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Love this lesson. Children just love the story Aliens Love Underpants!! The illustrations are so colourful and they love the notion of the characters in underpants.
The use of digital technology allows the parents/guardians to engage with the recordings which they will love.
The activity provides great cross curricular links and allows the children to develop so many skills.
Great lesson Sharon. Children are fascinated by aliens. And what a lovely story ‘ The Way back Home’ by Oliver Jeffers. We all love the story of ET trying to find his way back home too. The link with visual arts is great-I can imagine how creative the children could be creating their models of aliens. Sounds like a fun activity and parents/guardians would love seeing their creations.
The activity Stars from this module is very appealing to Junior Infants and is very suitable for introducing pupils of this age to basic astronomy. I would begin by ascertaining what the pupils already know about stars, encouraging discussion and using questions to prompt. In this way the pupils are afforded opportunities to share what they know, develop their communication skills and think creatively. We would follow the discussion by looking at photographs of the night sky and various constellations as well as simple videos of the night sky. The lesson could be concluded with a simple art lesson (splatter painting) and later the story at the end of the day could be based on stars (The Littlest Star).
There is wide scope in this activity to create cross curricular links with literacy (story time-How to Catch a Star is a beautiful story; poetry; vocabulary development), with visual arts (artwork based on the stars, exploring Van Gogh’s Starry Night), music (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Star Light Star Bright, Holst’s Planets). The children could do a little stargazing with their parents/guardians and video their activity. Such videos could be uploaded to the seesaw platform used in the school. In the classroom the pupils could be photographed engaging with the art activities or videoed while reporting what they already know about stars. These photographs/videos could be uploaded to the seesaw platform for sharing with the parents/guardians. Other classroom activities could include the Make Your Own Constellation activity. I personally think this particular activity is very good one and the pupils would have great fun making their own constellation and naming it.
I found this activity a great one as well. We are all fascinated by space and this would really capture the children’s interest. Starting from what they already know is very important and it gives them a sense of ownership with the topic. The Planet Game gets them moving which is essential in our sedentary lifestyles and creates a great link with PE.
In module 2 the planets activity offers a great way to engage young pupils with the topic of space. It promotes inquiry-based learning, encouraging them to explore, to question, and to uncover facts about the planets in our Solar System. Children are naturally curious, inquisitive and creative, and the activity helps them to develop an early understanding of the world beyond earth.
Children are fascinated by the planets and space. The topic provides a great framework for talk and discussion building important language and communication skills, and encourages the children to question and investigate. Providing the children with visual resources, stories, videos, and hands-on activities, will help to develop their knowledge of the different planets.
This activity can be adapted for pupils with all levels of ability and learning needs. As a teacher I can ensure that all pupils can access the content and are actively involved in the learning by providing visual supports, sensory experiences, movement activities, and tasks requiring collaboration. Interactive videos, virtual tours, and digital storytelling can also support engagement with the topic.
The activity provides very good curricular links with oral language activities, literacy, visual arts, music, mathematics. It is just one of many great lessons in this module that can be used to help the children develop a love of science, an interest in STEM and a greater appreciation of our environment and the importance of caring for it.
Inquiry Based Activity: How do fish live underwater?
Class Junior Infants
Engagement/Wonder
Begin by showing the children pictures and short videos of fish swimming underwater. Questions for the pupils could include Where do the fish live?, How can they breathe underwater? How do they move in the water? What do you think fish need to stay alive?
Investigate/Explore
Encourage the children to move around like fish/ask them what they need to do to move in water (what body parts do they need to use?) Can they move if they keep their arms/legs still? Can they breathe in and under the water? How? Can the fish breathe in the water? How?
Discover/Explain
Provide the children with pictures of fish and magnifying glasses. Encourage the children to look closely, identify the fins, tail and gills and ask if they can explain what they are and what the fish use them for
Record their findings
The children could record their information by writing a simple sentence “I learned that fish have gills”, by drawing a picture, or by delivering a one sentence oral presentation
Reflection
Extend this inquiry to other animals that can live on land and water.
I’m drawn to this activity because as a very young child I could recite the distances of every planet to the sun accurately!! Now I can’t tell the distance from the school door to the gate 🙂
This a very engaging activity which the pupils would enjoy with lots of talk, discussion and active learning.
Love this fact. We could do with a little bit of this silence to drown out some of the “noise” on planet earth at times!! 🙂
My name is Paula. I will be teaching in a SET position. My fun fact is that is that on the planet Venus, a day is longer than a year!
I agree that the food pyramid is one resource we are all familiar with. Like you, Carrie I have never focused on the value of seafood. I also liked the ARC resources and the video of the Salmon of Knowledge. We had the ARC at the school this year-fantastic experience. worth doing.
I have always known seafood was a very nutritional food and this module has helped to reinforce my understanding of its importance in supporting a healthy, balanced diet. Personally I do not eat enough of it! I am aware it is a rich source of high-quality nutrients which contribute to brain development, heart health, and wellbeing. It is important that we pass on this knowledge to our pupils and help them to develop an awareness of making good food choices and to understand where their food comes from.
We can do this through SPHE within the Wellbeing framework, by investigating the importance of making healthy food choices and learning about the various food groups that ensure we have a balanced diet. Talking about different types of seafood can help pupils to understand the importance of eating different nutritious foods. It also encourages them to think about a healthy life and to make good food choices to support it. As teachers we can also make cross-curricular links through science, geography, mathematics and literacy.
When teaching about seafood nutrition, pupils with diverse learning needs, can be supported by providing hands-on and sensory experiences. Seafood products can be explored in many ways through talk and, discussion, images and video, observation, and where appropriate food-tasting activities. All activities can help to ensure the pupils are engaged and supported at a level appropriate to their abilities.
Teaching about seafood nutrition encourages pupils them to think about the what they eat and their own health. They also explore how sustainable fishing and aquaculture can help to ensure a enough food in a world with an increasing population.
Exploring the nutrition of seafood in this module has helped me to understand the importance of healthy eating and wellbeing. I feel more confident about teaching nutrition and integrating it across the curriculum, promoting healthy lifestyles amongst the pupils, and encouraging them to make good food choices for their own health and wellbeing.
Like you Jessica, many of our pupils have connections to farming and fishing. Teaching them and helping them to understand about sustainability would, as you say, be very meaningful for them. I agree also that it is important to teach them about sustainability from a young age thus developing good habits and creating strong connections with their own locality. In the words of Gandhi “Be the change you want to see”
There are many opportunities to observe sustainability in action within my local community. It is important to balance the protection of the environment, develop the local economy and social wellbeing. In my own locality there are many initiatives that promote recycling, biodiversity conservation, responsible tourism, and sustainable food production. There are regular community clean-up events, beach conservation projects, biodiversity initiatives, and efforts to reduce waste. This brings people together to make a positive contribution to sustainability.
In our own school there are lots of activities around sustainability taking place. We have a very active Green Schools Committee and the pupils engage in recycling and waste reduction, as well as litter, energy use, biodiversity, and environmental awareness. Under the guidance of the teachers and visiting parents they enjoy planting and harvesting fruit and vegetables in the school polytunnel and give of their time to maintain these plants and polytunnel. They often bring food and dishes into school that they have prepared using the fruit and vegetables which they brought home. The pupils are also active in maintaining the school sensory garden and enjoy seeing the fruits of their labour.
Within the locality the pupils learn about the local windfarm and engage with Energia. A recent project with Energia has seen the school secure two rainwater harvesting tanks. Visits to the windfarm form part of the curriculum along with nature walks, beach visits, and outdoor learning activities. The installation of the solar panels and analysing the data collected brought great excitement amongst the pupils.
In the classroom, I would encourage projects that investigate issues such as litter management, biodiversity, renewable energy, water conservation, or sustainable food production. The pupils could carry out surveys, collect data, record their findings and share them through photographic presentations, posters made during visual arts, recorded videos, digital storytelling, or interactive presentations. Cross-curricular learning would involve other areas such as science, geography, mathematics and literacy.
Pupils with diverse learning needs, including those with complex needs, could explore sustainability through sensory activities, visual supports, practical investigations, and community-based experiences. Planting seeds/flowers, creating wildlife-friendly spaces, sorting recyclable materials, or participating in school gardening projects ensure meaningful engagement with sustainability for everyone.
I like the idea of a local aquaculture producer visiting the school Rosemary. Pupils would definitely benefit from this. We had the ARC at the school this year and it was huge success. It would be great to see it extended to accommodate younger pupils also as we want to promote STEM (and indeed aquaculture) from a very early age. The younger pupils were fascinated with this large “room” that descended on the school playground and were naturally curious about what the older pupils were doing.
Aquaculture can be used in a meaningful way to promote STEM learning as shown by the online lessons and resources developed by the ARC. They help to engage pupils in scientific inquiry, problem-solving, critical thinking, and environmental awareness. They encourage me to consider how I can integrate these approaches into my own teaching whilst also supporting the aims of Ireland’s STEM Education Policy Statement. The STEM Education Policy Statement, promotes active learning, creativity, collaboration, and the development of critical thinking skills which the ARC resources do very well. As a teacher I can help to create opportunities for pupils to explore scientific concepts that have meaning for them, making connections beyond the classroom with the wider world. The hands-on and multidisciplinary nature of aquaculture promotes accessibility to the content for pupils with diverse needs ensuring that all pupils can engage and learn in meaningful ways.
Cross-curricular learning is also key and the ARC resources promotes this. There are endless opportunities to incorporate STEM with other curricular areas as promoted within the STEM Education Policy Statement as well as using digital technologies through video, photography, digital presentations etc to promote digital learning.
Our school can use SSE to identify our strengths and the areas for development in STEM teaching and learning. As part of the process, we could look at ways of providing opportunities for hands-on STEM investigations, improving our pupils’ problem-solving skills, or strengthening links between STEM and the real-world. We already encourage professional collaboration among staff by encouraging the sharing of effective practices across other curricular areas and this can be done with STEM. We also promote a STEM week annually, engage in local environmental projects, and a community partnership helping to promote our STEM learning within the school.