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Love this idea Irene and will look at using this during Space Week with my junior infants in October.
Making rockets is always fun-and a wonderful way to keep children engaged! Having done this last year with my class it was amazing to see how invested the children were in creating rockets. After having a discussion about rockets I gave the children a sheet where they had to design their rocket. The children then included the material (had to be recycled material) they would need to create the rocket and had to explain to me how they would know if their rocket was successful. They then had time to decorate them once they had them made and that’s when they began to get competitive with each other and trying to come up with the best design. In saying this the class I was teaching were 8/9 year olds and could get things done whereas with the infant class I will need to tailor expectations and supply materials and concrete examples for the children.
I would focus on the activities about weather and would be very excited about teaching this to a class having taught in China for 6 years the children only experienced two seasons during my time there. I would love to organise a zoom call with a colleague who is still working in the school and we both could give the children an opportunity to ask each other questions about weather in their country. It would again be great for oral language development and I would spend some time pre teaching my children some interesting questions that they could ask and making sure they understand key vocab.
Love the idea Deirdre- if you have friends teaching in different parts of the world you could try and organise a zoom call with the class and give the children an opportunity to ask each other questions about weather in each others countries.
Based on the activities discussed, I would use the set “Space and Aliens”. To begin the lesson, I would get a picture of an alien standing on a planet and pair the children up together and have a discussion together and then listen to what each pair have to say. I would then explain the two words space and aliens to ensure all children understand what these two words mean.
I would give the children a KWL chart and get them to fill in the K and W section which we would then discuss together. After the discussion I would then show them the short story “There’s an Alien in your book” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6duKHP6Gqc ). I would then put the children into groups and give them an opportunity to discuss as a group if they liked the story and why they did or didn’t like the story(oral language development).
So many cross circular links again with this set with many activities linking to music, English, Gaeilge, maths and art.Hi Frances,
I love this. I could only imagine how creative the children would be if given this task to do at home with their parents. I would imagine a lot of children would be coming in with aliens made of different ingredients in different shapes and sizes 🙂
I love this extension activity and will also give the children the opportunity to be creative about their planet. You could also allow a Sp + L opportunity here in which the children could then describe what happens on their planet. Is their real life on the planet? Can people walk or float? I can only imagine some of the crazy ideas some of the children will come up with.
Hi, yea love the idea of your art work and it would also be a lovely display in the classroom to show of your class learning 🙂
Based Based on the activities discussed, I would use the set “The Planets”. I love using song to help children learn and I am a big believer in using actions for parts of the song. For the Planets Song I would come up with actions for key words in the song and pre teach these actions to the children before introducing the song. I find this in particular is a great way to help the less confident children remember key words. I would link this topic in with all subjects and in particular some lovely and fun art ideas are coming into my head while thinking of activities.
I would set up a planet station in my classroom throughout this topic. The children would be encouraged to use this area as much as possible to help consolidate their learning.
on the activities discussed, I would use the set “The Planets”. I love using song to help children learn and I am a big believer in using actions for parts of the song. For the Planets Song I would come up with actions for key words in the song and pre teach these actions to the children before introducing the song. I find this in particular is a great way to help the less confident children remember key words. I would link this topic in with all subjects and in particular some lovely and fun art ideas are coming into my head while thinking of activities.
I would set up a planet station in my classroom throughout this topic. The children would be encouraged to use this area as much as possible to help consolidate their learning.• Junior/ Senior Infants
The trigger: a basin of water at the front of the class. Emty plastic bottle and a plastic bottle full of water.
Wonder: What happened with each and why?
Exploring: Allow the children to experiment in groups with their own basin of water. Give the children a sheet with all the objects they are testing and they need to make a prediction (using a tick or and X) as to whether the item will sink or float.
Starter Question: Why do you think some objects float and others don’t?
Predictions: Will a heavy object sink or float?
Conducting the investigations:
The children are assigned groups and given various materials to experiment with. They carry out the experiment in their groups and record findings on a worksheet/whiteboard.
Interpreting the results: The children will compare their results to their predictions
Next steps:
Can you give reason as to why something floated or sank?
Can you think of modes of transport that floatHi Ailbhe,
I really like your idea of the Teddy Bear Picnic theme. I am moving from 6th class to Junior Infants so I need to start using ideas like this in my teaching.
From reading your lesson its very obvious that you have a “trigger” suitable for the class and they will be actively engaged.
