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Design Your Own Dark Sky Place
As I mentioned in a previous forum entry, the village around our school ahs grown massively. With growing so quickly we are lacking resources which would be of real benefit to the village. I would link this with this design idea. I would pose the children with the objective of design a park area within our local village which with have the aim of being a dark sky place. To complete this task I would place the children in groups. Before beginning as a class we would discuss important elements of their design such as: location and accessibility, layout, safety concerns, biodiversity and wildlife concerns, light pollution. I would then allow the children work in their group to devise their own dark sky place for our village. The children will have to draw a map of their park incorporating where lights would go, perhaps viewing areas and habitat areas such as bug hotels.
Once complete each group present their proposal to the class as a whole. We will then collaboratively put a plan together of the best of all the childrens ideas and create one big class design incorporating light, biodiversity, safety and accessibility.
Wow this is a fantastic list of resources Elizabeth. Very useful to have them all in one place. I love how you included nursery rhymes such as Hey Diddle Diddle and Star Light, Star Bright. Nursery rhymes are a great beginning of a lesson for junior infants.
Hi Síofra,
I really like the idea of researching Irish wildflowers we could add to our schools and getting the children involved.
It is also so important to get the children involved in identifying suitable areas so they feel ownership over a project like this.
Using the videos and resources as a beginning point, as a class we could do a class study on bats in out area. I would encourage the children in pairs to conduct a study of various types of birds. We would decide on some investigative questions before beginning such as what do bats eat? how do bats see? what aids bat to fly? Once the children have discovered answers to these questions as well as some other information we will reconvene as a class and put all the knowledge we have discovered together.
We will then discuss species bats depend on in our area and the importance of biodiversity and insuring these species have a place to live in out local area. Our local Tidy Towns committee have done a lot of work in our village on Biodiversity. I would ask them to come and speak to us on initiatives they have put in place and how we can help. We would go on a walk with the Tidy Towns and examine the work they have begun.
While on our walk we could carry out a light survey with specific focus on how recent addition of street lights could effect bats in our area.
When we return to class, I would ask the children to put together posters about what they have learned about bats, how we can help bats through biodiversiry and light awareness at night.
Hi Sharon,
I like how you used a light survey and I feel this is somethign I could incorporate into my own lesson. I also like you how had a plan to make the lesson as inclusive as possible for children with additional needs. You could really link in with your local Tidy Towns on this aspect also. Our local Tidy Towns are very proactive and would be great to work with on this topic.
Our school area is a growing village in the West of Ireland. Over the last few years we have gained a number of new housing estates and with it a lot of new street lighting. I would begin by asking the children what are the pros and cons of light. I would start a discussion on ‘If you were locked in a room with the lights on all the time, what challenges would you face?’ I would hope to illict from the children lack of sleep and trouble knowing what time it is. I would then discuss what are some of the problems with gaining additional street lights in our area. We have two large sports complexs nearby which give out a lot of bright light and can bee seen from a distance. I would show the children pictures of these complexs and ask what problems they can identify. We will discuss light pollution for neighbours, lights blinding for road users and the effect on wildlife, inability to see the nightsky.
Our local GAA field has created a walk way lately but has invested in sensor solar lighting the lights up pointed downwards as you walk under the lighting. I will show the children a video of this and ask have any of them used this new walkway. I will illicit why do you think the GAA club invested in lighting like this. We will list the advantages and then we will revisit out local street lights and discuss how we could solve the problem of the brightness they are providing as well as what the other sports complex’s could do to reduce light pollution.
I will remind the children that no effort is too small and ask them what they can do around our school to reduce light pollution – turn off lights when leaving the classroom. I will encouage the children to try doing this at school and home going forward and being aware of light pollution in our area.
Hi Emma,
I really liked this lesson and how you have it laid out in a clear straightforward way. It was very easy to follow and visualise in a classroom. As I have an older class I may adapt this lesson and get them to use the school ipads to investigate Stellarium in groups. I amy also ask them to upload a photo of the night sky at home with a line of what they observed on their Seesaw folders.
I would begin by illiciting from the childrent heir prior knowledge of the moon. As a class we would discuss the children’s knowledge to see do any of the children have fun facts which others may not have been aware of. Next I will use a video similar to the one about Paxi to explaining moon phases and eclipses. I really liked the ESERO 62 lesson on observing the moon and would split the class into groups to carry out the activity of investigating is it possible to see the full moon in the daytime. We will investigate using a ball as a model of the moon, a chair and a torch. Groups will be encouraged to discuss their findings and then we will get feedback from each group to the whole class. We will discuss the phases of the moon. I will discuss with the children the recent solar eclipse during the summer (today) and illicit what the children observed. Then we will watch a video on this recent event. I will then encourgae the children to zone in on our own area and using online information we will search for which phase of the moon is the best observed in the morning. We will then pick a time and for a week we will as a class observe the moon at this time and record what we see on a class chart. We will discuss as a class our findings.
Hi Elizabeth, I love some of the ideas you have suggested here. The importance of understanding direction is very important and linking it to your own location is vital for this lesson and the use of Google maps is a fantastic idea!
I really likes how you suggested using photographs of sundials to ensure the children understand what a sundial looks like.
I think the idea of linking it to the Catholic religion and Newgrange is brilliant – I may be stealing this for when I do this lesson too! I think it really makes sundials and their importance in Irish history and our own local area so relevant.
This year I will be teaching 6<sup>th</sup> class. In order to begin this lesson on constructing a sundial I will ask the children the trigger question what time is it? I will illicit answers and then discuss how we tell the time and what instruments we use. With 6<sup>th</sup> class I would hope one of the students would volunteer the sundial. I will then revise and discuss with the children how the earth rotates on its axis while orbiting the sun I will use video(I think Paxi’s videos are great even for 6<sup>th</sup> class) and the orange with sticks as suggested in this course as a way of reinforcing this. My aim for the lesson is to ensure the children understand how the movement of the earth and the position of the sun creates shadows that can be used to measure time.
I will then discuss how we are going to construct a sundial. I will briefly explain the origins of where the sundial came from and then illicit from the children how they think we would construct one. We are lucky that we have a large area of free space in our school outdoor which we will use to set up a class sundial like how Francis did in the video using a bamboo stick, a flower pot and stones. Before we begin we will investigate how we identify north, south, east and west. Once these are established we will mark where the shadow of the stick is and with chalk note the time. We will set a timer for every hour and a different group of children will go and mark where the shadow is for each hour. As a class we will check with the sundial at small lunch and big break. Before home time we will go back and check the stones placed on the ground throughout the day and see could we estimate where the stones for the rest of the hours should go.
The next day we will revisit the outdoor sundial but I will also make the sundials using the template provided in this lesson with the children working in pairs. I feel this is important to get the children to all have hands on experience of using sundials.
To conclude we will revise what we have learned. We are very proactive in shared learning in our school so I would use the opportunity to join with a younger class and let 6<sup>th</sup> class show their sundials and what they learned. Assessment will be very important throughout and I will do this through questioning, observing, their predictions, their recorded observations and their ability to explain how the sundials work to the younger class.
I think the idea of a permeant sundial in the school would be a fantastic idea and something we may look at investing in as a school.
I love the idea of building and exploring rockets with my class! They love practical lessons so I’m really excited to try this topic out.
From reading the posts, I will start my lesson using the poem I’m Builidng a Rocket by Kenn Nesbitt. Super Simple songs are a big hit in my class so I will also use the song mentioned ‘We’re going on a Rocket Ship’ .
What works best in my class is if I demonstrate first and then allow the children time to explore with mine and SNA supports. I would love to try the Rocket Mice activity mentioned as I think they would love it. We could then explore the question of how does changing force affect how far the rocket goes. I would go to our school hall and we could use cones to mark how far our rockets go. Their are so many options to explore this topic more that I think the people will enjoy. Thanks for all the fabulous ideas in this forum!
Hi Sinéad this is a fantastic indepth look at how to incorporate space week into the inant classroom! I really like how you integrated into maths and even board games! Such a simple but effective idea.
Activity Set: Where Do You Live?
I chose this activity as I feel its very hands on for the students in my class and very practical and a topic they can easily engage with as it is about their own homes.
I would begin with a matching task where we use parts of a house and match this onto a house template to create a house. I would ensure to use the labels for each part throughout such as roof, door etc. I would then sing a version of the song ‘This is the house that X built’ encorporating the children’s names.
Then we would look at the visuals of houses provided. Visuals are very important in my class as some of the students are preverbal. I would link with home here and ask parents to send me a photograph of the child’s own home. I would ask the child to identify through speech, pointing, AAC device their home. Then we would look at the images and see which house it is like. We would discuss colours and match which colour is their house. I would link it to my family and discuss who lives in my home.
Next using playdough or blocks (some children don’t like the texture of playdough), we would, with support build our houses. We would place these in our tuft tray to create Our Village. I would then give the children time to play with this as I interact with them. I believe play is so important to illicit knowledge from the children. For the children from a farming background I would encourage them to add farm animals. For the child who has a big garden we would add grass. For the child from an urban area we would add buses and traffic lights around their house.
We use our local area a lot so for our next lesson we would go for a walk around our local village and look at other buildings in our area. The local picnic area gives a great safe space to look around at nearby buildings. We would take pictures of local buildings such as the shop, restaurant etc and look at these where we get back to class. We would then add these to our village and again allow the children time to play with the ‘village’.
For our next lesson I would use the story The Three Little Pigs and examine the 3 types of materials they used to build houses. Then we could in small groups make houses from straw, wood, and lego blocks. Using teddies as the wolf we could try to blow the houses down and examine which material is the strongest for building houses.
For Art we could do varying art lessons to draw our houses. One student may paint their house, some may colour in a template of their house, others my use felt and crepe paper to stick together to make their house.
