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I love the idea of a collaborative activity, splitting the page into 4. Definitely one they would enjoy.
A lovely, multi sensory active lesson.
It could be a lovely link with home to send home information on what we are learning and invite pupils to look at the night sky before bed, submitting photos to the class for viewing in our lessons the next day.
A space themed aistear station would be very interesting and there are lots of great ideas and activities to engage discovery learning for younger classes here. I particularly love the idea of introducing constellations to infants as I think they may have some concept of planets and the moon and aliens, so adding in constellation songs, stories, making constellations and exploring their names will be top of my list for planning.
Really great ideas here, thank you – It covers a lot in a little time with doable activities and the activities will certainly be of interest to the children.
Activity: Rocket Mice
Skills: Exploring and wondering
With infant classes I would begin with the story Mice in Space as a read aloud to the children. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWzfjI99KPg
Designing and making: Children would engage in making their own mouse using card and markers, sticky eyes etc – art and craft activity.
Investigation: Next I would work through questions of how might we launch our mice – what could we try – with a box of items for the children to try to use themselves – active exploration and wondering put into action.
We would look at each attempt and discuss what works well and what doesn’t – what happens to the mice and what we want to happen.
I would explain with basic language about a force to make the mouse launch – using straws next, allow the children try to move their mouse along their desk by blowing through the straw. After this, looking at how a lot more air might be better.
Using the milk carton, demonstrate for the children how the force is exerted.
Designing and Making: Children then experiment with their own rocket launcher using cartons.
Applying knowledge – children practise using rockets with their mice.
Hands-on classroom themed activity:
“In the sky, I can see”
How I would you use the activity :
I would use this as a whole class activity in infants. Discussion at first, brainstorming what we might see – outdoor activity – lying down on yoga mats and looking up the pupils spend 5 mins uninterrupted, looking up with the focus to return to a drawing activity from the activity sheet for what I see by day.
Following on from our lessons on constellations, I would then ask them to discuss and draw what we could see with the eyes at night.
Drawing on the activity sheet.
I would use the following : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNDUPDtrkjQ
to discuss daytime and nighttime and consolidate the activity with the pupils showing their drawings and explaining what they see.
I can see lots of linkage opportunities using this activity – oral language development, maths – time, vocabulary – opposites, pe – outdoor activities, sphe – mindfulness while looking , visual arts – looking and responding, drawing.
I think this is a lovely way to incorporate learning – linking to animals to the climate/ temperature would be a very child friendly way to access their thinking and interest in animals – a really creative way to develop scientific thinking in young children. I will use this idea.
I would focus on the following activity set: Stars
With infant classes, I think some of the activities can certainly be modified to use and engage their interest.
I like the idea of Draw your own Constellation – For this I would use black sugar paper and gold star stickers and chalk. I would pre prepare some dots on which the pupils would have to stick the stars and then link the stars with chalk lines. This would be done to explore how to make and look at a constellation.
From here I would link into previous lessons on planets, and use the loo roll solar system plan with fruit to develop the concept of distance from the sun – a huge star which we cant find a fruit big enough to be in comparison to our other fruit planets.
Looking at the Draw your own Constellation template again, I think pegs and boards play and also display and discuss what they can see would be very interesting – pupils could join the dots and create what they see in the the constellations.
I would integrate this clip :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjBGpA2Muyc
as it would give the children some visual ideas and also develop the names in an interesting way.
In Maths I would elicit ideas for naming a star and hold a poll – displaying a data graph using coloured post it notes to display each child’s vote from a choice of four names and explain that it is possible to name a star.
Finally, I would develop the ideas from this pack using age appropriate templates for craft and aistear, such as https://inthebagkidscrafts.com/constellations-for-kids/
Art and Craft activities to build interest and promote language.
I love the hands on activities here which the children would love and would definitely engage interest. Lots of ideas I would use with infants.
I would choose the Planets set to focus on as the starting point for learning about space with infant classes. I would build the lessons around the Tiny Planets Book which I think is a fantastic resource to manipulate.
– I would enlarge the outlines of each planet to a large size to display for the class and mount on cardboard – elicit from the children how we might decorate each planet – however, we need to investigate the reality of the planet to do so. The facts in the booklet will help as a starting point.
I would have a copy to display on the interactive whiteboard and also integrate the song : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2prtmPEjOc
By working on a different planet each day or two, we could build an entire unit on planets and slowly discover each one. Children choose colours, in Aistear use textiles to decorate etc.
Once displayed in the classroom I would again use this booklet to look at bitesize pieces of information to recall about each planet – linkage with home – homework to look at the page of their booklet about the planet we are working on and listen to the song.
As we progress with the lessons, I would play games where pupils play Who am I ? offering a fact – eg: I am very hot— pupils guess which planet this is.
Pair work – share a fact you know about your planet.
I think senior infants could certainly engage well with all these activities in Aistear and science, Junior infants could even pair up with an older class to work on making the mini books for each child and have the facts read to them as they work to colour in their booklet appropriately.
Lovely ideas – the children would have a sense of ownership over their learning with the painting and display. Also a lot of fun involved in this lesson.
Yes, that is the book – I think it is a good one to engage infant learners.
Thank you , I love that idea for exploring colour in more depth, I feel this way of exploring is also a good way to integrate oral language description and vocabulary so I will definitely look at that.
An inquiry based lesson for Infant classes – Exploring the planet Jupiter.
-Warm up introduction with familiar song to the class: The Solar System Song
1. Ask the children to listen to the song again with just the excerpt about Jupiter – this time trying to recall a new fact they have heard.
2.Gather the children in a circle and introduce the topic of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. Show pictures or models of Jupiter and ask if anyone has heard of it before.
3. Using different sized balls, create a planet earth and planet jupiter to show the children an idea of the size difference.
4.Practical exploration: Using Playdough or clay, children engage in making a planet Jupiter and the largest moon – with volcano.Discuss the size and features of Jupiter as they create their playdough planets.
5.Looking at images of Jupiter from https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/all-about-jupiter/en/ – discussing how it looks, describing by size, colour, texture words.
6.Read “Jupiter, the gassy giant” aloud in circle time with the class. Encourage the children to listen for interesting facts about Jupiter and ask questions about what they have learned.
7. Practise singing the Jupiter facts from the Solar system song. Pairwork – in twos ask pupils to share a fact they know with a friend/ Share their favourite fact with the class.
