Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I have never heard of this book and just googled it. It looks absolutely magical and will definitely be popping it in my Amazon basket. This is an adorable book and I love the activities you have chosen to accompany it! Thanks for the wonderful ideas!
Class plan for Space Week:
Art: Guided drawing of an alien in a space ship. I have tried and tested this and mounted them all onto black backing paper/noticeboard paper decorated with stars and planets in glitter and mixed media to create one huge class piece.
Play: Role play station – space ship. Stellarium used for art station where childre can recreate what they saw stargazing. Construction- building spacecrafts for aliens or alien homes.
Literacy: Create comic strips for a new story based on the characters Marvin and Milo. Read Man on the Moon and engage with the Power of Reading lessons on this book.
STEM: Build and make spacecrafts/launch rockets.
Maths: Sequencing – Day and night
Geography: Our place in Space: Talk about where we live then county, country, where we are on the planet, where we are in the solar system. Create a display to create a visual for the children.
I love this activity. I agree that it is totally child centered and a wonderful catalyst for deeper inquiry and discussion. It’s very hands on and it’s a great experiment for the classes.
It’s a particularly exciting one as I’m sure some children will predict that balloon will burst and the discussion around why it doesn’t will be fascinating for them. There’s also wonderful ‘tension’ in the lesson as well with the anticipation of popping balloons which makes it extra engaging!
I love the idea of using Marvin and Milo in the younger classes as a way to introduce the concept of space. I love the idea of the Stellarium too as an addition to the theme of Space that I already have planned for a month. I have taught junior and senior infants every second year for six years and Space is a theme we explore in senior infants.
We explore it mostly through play and this year is the first year we will be leaving most of Aistear behind and focusing in the new play model. I plan on keeping my role play area and this will be set up like a spaceship (think tin foil, astronaut costumes, buttons, remotes, controls etc.). The kids adore this and I think the Stellarium would be a wonderful addition to the whole theme. A whole area or station could be based on it and children could be invited to go stargazing using the Stellarium then they could recreate constellations or parts of the galaxy with chalk, peg boards, art materials, whatever they wish, with as many materials as I can give them. I can imagine these would all make a beautiful display when the work is done!
Hi Lauren,
A Star in my Orange is such a beautiful idea, I have never heard of this but it’s one of my favourite activities I have taken away from this forum so far. Thanks for such a wonderful lesson idea, I think the children would be really fascinated by it and peeling the orange is such an engaging way to begin a lesson. I also really love the creative element of it. Thanks again!
Activity set: Space and Aliens
I really love this as a theme that could be used and explored for a month or more in the classroom. There are so many subject areas you can dip in and out of under this heading and I think children have quite a natural curiosity for space and the concept of aliens is such a fun way to explore space, tapping into their imagination and creativity while basing all of it in fact.
I’d like to explore this in our thematic play set up and spread it across some stations, for example:
1. Construction: Build a spaceship/home for an alien or martian.
2. Literacy: Explore heart words and CVCC or CCVC words around the theme of space – word to picture matching, sentence building, decodable readers around the theme, spelling activities.
3. Arts and Crafts: Make/draw your own alien or martian. These could be laminated or made from concrete materials and then used in the construction area.
4. Roleplay/Socio-dramatic area: This area could be a spaceship, set up with a control station, astronaut costumes, templates for writing/drawing for the children to document their journey in space etc.
5. Play doh: Play doh mats can be used to encourage children to make their own aliens or spaceships.
Disclaimer: As best practice advises, I would set these areas up for the children but ultimately they decide how to engage with the resources and topics.
Hi Orla!
I love the idea of the stations, it’s engaging, covering loads of ideas and topics at once, creative and very hands on for the children. There are a number of the stations that the children could navigate independently, leaving the teacher to move around and immerse themselves in the exploration and discussion with the children. Thanks for this idea, it’s fabulous!
Hi everyone!
I would like to explore the topic: The Moon. This is most interesting to me and I think is often something that really fascinates children. I find it’s one of the most accessible topics to begin with when exploring space, as the children can see it. The earth being a sphere, for example is a huge concept and the moon is something the kids see often and it’s a nice introduction to the concepts that follow.
In my infant class for the last number of years I have engaged with the Power of Reading and The Man on the Moon by Simon Bartram is a picture book we explore over the course of a month.
This is a beautiful book that follows the daily life of Bob who works on the moon. He takes care of it, keeps it clean, gives guided tours, etc. The illustrations are stunning and there are endless lessons that can be created from the storybook.
This story is a fantastic way to open the topic of the moon and gives ample opportunity to discuss it. The discussion points would be as follows:
– Do you think Bob’s job is real? Why/why not?
– Discuss Bob’s commute to work: is it feasible?
– Chat about Bob’s jobs on the moon. Could we go there on a guided tour? Talk about the aliens/visitors to the moon. Bob is cleaning and looking after the moon, chat about this.
After the discussion explore some facts about the moon, then revisit the discussion about Bob’s job. Talk about people who actually have gone to the moon, its landscape, gravity, other facts.I had only every heard of the name Brian Cox but after seeing him mentioned so many times, I am now stuck down a rabbit hole of his lectures and the way he explains and approaches things is fascinating and really accessible! Thank you for introducing him to me!
Hi everyone, my name is Robyn and I’m am infant teacher, juniors into seniors every second year for six years now.
My favourite space fact is one I leaned in this module and it’s that the gravity on the moon is less than that on earth because the moon is smaller. I always thought there was no gravity on the moon so that stood out to me and I am no longer misinformed.
One of the activities I enjoy the idea of is exploring the potential real estate on the different planets. When I taught second class, we learned about the different planets by scoping out which one would be the most suitable for a family of aliens to buy a house on. We looked at what the planets were made of, their landscapes, climates, etc. and compared the planets to each other, creating fact files on each of them. We then had in depth discussions about what planets the children thought would be the most suitable for the aliens to buy a house on and live out their lives on. The children had great knowledge of the different planets after this exploration and it led to wonderful debates on which planet they deemed most appropriate.
