovely idea that would definitely keep the children interested! You could probably even extend it further, as I’ve come across lots of recipes online for kids of how to make space food! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJuxXhIX-PY
I generally teach junior infants, and so find doing Science Experiments often have to be done with the teacher(s) mainly carrying out the activity and children watching. As a result, I like to do ones they can try out for themselves. Last year, the children in my class loved to make paper airplanes. Next year, in Senior Infants, I would like to do a lesson with them on how rockets launch into space and what is required for this to happen, and the planning that goes into it. I would then do an experiment on making “rockets” and finding ways to make them take off. I would provide the children with a range of straws, in different shapes and sizes, and a variety of objects such as paper of different weights, shapes and sizes, card that’s heavier and lighter and crepe paper, and ask them to experiement with which it is easiest to blow off from the end of the straws. I would further ask them to experiment with ways to blow the material off the straw, e.g. from inside the straw, scrunched on the top of the straw, balanced on the straw etc. I would then demonstrate how creating a tube on the top of the straw and securing it can help the paper fly further from the top, and ask them to experiment with different ways of securing it, e.g. with staples, pva glue, pritt stick or sellotape. When the class together have found a method that works best, in our next lesson I would allow all the children to make and decorate paper “rockets”, and seal these, and have competitions in seeing who’s rocket can fly the furthest. To conclude, we would have a joint writing session on recording how we completed the experiment and compare how our rockets are similar or different to flying paper planes.
