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I am choosing Rockets as the activity set.
I will introduce the topic by reading the book ‘We Have Lift Off’ by Sean Taylor.
I would like to do the experiment ‘Rocket Launch’ with the children. I will break the children up into groups.
The children will need large balloons, string, drinking straw, clothes peg, Sellotape, two chairs.
1. Blow up a long-shaped balloon and let it go.
2. Notice what happens.
3. Pull string through a drinking straw.
4. Tie the string to two chairs and pull it tight.
5. Blow up a long shaped balloon and keep the air it in it using a clothes peg.
6. Using Sellotape attach the balloon to the side of the straw.
7. Pull the whole thing back to the beginning of the string and take off the clothes peg and… launch your rocket!
We will compare how far our rockets went- whose went the furthest? Etc.
I will end the lesson by doing the poem ‘The Rocket’ by Andrew Frinkle.Incorporating hands-on classroom themed activities is a fantastic way to engage students and promote learning.
I would choose Weather as the theme for a hands-on classroom themed activity.
• Observe and discuss a variety of weather conditions
• Read some poems/ rhymes about the weather e.g. Wind Tricks or the Playful Wind.
• Record weather using a weather chart or a diary
• Make a weather vain/ sundial/ rain gauge etc.
• Become aware of the effects of weather on human, animals and plant life.
• Aistear: dress up for various types of weather conditions. Role play- weather forecast.
• Art: design various weather pictures using a variety of materials- make a collage using magazines etc.
• Music: ‘Four Seasons’ by Vivaldi. Discuss and listen to the various parts of this piece of music. Respond to the music through pictures and movement.
• PE- different movements.
• Drama – express a winter storm in drama or movement.I love these ideas and would be great to include some of these during Aistear. Weather is such a broad topic and could be integrated into lots of subjects!
The activity Set I am going to pick for this module is ‘Stars’.
I would introduce the topic to the children by showing pictures of stars and constellations. We will look at the different shapes and see can the children identify them e.g. Leo, looks like a crouching lion, Ursa Major, forms the shape of a bear. I will encourage the children to go out at night and see can they identify them.
Experiment: Learn why stars appear to twinkle.
Fill a bowl two-thirds full with water. Crinkle up some aluminium foil and wrap it around the bowl. Darken the room and switch on a torch. Point the torch into the bowl. Tap the bowl to ripple the water and see twinkling light. The light is bent as it passes through the rippling water, in the same way the starlight is bent as it passes through the air around the Earth.Hi Eleanor, I love the way you integrated the theme across a number of subjects. Teaching thematically is very beneficial for the children.
I love the idea of using the poem as part of the morning daily routine, as this is a effective way of teaching them facts and language.
The activity Set I am picking is the Sun and Shadows.
I would tell the children that we are going to use the sun and shadows to tell time. Discuss that this is what they used long ago to tell the time before phones/ clocks etc. People long ago used a sundial.
Have any children ever seen a sundial? Do they know how it works? Explain that a sundial has a stick or pointer that makes a shadow. This is called the gnomon. It is important that in the Northern hemisphere the gnomon always points North, or you will not be able to read the sundial. Explain that the Earth turns on its axis. This means that the position of the Sun with regard to the Earth is always changing. Demonstrate this using a torch and an orange. Explain that the shadow of an object also changes as the Earth rotates. The sundial uses this fact. By looking at the position of the shadow of the gnomon on the sundial, you can tell what time it is.
Make a simple sundial with the children- poke a straw through a paper plate and take it outdoors when it’s sunny. Every hour, mark the time of day where the shadow from the straw strikes the plate. Use your sundial to tell the time on the next sunny day.My favourite space fact is that space is completely silent. There is no air or atmosphere in space. Since it is a vacuum, sound waves have no medium to travel to.
I really like the idea of the exploration stations. It would allow for children to really zone in on a certain topic and cover various activity.
Hi,
My name is Rachel and I am excited to learn more about how the theme ‘Space’ can be used in the classroom.
Inquiry based activity- Floating Ice Activity.
• Talk to your students about the chemical bonds that hold water molecules together. Explain how those bonds stretch out when water freezes so that ice becomes less dense than liquid water.
• Pour water into a plastic bottle and then place it in the freezer. Compare the volume of the liquid and solid water after freezing.
• Fill a jug of ice water. Draw a line where the water level is before the ice melts. Allow the ice to melt into the water and make a second line where the water level is now. Compare the two.
• This activity could also lead onto “Floating & Sinking”- the children have large bowls of water. In each group they will have a number of materials. They will have a sheet predicting what will float and then they will record their results. This will encourage group work and co-operation as well as inquiry based learning and investigation.Sustainability is vital for protecting our resources to use, but also protecting the environment and the species which live on our planet. I have never heard of the 3 pillars and how these principles provide a framework to evaluate sustainability for people. Seaweed farming has become more popular across Ireland in recent years. It is commonly used in cosmetics or spa treatments because of the great qualities it offers. It has become a fast growing industry. Introducing the children to this versatile product will give them the opportunity to get a better understanding of how important our oceans are and how we can become more sustainable in order to keep them for future generations. Introducing the children to the different labels associated with sustainability – MSC and ASC will allow them the opportunity to keep an eye out for these when in supermarkets and make better choices. I thought the slide with the links of threatened species interesting and will be bringing that back to the classroom. These links are great starter points for discussion on sustainability.
When we look at the effects of non-sustainability, such as global warming and its effects, we often forget about the sea animals, such as oysters, salmon, shellfish. It would be a great learning opportunity for the children, especially as we are an island.
The booklet would be a great resource for the senior classes to use. It’s great that your school reviews your healthy eating policy each year. As you mentioned, sometimes it is hard to implement it when you don’t have the parents on board.
This module has highlighted great resources we can use in the classroom. Nutrition is an essential part of a healthy and balanced diet. The food pyramid is a great representation to help with maintaining a healthy diet. Going through each section of the food pyramid is a informative lesson in itself. From my own experience, children have less knowledge of what is considered ‘healthy’. By using the food pyramid as a classroom resource, it shows the children where they can obtain certain nutrients and minerals for their body to maintain a healthy diet. Before this module I didn’t realise that such a large amount of the Irish population – 80% is lacking vitamin D in the body. Vitamin D is essential for us, especially as it allows for the absorption of Calcium in the body. The Healthy Food for Life is a great website that offers invaluable information that can be incorporated across the curriculum.
The online ARC lessons and resources provide a great range of topics that I can see my class loving. It is great to have the use of these and I plan on using these next year. I am excited to share these resources with other staff members too. I can see the older children enjoying researching a chosen aspect of sea farming and creating a project on this. The Blue School Award is something I will look into with my class as I know many of them would be interested in it. This course has given me a whole different angle on farming. There are so many links between STEM and aquaculture that can be highlighted to the children. Students are given the opportunity to be made aware of the many jobs available in the aquaculture industry, which is STEM based. It would be great to get a field trip to a seafood producer to reinforce what we are learning about.
