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I like the idea of acrostic poems here. Such a great way to get children thinking about what they have learned about the night sky and space and the moon and to use their vocabulary creatively.
The first art that comes into my mind and was mentioned in this module is of course Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Starry night.’ I know it has been used many a time in schools all over the country but it is clear to see why as it has so many cross curricular links. Along with literacy and science it can be used for art, history, music, mindfulness and well-being and even maths while looking at shapes, lines, counting and patterns.
Some songs/rhymes for younger classes would include:
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Zoom, zoom, zoom, we’re going to the Moon
The Man on the Moon
Star Light, Star BrightAnd some slightly more modern one for older classes
Sky full of Stars (Coldplay)
Talking to the Moon (Bruno Mars)
Fly me to the Moon (Frank Sinatra)
Moon River (Andy Williams)Poems
Bright Star (John Keats)
Ah Moon -and Star (Emily Dickonson)Hi Caroline, I have also seen a lot of biodiversity wildflower meadows and areas in our community that are let overgrow to provide a habitat for creatures and insects and think this would also be a great idea to increase biodiversity in schools and communities.
After working on light pollution with my class they will all have a clear understanding of how the absence of dark skies affects nocturnal animals. This will be a good starting point to incorporate nocturnal species into biodiversity plans. Whether an animal is nocturnal or not is something that children learn as early as junior infants and being able to list some animals awake during the night usually seems to fascinate young children so I think the desire to protect these creatures from pollution will already be of interest to young children.
We would start incorporating their needs by doing a school audit to see where in the school are brightly lit areas and where areas that are naturally dark. We will try to reduce artificial light where possible. We will make areas that are biodiversity friendly such as areas of longer grass, log piles and planting native flower species.I like the idea of linking this to the history of the night sky in Newcastle by interviewing parents and grandparents. It this would be a good start to get them involved and on board for a whole community plan to reduce the use of artificial lights in order to reduce light pollution in the area.
My school is located in Portlaoise which is a fast growing town. We are seeing a lot of new housing developments, more street lighting, larger retail parks in many areas which is greatly adding to light pollution in the town.
To explore this with my 2nd class we would first discuss what light pollution is and wonder how it may affect people and animals living in our locality. We will look at the video ‘Help protect NSW’s dark skies’ to get a great idea of the impact of light pollution and how to reduce it.
Next we will plan to investigate how many stars we can see at night to see if we can see the impacts of light pollution for ourselves. I will ask the children to spend 5 minutes with their families checking the night sky and counting stars. We will compare these the next day in class checking the different amounts of stars between children who live in town, or housing estates or in the countryside.
Finally, we will try to figure out ways we can stop light pollution in our school and in our homes. This would link well with green schools, trying to make sure that lights are switched off when not needed and especially at home time.
I love the idea of integrating this with are and think senior infants would love making puffy moons!
Plan to observe the Moon:
I will introduce this lesson by asking the children when they see the Moon in the sky as many may not realise it can be visible during the day. We will then look at the Paxi and our Moon video from Esero to give the children an introduction to phases and eclipses of the Moon in a way that will grab the students attention. Next we will decide to observe the Moon for ourselves using the Ersero Moon Observation log. We will do this at the same time, twice a week over the course of a month and compare the differences. We will the ‘timeanddate’ website to see what phase the moon is at each day and figure out during which phase gives us the best view of the Moon. We will also use the Stellarium website to observe the appearance of the Moon and compare it to our own drawings.
I love linking this to history and getting the children to wonder how people used to tell the time before clocks were invented. A great way to spark their curiosity and get them thinking.
I would start this lesson by using the Storybots song ‘The Sun’ as a trigger and to grab the students attention. We would then discuss vocab from the song and I would focus particularly on the words ‘east’, ‘west’, ‘rises’ and ‘sets’. We would discuss these and I would get the children’s thoughts on what it means.
I would next set the children a task to do with there parents over a few days. Simply make note of where in the sky the sun is in the mornings and in the evenings. We would talk about this in class and see if the children got similar answers. This would lead to us talking about the movement of the sun so we would decide to check it’s position during the school day. First we would predict where we think it might be during the day. We would go outside together to check at three different times of the day: morning, midday and hometime. I would ask the children questions such as ‘IS the Sun low or high’ and ‘What part of the sky is the Sun in now?’ In pairs the children would have an observation sheet and would take note of the position of the Sun and the time of day.
I love the simple thumbs up, thumbs down activity to gauge understanding at the end of the lesson. Such an easy, quick and useful assessment tool. I will definitely make use of it in the future.
Activity Set: Rockets
I would begin this lesson by watching the rocket launch video shared in this module to grab the students focus, interest and attention. Next we would read ‘The Smeds and the Smoos’ by Julia Donaldson. During this we will focus on the rockets used by the aliens in the story. We will discuss rockets and I will ask questions to help with the children’s observations, predictions and creative thinking such as ‘What does the rocket look like?’, ‘Where would you fly to on a rocket?’, ‘What do you think would be the best part about flying in space?’
We would talk about how we would design our own rocket and what we would need to power it. Next I would give the children the materials needed to make a balloon rocket. We would investigate the materials and in groups see if we could figure out a way to use these to create a moving rocket. I would show them the comic strip from Marvin & Milo and we would read it together. I love these comic strips and I think children this age really engage well with graphic novel style reading. Finally, in groups the children will use the materials to make their own balloon rockets, test them out and demonstrate them for the rest of the class.
Hi Gail. I love the idea of using this during over a month or so with a theme of ‘The Arctic or Antarctica.’ I think it would be a lovely idea to get the children to design a warm shelter or home for an arctic animal. Give them a range of materials such as fabrics, cotton wool, bubble wrap etc. and have them design, build and even test their shelters.
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>What further steps might you take towards a STEM focused SSE?</span>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>I think STEM would be a great focus area for SSE in our school. Some teachers will be very new to it and as it will now be a part of our curriculum, having it as a focus for school self evaluation would be a great way to make sure everyone in on the same page about STEM practices in our school.</span>
<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Some steps we could take towards a STEM focused SSE would be to make sure there is collaboration between the staff and for teachers to share their ideas and what STEM activities work well for them. Make sure all teachers have the opportunity to observe STEM lessons in class to help with the sharing of ideas and good practices. Discuss cross curricular links with STEM activities so it is not seen as an isolated initiative. I think it would be important to make sure there are plenty of STEM related resources and materials in the school for teachers to use with the children</span>
I love the idea of linking with art and fabric and fibre to create their own aliens. I think this would be a fantastic way to encourage children’s creativity and really use their imagination with a variety of materials. I had mentioned making clay aliens but using F&F would definitely be a lovely alternative.