Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I have senior infants this year and I chose the ‘Animals in the cold’ lesson. The children. The children really enjoy this experiment as a we look at this topic when exploring winter. Polar animals are placed in water and frozen. During play time we would chose an area where the water would melt. Adding in the ‘Animals in the Cold’ lesson would add another dimension to our theme. To extend this activity, we would compare and contrast animals in the north/south pole and their opposite appearances. We would then use Vaseline to demonstrate how polar bears repel water. As an extension we would continue to ‘What clothes to wear’ lesson. The children could think about what materials would be repel water for those animals in the North Pole. Pupils would experiment and decide on a material that would be suitable as a waterproof coat for a teddy bear.
Hi Shauna, this sounds like a great plan. Very well laid out, step by step and also very enjoyable for the children. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to using it with my class.
Activity: Rockets with 1st class
My stimulus would be a video of a rocket launching. I would ask the students to tell me everything they know about what is happening in this video. We would then discuss rocket launches, where the rocket might be going, what it might be used for. I would tell the students that today we are going to investigate how a rocket launches.
I would show them the Marvin and Milo cartoon. I would divide the class into groups and provide them with all the equipment they need to carry out the experiment. I would circulate between the groups, offering support and help when needed. Once the students have successfully launched their rocket, I would encourage them to think of anyway they might be able to change one thing in the experiment to see if the results would be different.
Conclusion: I would ask them if they can guess from their findings in this experiment what force might be behind the launching of a rocket into space. We would discuss how, in a real rocket launch, gas released from the ignited fuel pushes down hard against the ground pushing the rocket up into the sky.
Cross curricular links:
Art – construction
Math – measuring
History – sequencing
English – Comic strip
Activity Set: Stars
Introduction: Ask the pupils what they might see in the sky at night? Ask pupils what role of stars in the night sky might be?
Pupils would then been shown the cover of the book “How to catch a star” by Oliver Jeffers.
Development: A class discussion will take place, encouraging children to share their thoughts and ask questions on the topic of stars. I will then explain that stars are big balls of hot gas that shine in the sky.
Introduce the topic of constellations (patters of stars in the sky). I would then get the children to draw their own night sky filled with stars (stencils to scaffold). Children would be encouraged to connect their stars creating a constellation.
Conclusion: Children would share their creations with the class. Thumbs up/down reviewing key points from the lesson.
This is a great idea Niamh and one that I intend on using in the coming year. It would be great for getting the children involved and gives ample opportunities for hands on play based learning.
Activity Set: The sun and shadows
-Class discussion: What do you know about the sun? What happens when you stand in sunlight? (Further questioning if necessary: When it is sunny outside, what can you sometimes see on the ground?)
-Go outside and observe any shadows, ask pupils to stand in an area where they can see their own shadow, play shadow catch.
-Shadow tracing: ask another pupil to trace your shadow. Introduce topic of human sundial, trace shadow in the morning, return at different times throughout the day e.g. at noon and in the afternoon and note any observations.
-Return to the classroom for a class discussion sharing their findings with the class with the teacher scaffolding the discussion.
Hi
My name is Niamh. My favourite space fact is there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth. That’s at least a billion trillion!
An inquiry based lesson I have done is making parachutes.
I elicited prior knowledge, asking pupils questions such as what will happen to a stone when you drop it VS what would happen to a feather if you dropped it?
Pupils stood on tables dropping various things. Firstly we discussed what way things fell, advancing on to discuss the role of weight on how fast things fall.
After deciding to use a timer to test how fast objects fell from a height, pupils were given a variety of materials to test.
Children worked in groups and were encouraged to test all the materials.
A class discussion was held discussing what worked best, encouraging pupils to give say why they think what they concluded.
