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While the resources mentioned in the modules are fantastic to learn about, I have compiled a list of story books from suggestions in the forum post that I will be trying to add to my collection. It is fantastic to compile a list of resources from those teaching at a similar age level.
Homes and Houses
The ESERO resource on where do you live is a fantastic guide as to how I might go about teaching a lesson to children in my class.
Introduction: – We would read the story of the “The three little pigs”
We would talk about the houses that all looked different and were unique and were made from different materials.
Body of lesson: We will look at pictures of different homes and houses and I will ask the children to circle the picture that looks most like their house. I will ask them to use the colours to make the house look as close as it does to their own house.
I love the idea of giving the children the chance to build their own community by making homes and houses and we could then talk about what things are needed to make a community what it is.
In reality, this lesson would be spread over a few days and not one standalone lesson.
I completely agree, Peg boards would be perfect for this activity while also developing the motor skills of the children.
I love the idea of using a song or a story about Aliens to introduce a lesson to an infant class. I think Aliens would really trigger interest in the small children and I can imagine the excitement as they describe what their very own alien would look like.
Stories which stand out to me which I have read before with infants and which they really enjoyed are ”The way back home” by Olivier Jeffers and “Aliens love Underpants” by Claire Freeman and Ben Cort. The latter would really raise a laugh and get the children excited about the lesson.
We would maybe act how you would react if you were to see an alien to integrate an element of drama. We would talk about what aliens might look like and I would give children a ball of clay each to create their own alien.
As a follow-on activity to this, We would paint our aliens as our art lesson for the week.
Yes when you start thinking about it there are so many opportunities for integration across so many subject areas in particular in the infant classroom.
esero day and night.
The ESERO (European Space Education Resource Office) provides a variety of educational resources for teaching about space and related topics. One of their educational resources is the “30 Day and Night in the World” lesson, which aims to help students understand the concepts of day and night and how they occur on Earth.
The lessons typically cover earths rotation, day and night cycle, sunrise and sunset, timezones and seasonal variations.
You would hope that children would have an understanding of day and night having completed the lessons. Some activities mentioned to enable this learning are :
Globe and Lamp Demonstration: Using a globe and a lamp to simulate the Sun, students can see how rotation causes day and night.
Time Zone Calculations: Exercises to help students understand how to calculate time differences between various parts of the world.
Modeling Sunrise and Sunset: Using physical models or software to simulate the Sun’s path and understand how it changes with seasons.The ESERO 30 day and night document is definitely something I could use in my Senior Infant class.
I think I would start by showing the children the different pictures of diurnal animals and nocturnal animals and spend one standalone lesson on this.
I would spend time questioning them about the animals and by the end we would have come to the conclusion that nocturnal animals have larger eyes etc.
I think some of the cutting activities would be challenging for small children, so in the next lesson I would have a globe and point out where we are. I would ask children if anyone knows someone who lives in different countries around the world and elicit Australia from the children. We would talk about how Australia is on the other side of the world.
I would use a flashlight then to talk about day and night and use the globe to show them how when it is daytime here, Australia is in darkness and vice versa. This is very visual for children and a hands-on activity so they respond very well to it. It is something that I have used in the past and it is very effective.
Yes, completely agree Amy, I think the ESERO 30 day and night plan is very suitable for younger classes while also agreeing re motor skills needed. This is definitely something I will use in the classroom in the coming year.
Reading some of the posts on this forum has also made me aware how I myself unconsciously use gender stereotypes in the classroom. We have boys’ toys and girls’ toys labelled in the classroom in exactly the way you would expect stereotyping to work. Cars and blocks for the boys and dolls etc for the girls. This is something I will be changing for the coming academic year.
It is also very easy to see stereotypes in our yards. The majority of our boys will play a sport and the majority of the girls will not however I am more aware after this module of ensuring that both boys and girls need to be aware that they do not need to follow this “rite of passage”
I enjoyed the SPHE lessons on gender stereotypes for a first class level. They were simple but effective and thought provoking and I can see the benefits of incorporating specific gender lessons through development education.
Development education is educating for a just and sustainable world. It is an essential tool now in schools to learn about some of the complex issues in the world such as poverty injustice and human rights. When children have an understanding of issues from their primary education and in an age appropriate fashion they are more likely to make connnections between their own lives and social issues and will be more empowered to make a difference.
At the core of development education is that we are all global citizens. Developing cross cultural awareness in schools and promoting diversity is at the core of this. The green flag and Yellow flag work in tandem in this way. For e.g. We may be celebrating diversity and culture in our school through the yellow flag while the theme of Global citizenship may allow us to look at the area of fair trade.
We have incorporated this into our DEIS plan in the school to develop partnerships with parents from different cultures and to invite them in at different times during the year to speak to classes.I also like the idea of Global Goals week which I can see is being celebrated in September. I was not previously aware of this so this is something that I will bring back to my school as part of my post on the yellow flag programme.
Hi all,
My name is Sarah, I am currently support teaching for Senior Infants but will be taking Senior Infants mainstream in September.
My favourite fact about space is that there are more stars in the milky way than the number of humans that have ever been born.
I chose this course as I feel that Space is one of those areas that captures the imagination no matter what age you are as there is always more to learn.
A very simple inquiry -based activity that I have used time and time again is Making Rice Krispie buns.
The materials needed are very simple-Cooking chocolate, Rice Krispies, A bowl and Spoon
Before starting I would hold up a few bottle of different household items drink and would teach children the word liquid if they did not already know it. I would also hold up blocks and some other classroom items and talk about they are solid.
I would discuss and question the children on what will happen to the solid bar of chocolate when we put it into the microwave and inadvertently we are discussing states of matter- introducing the concept without overwhelming the children with very complicated language.
