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I am currently a Junior Infant teacher and I think this topic on local biodiversity and light pollution is a great way to introduce the younger children into caring for their local environment. I work in a rural school and there are many mountains and local woodland areas to explore with the children daily. I also think it is a great way of teaching children by immersing them fully into the topic at hand and to make connections. As these children are quite young, I will directly teach them what ‘biodiversity’ is. I will then use an image of our local area to engage all children in the lesson before we begin on our nature walk in pairs to our heritage centre to observe what we can see i.e. the different plants/animals that live there. This will incorporate the subject of P.E. also as we will create a scavenger hunt based on plants/animals that we know can be found here. At the end of the day we will discuss as a class what were our findings. In the next lesson, I will take the children on another nature walk to the same place to observe what light pollution might be disrupting these local habitats that we spoke about in our previous lesson. Children may need to be prompted during this lesson to help them begin depending on their ability. Some of the answers the children may come up with may be street lighting etc., To end the lesson, we will come up with ways that we can protect our local area to ensure these plants and animals are not being disturbed.
As I am also a Junior Infant teacher I was very drawn to your response. I think it is really important to allow the children to make connections with their own local environment in order to engage them fully in the lesson. I also think it was a great idea giving the children a visual checklist to observe what plants and animals they saw in their area and how light can impact them.
As I work in a rural school in Ireland, thankfully light pollution is less severe than other towns/cities around the country. However, artificial lighting is spreading at high speed into these rural parts of the country. I would engage the children into the lesson by using an image/video of the local woodland area in our village to assess their prior knowledge. In groups, the children will discuss and create mind maps on the environmental issues that this woodland area will have as a result of light pollution. Over the course of the week, we will take part in various nature walks at various times of the day to explore the area by taking pictures/drawings etc., on what we observed and would could cause issues for wildlife, plants & the local people e.g. street lighting can cause insomnia for the local villagers and artificial lighting could have an impact on the local habitats e.g. owls, hedgehogs etc., which rely on natural darkness to navigate, hunt and reproduce. At the end of the week, children will come together as a class and discuss their findings on what they found to be the main light polluting issues impacting our local area and what we can do as society to help maintain our local natural night environment, biodiversity and the village’s rural charm. If time allowed, I would also love the children to take part in a debate ‘Is light pollution having an impact on our local environment’ as part of SPHE.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading through your lesson plan as it really integrated the SESE subjects i.e. working as historians and comparing light pollution to what is happening in our world today. I really like how you engaged your learners through prior knowledge of their own environment by taking part by observing light pollution in their own area. I also like how you used a simple but effective stimulus to engage other learners into the lesson i.e. images/videos. A really engaging lesson for older children.
As I am a Junior Infant teacher, I was very drawn to the assignment on ‘planning to observe the Moon’ as somedays the children are fascinated that they can still see the moon in the morning sky when they are lining up to come into school, as they believe the sun is for daytime and the moon is for nighttime.
When planning to observe the moon with the children, I believe the best phase is the last quarter. It rises and is visible around midnight to noon. Noon is the perfect time for my children in my class as it is their lunchtime so we will already be on yard. We will observe this moon phase on September 17th this year as the children will have been settling into school life in the Junior Infant classroom and I think it will be a lovely first engaging activity for the class to take-part in.
After the activity the children can record what they saw in their school yard by creating a picture and describing to the class what they observed.
Hi Gráinne, I really enjoyed how you engaged the children in their learning by modelling the solar system through the clay strand of the visual art curriculum. I thoroughly enjoy using thematic planning in my classroom and this is one really good way of showing this integration. I also think it is a great idea to divide the children into groups as this will ensure mixed ability and will appeal to all types of learners in your classroom. This will be a great project for the older children of the school to showcase their talents through the SESE subjects.
As I am a Junior Infant teacher the last 5 years, I was very drawn to the activity on understanding the seasons as I have noticed through the years some children find it difficult to understand fully the order and changes that happen within the year when it is associated with the weather/time/change etc., By reading through the ESA booklet within the last slide, I would engage students in my class with this activity by discussing daily the various changes we can see in our immediate environment throughout the different months/year i.e. trees, plants, animals, weather etc., As a class we would create a display for each season as they arise and children will add to it often e.g. life cycle of a tree/animal during that season etc., This will incorporate the subject of visual arts. We would also incorporate story time into our lessons about each season e.g. autumn stories/stories about animals hibernating etc., Simple everyday language will be used as they are young children e.g. when the earth is tilted towards the sun, it is summer etc., I will incorporate the 5 senses into our lessons when we take part in various nature walks around the school looking at small changes e.g. buds growing on the trees etc., It will be very much based on the class at hand whether or not we can go further with our discussions or tasks etc., I like to work on various themes in my classroom so all subjects will be incorporated as best as we can whether that is song & dance or drama etc.,
Hi Mona, I really like how obvious you have made it for a reader to clearly see the integration of the SESE Subjects i.e. history – children becoming historians looking at the past and how these people measured time and what they used etc., I also like how you engaged the children into the lesson through prior knowledge on shadows. A really well thought out lesson for the children in your class.
I love this way of teaching as I am myself a Junior Infant teacher and I think it is so beneficial to the children to teach thematically across a fortnight/month on a certain topic as it really consolidates their learning and makes sure that each type of learner in the classroom is being met in someway.
This year in our school we are engaging in ‘Space Week’ for the first time. As a Junior Infant teacher I am a big believer in ‘thematic planning’ so I will be exploring all about ‘Space’ through each curricular area. For example, in Language & Literacy/Gaeilge, I will explore a CJ Fallon Rainbow oral Language poster based on ‘Space’ with the children in order for them to start to learn new vocabulary. I will be exploring Oliver Jeffers ‘Space’ book to focus on reading/writing i.e. The way back home etc., The children will incorporate visual art into their English lesson by drawing how they think (predicting) the boy is going to get back home by just reading the title/looking at the front/back cover. In drama/Aistear, we will explore ‘Teacher in Role’/Roleplay as teacher becomes the boy/alien and the children will get to explore themselves as astronauts/aliens going to space in their aircraft etc., In Music, we will make up a song ‘Climb above the spacecraft’ based on the theme tune (itsy bitsy spider) which will incorporate Maths into this lesson by counting back wards from 10,9,8 etc., We will explore ‘space safety’ in our SPHE lessons which will add a sense of wonder/curiosity amongst the children about various ways the boy may need to keep safe in space/on the aircraft. Finally, as part of SESE we will look at constructing an aircraft from junk art material (interlinking aistear/visual art) as part of a class project/experiment and explore as ‘scientists’ what we need in order for our spacecraft to be ready for liftoff. We will also look at Neil Armstrong blasting into space landing on the moon so the children know that is has been carried out before and we will also look at Dr Norah Patten and how she is preparing to set off on her space mission in 2026.
I was very drawn to this activity as I am a Junior Infant teacher myself and it is wonderful to gain great ideas and explore other activities to bring into my own classroom in the upcoming September.
As a Junior Infant teacher I think hands on themed activities are a must in the infant classrooms across the country. In our school, we ensure that we chose a theme each month to explore with the children. For example, ‘The Weather station’, ‘The Science Lab’, ‘Space’ etc., We thematically plan our subjects to incorporate this theme into our lessons for the month. Thus, from exploring the online resources and tools from module 4 I have gained and explored a number of activities and resources/websites that will enhance my thematic planning for the year going forward. When focusing on the theme ‘The Weather station’ in our classroom we look at the various types of clothes we wear during each season by using real everyday life clothes that the children already wear (to elicit prior knowledge/learn from own personal experience). Various types of clothing (that the children bring in) are displayed around the classroom and each group must find their appropriate type of clothing for the season they are exploring (i.e. the foxes are exploring the theme of ‘Summer’ they must find clothes suitable to wear in the summer). As we can sometimes wear the same type of clothes in various seasons, it is up to the children to explore and pose wonder as to why we may need a jumper sometimes in spring/summer. We then explore/discuss with why we wear these clothes and reflect and consolidate our learning by drawing a portrait of ourselves with clothes that we love to wear during a season we enjoy throughout the year (these portraits are then displayed in the classroom which also incorporates the theme of ‘myself in SPHE.
I love the idea of getting the children to draw what the alien looks like. This would especially be interesting in a Junior Infant class of boys as they love to use their imagination when it comes to drawing which is great to see. I think it would be a great idea and something that the children could share openly with the rest of the class as to their alien they have drawn (authors chair). I can just imagine the laughter the class would get out of some of the aliens that some of the children would come up with.
I would focus on using the ‘Stars’ activity in my Junior Infant classroom. To introduce the lesson and to elicit the children’s prior knowledge on the topic of ‘stars’ I would show the children a picture/video of a child friendly night sky full of stars. This would lead into an oral group discussion where the class teacher can ask open-ended questions to prompt engagement and curiosity of the children. Next, I would read the story ‘How to catch a star’ by Oliver Jeffers as this will further allow the children to explore their own personal perception of ‘I wonder how could we catch a star in the high sky etc., As a class we will use a white roll of paper across the floor so all children have access to it and each child will draw various stars of different shapes/size etc., (integration of Math/construction – visual art) across the paper. Next, the children will use glow in the dark paint and paint their stars various colours etc., once this dries we will cut out our stars and stick them onto black sugar card/paper. Next, we will turn off the lights/pull down the blinds etc., to make the room dark and for us to see our glow in the dark stars that we have created. Depending on the class, the teacher may need to model how to draw a star or have cut out templates at hand, otherwise the children are free to create their own versions of stars they see in the night sky. After this lesson we will reflect on what we have learned about stars etc., and if our predictions or thoughts about trying to catch a star has changed or stayed the same based on the L & L story read at the beginning of the lesson. (This activity can be integrated across Aistear/SESE & Visual Art). Whilst the children are working on their stars the class teacher is facilitating the children’s learning around the room by observing, using questioning/modelling etc.,
I absolutely love this activity for infants especially for ‘Aistear’. This year as part of the yearly Aistear programme in our school we are using the theme of ‘Space’ as a monthly topic of exploration and I am so looking forward to letting the children explore all about space/moon etc., I will be letting the children take into the role of Neil A walking on the moon wearing an astronaut costume with a helmet and jumping into his rocket ship as well as letting the children send notes through the earths atmosphere back home as they are stranded on the moon etc., This is an excellent lesson based on the Moon Claire.
