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Consider how many songs/poems/art can you think of to connect us with the night sky.
As an infant teacher – I am always looking for songs, poems and books that support any topic I am doing. Chatgbt is amazing for this as it gives me a list that I can work through and see which are suitable for the age group I am teaching. It is a huge list. Here are some of the new ones I found, and thought were useful and that you might not know.
Songs
https://youtu.be/DEHBrmZxAf8 zoom zoom zoom – we’re going to the moon
https://youtu.be/jRhnKXoX24o Planets Song | Zoom Zoom Zoom. We’re Traveling Around the Sun
https://youtu.be/xIgjIC6Xdk4 Aiken drum
Poems/rhymes
https://youtu.be/MJ-AZTuCc5k The Moon
https://youtu.be/TPYfz9r9mmQ The Moon is round
Art
georgia o’keeffe starlight night lake George
Aboriginal Australian Dot Paintings (Night Sky Themes
Hi Aoife – I love all your suggestions for songs. I don’t always think of contemporary songs but this is a great list and I will be referring back to it when I teach this topic. Thank you
Hi Justine, great idea re comparing to Phoenix Park. Lots of small steps and ideas to be gained that could be used in anyone’s school.
To explore local biodiversity, I would begin by taking my Junior Infants on a “mini nature safari” in our school grounds— looking for birds, insects, plants, and signs of animals. We’d use magnifying glasses and simple checklists with pictures.
From here, we’d introduce the idea of nocturnal animals — like foxes, owls, bats, and moths — and talk about how these animals are awake when we’re asleep. Using books like Night Animals by Gianna Marino or “Owl Babies”, we’d learn about their needs, especially the importance of darkness for their lives.
We’d explore light pollution through pictures: a starry sky vs a sky filled with city lights. Children could act out being nocturnal animals trying to sleep with lights on — a playful way to introduce the concept. We would discuss how the animals might feel and gain empathy for them. We could discuss possible solutions and how we as a class/school could improve their lives.
Hi Michelle,
Love the idea of using a painting as a stimulus for introducing the lesson. I am sometimes over reliant on a video or a picture book but a painting is a lovely alternative.
I have included all 3 ideas in the below lesson as I feel they all link and would be useful for Junior Infants to better understand the concept of light pollution.
Living in Rathfarnham – We have a lot of light pollution in our area. Although some of the children live nearer the mountains and have less light pollution. I would begin lesson by explaining how in other areas that don’t have as much light pollution – the stars can be seen much more clearly. We would use pictures from Globe at night and look at the pictures from dark sky places around Ireland so that they can get an idea of the differences.
Finally using this information, we might try and create some simple posters to make others aware of how to be more star friendly – Like turning off lights or closing curtains. This could be part of the rising star awards programme.
Great idea Rachel – love the idea of using yard time. Junior infants are so curious and love learning about “Big things” so this would be a perfect lesson for them.
I would begin the lesson by listening to the story – Mae among the stars.
This could set the scene for a multitude of lessons in a junior infant class…. For today we would focus on Mae wanting to be an astronaut and wanting to see earth.
I would ask them questions about how we might do that and get their answers. I would discuss the word telescope and see if they knew what it was – Then I would open Worldwide telescope and look at Earth. They always love looking at the world and seeing how tiny Ireland is. We could look at different places on Earth – places they know. We could look at the different functions like the Earth at night and even the version with the streets.
At the end they could use playdough to make their own Earths and possibly a rocket ship. Let them use their imagination! I am sure some aliens will be made!
Hi Michelle,
Fellow infant teacher here. Your lesson sounds lovely. I have done something similar with the shadows and used toy animals. I actually have some big plastic dinosaurs and we have used these when seeing how the shadows have moved.
1- Gravity/Weight
As as a Junior infant teacher – this lesson would be part of a bigger unit based on space – like learning about space, our solar system and our place in it.
For Junior Infants I like the idea of the crisp tubes and it is a hands-on activity that the children will be able to feel the difference which will make it more relatable to their learning. I like the idea of using 3 tubes – one for Earth, Mercury and Jupiter.
In our school – we are buddies with a more senior class – and I would work with them to help us with the weighing of our tubes. They could help work out near exact measurements and then have the junior infants fill them with sand or rice as part of their maths lesson – covering weight, measurement and comparison.
We will begin by exploring what happens when we drop things and will discuss why they fall to the ground. I will introduce the idea that gravity is an invisible force that pulls us and objects down toward Earth. I like the start of this video to show the kids – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7ZAXgo442I.
We would have lots of fun dropping things!
I then think we might use drama and roleplay and act out stopping at different planets to see what it might be like to lift the tubes at different planets – like on Jupiter heavy or lighter on Mercury.
They could also sort objects within the classroom – light and heavy and match them to a particular planet Mercury or Jupiter – using the Crisp tubes that we decorated already.
There is a huge amount of work in a unit like this, and the gravity lesson would a mini unit within a unit.