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The film Home is visually beautiful. It is a documentary that shows aerial shots of Earths nature and beauty. The movie really showed me the story of Earth—how it all began, how life grew and thrived, and now, how it’s slowly being damaged by the way we live today. Our modern, consumer-driven lifestyles have taken a toll on the planet, often without us even realizing it. But by understanding this journey, we can start making choices that help protect and heal our world.
I think this movie has given me lots of ideas to teach my students about climate change and the impacts on Earth. I would show the students short clips from the movie to engage them and to encourage them to use their imagination. I would ask the children to go on a fact finding hunt. We would discuss what facts they had learnt. We would also discuss new things they would like to learn. This movie could be used as part of a whole school lesson. Using different elements and topics from the movie with different class levels. Our green school committee could help to support the students further through surveys, discussions and questionnaires. I would also use the movie to integrate across the curriculum. For example: art, literacy, maths, music.
Hi Shane, I agree I found teh cartoon very engaging and think the students would enjoy watching it. Greenhouse gases are a challening concept to teach to children so the video certainly would help with their understanding. I like your idea of getting the students to desgin a future warming prediction tool for a certain time span. It makes it more accessible for the students.
I think there a lots of ways to integrate learning from activity 3. In this activityl, we watched the Paxi video. It is a great resource that will allow the children to develop a better understanding of greenhouse gases. I love teaching students about our impact on the enviornment and so it would provide a great link for previous lessons taught about climate change, and taking care of our planet. I rather like that it could be a project across the entire school year, giving the children opportunities to develop their knowledge.
Activity 3, suggests getting the student to be climate reporters. I love the worksheet provided and think senior classes would really enjoy it. I would use the worksheet to support the students learning. I think it would be lovely to get the kids to complete a project and use activity 3 as a stimulus and support to further their learning. I think this would be a great opportunity to encourage the students to use digital technologies.
This activity could also be done with younger kids through simplyfying the worksheet. I have done something similar with 1st class before.
Hi Elaine, I love your suggestions here. Well Done! I love the idea of creating a weather club in your school. The kids would love it and many are very interested in learning about weather. I think weather is a very good topic to teach school wide and to integrate with other subjects. My school is always keen to collaborate with outside agencies. Getting a meteorologist involved is a great idea. It’s always nice to involve parents in the students learning where possible too.
The ESA activities—especially Weather vs Climate provide engaging, hands-on learning. These can be supported further in the classroom by allowing the children to observe the weather daily. Younger students might begin by measuring daily temperatures with thermometers, while older students could expand data collection to include rainfall and cloud cover. This inquiry based approach would allow the children to learn more.
To lead the school in exploring weather and climate, I would implement a whole-school inquiry project based on the module’s content. Students could collaborate across year levels, present their results and learning during assemblies. This initiative would encourage shared learning, spark curiosity, and build a solid foundation in environmental science.I will be teaching 1st class this year, so I have chosen that class level as a focus to teach about rockets. I would begin by sparking their curiosity with a brief introduction to space and rockets: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Lti6a_YYQl0&pp=ygURcm9ja2V0cyBmb3Iga2lkcyA%3D . Then, we would move to a hands-on activity where the students could create their own paper rockets. I’d guide them through cutting, folding, and decorating their rockets, explaining how real rockets are designed and launched. I would also show the kids NASA’s kids website to encourage them to build or create at home https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/pop-rocket/en/.
Next, we would take our rockets outside to launch them using a simple straw or balloon method. I would encourage the students to observe the distance their rockets travel and discuss why some rockets go farther than others.
To reinforce learning, I’d use interactive online games where they can design and “launch” virtual rockets, linking these activities back to the physical experience. https://www.nasa.gov/specials/kidsclub/games/rocket-builder/index.html
I look forward to using this lesson outline this school year with my students! I would also love to set up a buddy system, where my class could work in pairs with an older class to improve their designs and models.
Hi Sinead,
I love your plan to incorporate space week. You have found so many ways to integrate one learning topic in fun ways! Well done
As teachers, it’s our responsibility to help children understand the weather and how it affects their daily lives, including what they should wear. I believe that teaching about weather should be engaging and hands-on. I would introduce basic concepts like temperature, precipitation, and wind through interactive activities, such as creating simple weather charts or conducting small experiments.
I would then incorporate storytelling, using the book ‘Look at the Weather’ where weather plays a central role, which can also make these lessons relatable. This could also be linked with sphe and how weather can contribute to our feelings.
When it comes to clothing, I’d emphasize the connection between weather conditions and what to wear. For instance, on a rainy day, I’d talk about the importance of wearing waterproof clothing and explain why layers are important on cold days. Encouraging kids to observe and discuss the weather daily can help them develop an understanding of how to dress accordingly. By making it fun and interactive, I hope to instill practical knowledge they’ll use every day.
We could then design clothing for a teddy bear, allowing the students to choose what type of weather and what type of clothing would be suitable for that weather. This would contribute to STEM, through, design, , exploring and making.
Hi Hillary, this looks brilliant! Such a great idea integrating space with play! I’m sure the students loved playing with this!
I have chosen the activity set of ‘Stars’ to respond to this forum. I think stars are amazing and am personally very interested in learning about them. Therefore, I think this will help my students to be motivated and enthusiastic while learning about stars too! Teacher interest is always a benefit when teaching about new things.
I would begin this lesson by showing the students a picture of stars at night. I would use ‘I wonder’ in a think pair share first of all and then a group share to see if the children know what they are. I would then prompt them through questioning.
To follow on from this, I would show them a video to introduce them to what stars are, what they are made from and why we can see them at night/not see them. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrS3Ye8p61Y I love using scishow videos in my class and my student find them very interesting and engaging.
I would then take the opportunity to ask the students if they can work in pairs to think of any questions about stars.
the students would then use this as a stimulus to research their question. I would like to use this activity set to collaborate with art. I would provide the students with a variety of materials and ask them to create stars using arts and crafts.
This is a lovely idea for a lesson! I love Oliver Jeffers as an author! And so do our kids, great way to integrate sese, literacy and art too!
I have chosen the activity set of the planets as a focus for this module. I liked this activity set as it gave a wide variety of multi-media resources. I will have 1st class again this year and I love to use music as a means to engage and motivate the students. Therefore, I think the planet song would be a fun and interactive way to introduce the topic. I would then use questioning to draw prior knowledge from the students and to encourage them to ask questions. I would begin using the resources in module 2, including the video describing the planets to engage the students furthermore. Over a series of lessons, we would examine the planets, tie in the solar system and living things. I would then encourage the students to work in pairs to research a planet if their choice on the school iPads. I would draw there attention to https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/primary-resource/solar-system-primary-resource/, to help them research. They could then work in small groups to complete a fact file, and project using their research. To finish this activity set, the students would be invited to present their projects to their classmates. And give their peers positive and constructive feedback.
I think the idea of a sundial sounds brilliant. Your students would be engaged immediately and be able to take part in an active and fun lesson series. It would be a great way to tie in with history and the first creation of a sun dial!
Hi Aoife,
I love your idea of using ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ as a stimulus to engage the students in learning about the stars. This could be a topic taught school wide with different resources for differentiation
Using an inquiry-based activity to teach children about space fosters curiosity and deepens understanding. I would begin by presenting an engaging question, such as “What would it be like to live on Mars?” As there have recently been new findings about mars I think this could be a very interesting question to pose. I would then encourage students to brainstorm and share their initial thoughts and questions and various resources like books, videos, and interactive simulations to help them explore the topic further.
I would then guide them in forming a hypotheses and to begin planning investigations. This could include creating models of the solar system, observing the night sky, or conducting simple experiments to understand gravity. I would allow students to collaborate, discuss their findings.
Throughout the activity, I would guide the students in asking questions, researching and collaborating. A nice way to finish this activity, would be to allow the students to present their finishing a/projects. This approach not only teaches about space but can also foster essential skills like critical thinking, collaboration, and scientific inquiry.
