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I just think the cross curricular integration is superb and the children will learn so much and the teachers will get the curriculum coveted more efficiently.
Stopping By Woods on A Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
Someone Came Knocking by Walter de la Mare
Star Light, Star Bright
Starlight, star bright,
First star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.Hey Diddle, Diddle, The Cat and the Fiddle
Stories
Stories of the Banshee at night
Oíche na Gaoithe Móire ar an 6ú/7ú lá de Mhí Eanáir –
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy5wxU4T1Ho
Owl Babies by Martin Waddell
Fantastic Mr Fox – Roald Dahl
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Peace at Last By Jill Murphy
The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson
Mog on Fox Night by Judith Kerr
The Kissing Hand
Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes
Katie and the Starry Night by James Mayhew
How To Catch A Star by Oliver Jeffers
Songs
Mr Sun
Waiting for a star to fall by Boy Meets Girl
When you Wish Upon a Star by Cliff Edwards
I See The Moon And The Moon Sees Me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSGkJSHzjpU
A Spaceman Came Travelling by Chris De Burgh
Here Comes The Sun by The Beatles
You Saw The Whole Of The Moon by The Waterboys
Where The Stars Go Blue by Ryan Adams
How you would incorporate the needs of nocturnal species, especially those that rely on dark skies into school biodiversity plans?
A school biodiversity plan would consider the needs of nocturnal species by reducing unnecessary artificial light and protecting our dark skies. We have a Green-Schools Committee in our school lead by an APII post holder and made up of different children from senior classes. This would be a great project for them to organise as a whole school initiative as well as the local community involved to promote home school community links as I’m in. DEIS school. The children could explore how light pollution affects our local wildlife and in particular, our nocturnal animals. They would love this. A survey of the school’s outdoor lighting could be carried out and monitored over time to see if lights are being left on unnecessarily; does the school use lighting that points upwards; is warm-coloured lighting an option? For families, or for homework, children could observe and monitor the night sky and record any wildlife sightings and share their findings in class. They could also monitor their gardens at nighttime and see if they notice any signs of wildlife/species and to check for any unnecessary lighting being used in and around their homes. A whole-school campaign/action plan, with ideas and strategies, could then be organised to help protect our nocturnal animals and our local wildlife. This would be brilliant and so effective.
Love the idea of introducing Wild Things at school to introduce the swallow. We always forget about birds. This stood out to me in the course content.
Module 3 Question 1 – Light Pollution
I would begin this lesson by assessing student’s prior knowledge and asking them what do they think the term light pollution means. I would then show the students a PowerPoint on what light pollution is and its impact on wildlife in Ireland.We could watch a n ie video too.
The school is located in a town so the students would be affected by light pollution. I would show the students images of the night sky taken from the city and ask them to compare and contrast it with their own setting.
We would then take a tour of our own school/local area and see what sources of light pollution are in the area. We could also look at doing the same at home. Students would be encouraged to go on an evening stroll in Drogheda town/ their gown area, estate etc, and compare and contrast their findings.
Finally students could take a survey of what steps/measures they could take at home in order to combat light pollution and they could make posters.
Select from one of the activities in the Framework for Inquiry:
I just love the idea of the children making their own 3-D constructions/ constellations. I’m thinking that my First Class would love this for this school year. I would start by asking questions like, “Have you ever looked up at the sky at night time before going to bed?” “What did you see?” “Have you ever noticed any patterns or pictures when looking at the stars?”
I would hope that the word “constellation” would be asked the meaning of by a child and, if not, I would introduce and explain what it means. I would then show the class some images of the different constellations e.g. The Big Dipper and Orion. We would also watch a short video for e.g. SciShow Kids – Constellations and Paxi – The Solar System. I thought these were great resources. The children would then choose which constellation they would like to construct; use black card and a light-coloured pencil to draw it; use glue and small pompoms to glue each “star” down; connect the stars with black straws so it becomes 3-D. When the children have completed the activity they should: understand and explain what a constellation is; identify some popular constellations; be able to construct a simple 3-D model of a constellation.I love this plan to teach the children about constellations – it is so clear, fun, engaging and easy to follow with all the learning objectives identified and ticked off.
Plan how your students could “observe and record the positions of the sun when rising and setting and at different times of the day”
I have First Class in September and I think this would be a lovely activity to do with them to introduce STEM through a topic they see every day and are so familiar with.
We could start by discussing the sun and maybe reading a book about the sun.We could also do a word bank of the key words we would be exploring. We could then go outside and in the morning and the children could draw what they see in the sky and then we go outside again later in the day and we should compare our earlier observation with another drawing. They could also do this earlier and later in the evening at home at the weekend as the lessons outside would help them.
We could then discuss our finding in pairs and then whole class using terminology we had introduced at the start. This would also be a nice activity for the First Class to buddy up with a younger class and teach them about it.Such a lovely idea to make shadow puppets with the infants. They would love this. I must check out Twinkl too for more ideas. Thank you.