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Activity Set: Space and Aliens
Learning Outcomes – Use their imagination to draw an alien being
I would introduce this topic by reading the story ‘The Smeds and the Smoos’ by Julia Donaldson to the class. We would discuss the idea of aliens and bring in vocabulary such as planets, stars etc. We would discuss the similarities and differences between the Smeds and the Smoos in the story and from this talk about our ideas of what aliens would look like. I would ask them questions and get their opinions on observations from the story. We would also look at the various planets the Smeds and Smoos visit and talk about their features, characteristics and talk about what their planet is like.
We will brainstorm some ideas as to what our aliens might look like and then the children will have the opportunity to create their own drawings. This can be extended to add features to their aliens and to include details such as what they like to eat, where they sleep etc. Once finished we will share our drawings with the class and discuss them together.
We could link this to art and create clay aliens based on our drawings.
Hi Siobhan, you mentioned using photographs of the Moon if children are unable to see it in the sky and it got me thinking about how great it would be for the children to get relatives or friends to share their pictures of the moon from different part of the world. So many children have families living abroad and a quick snap sent to a parent and shared on class platforms would be great to look at with the class and see how the moon looks from different parts of planet Earth.
Activity Set: The Planets
Age group: 2nd class
Objectives: – Know/recognise the names of the eight planets
– Know that the planets revolve around the sun.
For second class,I would start by asking the children about any prior knowledge about the planets. I think children this age can have a fascination with space and the planets and already know a lot about them.
We would watch the storybots video ‘The Planets’ which I have watched before with this age group and they have really enjoyed it. We would pause and look at the information shared from each planet, their names and discuss these interesting facts. I would also pause to see the part of the song where the plants are orbiting around the sun and we will discuss how these are all at different distances, sides of the sun and travelling different speeds as I think sometimes children (and I!) can imagine the planets as in a straight line from the sun.
I loved the ‘Journeying through the solar system’ lesson plan shared in the module and I would bring the class to the hall to take part in this lesson with hula-hoops, orbiting around the sun in the middle. I think this is a great way to get them to visualise the planets and their orbits around the sun.
Hi Mairead, I also really liked the idea of asking the children what would happen if we did the same experiment if in Australia. I loved the map shown in the slides where we see where Australia is compared to Ireland and like you said, I think this will really get them thinking outside the box and give them a sense of the shape of Earth and pose great questions for the about the strength of gravity. I also agree that it is an activity that would engage many different learning styles and keep them interested and enjoying the lesson.
I would like to do an inquiry based activity about gravity and the speed of falling objects.
First I might show the picture of the cream and cookies falling as it really grabbed my attention and I think it would do the same for my class and get them talking about things falling and perhaps discussing the speed in which things fall.
My question to them then would be ‘What falls fastest?’ and we would wonder if all things fall at the same speed.
We would arrange a variety of materials for examples: paper, a pencil, a rubber, a piece of lego. We would compare these, perhaps as a whole class or maybe in groups. Next we would make predictions about which one would fall the fastest.
To investigate this, someone in the class, or one student in the group, would drop the objects from a height and the rest of the children would record which fell the fastest. To vary it up I might get the groups to drop from different heights – a chair, a table, an outdoor slide, a second level window or from the top of a stairs (Making sure safety was paramount.
Then we would discuss and I would ask the children what they noticed and what they surmised from their investigation
Hi, my name is Siobhán Keenaghan. I will be teaching 2nd class next year. I have done space projects with this class level in the past but always wished my knowledge was greater to be able to share interesting facts with them and I thought this course would be ideal for that. My favourite fact is that after almost 50 years, Voyager 1 is still only one light day away from Earth!