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Lots of lovely ideas here.
I like how you gave the children autonomy over their learning and that they had a free choice during Science Week. It’s definitely something we could look at doing more of in my school as enhancing pupil voice is something that comes back in out SSE all the time.
I must check out that Netflix show. Sounds like there are a wealth of ideas for scientific investigations there!
Balloon Rockets:
In order to carry out this investigation with Senior Infants, I would need Large balloons (long shaped), a Balloon pump, String OR cotton thread OR fishing
line 3-4 m long, Drinking straw, Clothes-peg, Sellotape, Two chairsIn order to prompt the children I will show them a deflated balloon and ask what it is? What do you know about balloons? What do we use them for? How would we change the shape of this balloon?
I will then blow up the balloon for the children using a balloon pump. I won’t tie a knot in the balloon. To encourage the use of Investigation and experimentation skills I will ask the children to predict what will happen if I let go of the balloon?
We will then watch as I release the balloon. What did you notice? What is emptying out of the balloon? What direction did the balloon go?
Next I will control the path of the balloon by connecting the blown up balloon to a piece of string and repeat the experiment. What happened this time? Did it follow the same direction? I wonder why?
To follow up I would ask children to choose a method of recording the experiment. Some may choose to draw pictures, others may wish to write an account, other may record a voice note or video. These can be shared with parents on Seesaw
I really love the idea of Stellarium. What an amazing tool to bring the world of space closer to those young, curious minds! It’s incredible that they can see the stars from any point in the world at a moment in time. I’m really looking forward to using this tool back at school. My children will absolutely love it!
‘Where do you live?’ resource. Senior Infants.
Before beginning this lesson, I would provide time for the children to locate their houses on Google Maps using Street View. This allows us to all see their homes together and would lead to a discussion using vocabulary such as ‘roof, floors/stories, attic, front door, back door, garage, shed, gate, estate, detached, semi-detached, apartment’ etc. It also provides opportunities to compare different types of homes to identify similarities and differences.
For the playdough home modelling activity, I would love to provide a blank map of the town we all live in so that the children could then place their play doh homes on it. This is probably something I could print from Google Maps. And then we could add all the other amenities according to where they are located in our town. Some wonderful opportunities for Geography integration here.
I really like the multi-sensory approach here. The lesson really comes to life with the use of the glow in the dark resources, singing, art, fine motor work. you are really catering for the diverse needs in your class and creating a very inclusive environment for your children. It’s a very UDL approach to lesson planning. Loads of integration possibilities and I’m sure you could continue the stars theme over a number of other lessons. Thanks for sharing.
For Senior Infants, the following would have to covered over two or three lessons.
Activity: Lots and Lots of Stars!
The initial step in completing this activity involves placing marbles in transparent containers, counting and questioning the children to see if they have a sense of how many stars there are in the sky. Opportunities for counting as Gaeilge here also. Teacher explains that there are so many stars it’s not possible for humans to count them. We need a computer to do the counting.
A discussion then develops around stars. What are they? What do they look like? Where do we see them? Is the sun a star? I would record the children’s responses on the flipchart to maximise the literacy possibilities of this lesson. The children examine a night sky picture of the stars.
The art activity is the next step in the lesson where children splatter paint on a black background. It may be easier and quicker to provide black sugar paper for this. There are nice mathematical estimation and comparison opportunities here when children are looking and responding to each others work.
I think I would use the final counting worksheet as an early finishers/optional activity.
That sounds like a great lesson. Very hands-on, active and multi-sensory. And a lovely integration with art/design and make with the papier maché creation as a follow up. I love how much top-tier vocabulary is introduced.
There was another activity described in the module that creates amodal of the moon’s surface with felt and a template. Maybe for those more risk-averse to the stone-throwing!
Sun and Shadows Activity.
I did some of the shadows activities with my Senior Infant class this year. Photo attached. This activity was completed after indoor investigations with torches and globes. I must say, I wish I had known about the activity where the two teddies are velcroed to the globe as this was such as brilliant and clear way of modelling day and night for the children. I would also really like to try the individual scenes with the teddy, pond and tree to illustrate how shadows are formed when the sun is behind an object that blocks out the sun. I think children will really grasp the concept very well if they are given time to play and experiment individually with torches.
The one drawback with the outdoor activity pictured below was that it was very weather dependent. We got lucky and were actually able to complete it on the day we planned! I really like the sun dial activity as a follow up to this and may well try it in the future.
In Senior Infants this year, we carried out a number of inquiry-based activities in our SESE lessons. One that most springs to mind involved investigating floating and sinking objects.
Using big water containers, during out ILTP (Aistear) time, groups of children were given various items to play with in the water. (lego bricks, feathers, paper clips, sponges, erasers, pencils, leaves, tinfoil balls etc.). There was no particular question asked of the children at this point. The experience served as an initial prompt to stimulate the children’s thinking about objects and how they behave in water.
The next step involved wondering how the different objects would behave in the water?
The children were asked to narrow their focus a little to explore if any of the objects behaved in the same way in the water.
The children were all then fully engaged in the inquiry process. We then entered the investigation stage.
Other objects were then presented: small wooden, plastic and metal toys, ball of playdough and an empty matchbox without lid. Children were given time to explore the items without water and then a question was posed. Which of these items will float and which will sink?
The children were then asked to predict and record their predictions on a picture worksheet.
We then conducted the investigation in a whole-class setting. As we tested each item, the children completed their worksheets to record the actual outcome for each test.
At this point further discussion occurred as to why we thought each item behaved the way it did. We noted similarities and differences in the materials that made up each item. We also noted similarities and differences in the shapes of the items. This completed the investigation stage of the inquiry.
I have to say, the final stage (as outlined in the inquiry framework) was not very detailed when we conducted this inquiry and I feel it is something I could revisit when teaching this topic again.
Applying learning: I think I would like to follow up by asking children to design an make a boat that floats.
Making connections: Building on this, the children would compare their boats with each other and identify those that were most successful and infer why this is the case.
Thoughtful Actions: When investigating floating and sinking with playdoh, no matter what shape we created, it never floated!
Hi
I’m Nicola. I’m teaching in a DEIS 1 Junior School in the Midlands.
I had to look up some space facts just to remind myself!
This is my favourite one so far:
‘The highest mountain discovered is the Olympus Mons, which is located on Mars. Its peak is 16 miles (25 km) high, making it nearly 3 times higher than Mount Everest!’