[Una Reddington]

I’ve really enjoyed reading over all these suggestions. Thanks Roisin for the links! I can’t get over the huge variety of resources people suggested. It seems like a very personal thing to people. And if something is personal to you it can make part of a great lesson.

I wonder could they be collated!! (not by me for example :))

[Una Reddington]

COnsider How many poems songs art work you can think of to do with the moon:

This is such a brilliant focus! Children would get such a kick out of this. Wouldn’t it be nice to send them home to get suggestions from their families and what great conversations that might inspire.

Songs

Fly me to the Moon- Frank Sinatra
THe Whole of the Moon by The Waterboys
Harvest Moon by Neil Young
Starman by David Bowie- I love the Jack Lukeman version sung with a school choir no less! That has definitely inspired me.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star- a classic
Perseverance by Ieske Poppers
Sky Full of Stars by Cold Play- this might appeal to the older classes- SPHE lesson around it no doubt.
If the People lived their lives as if it were a song, proclaiming music to the stars to be dancing circles in the sky…..Traditional Russian Song- this can be done really nicely as a round.
Constellations by Jack JOhnson.

Poems

Moon Poem by Mary Oliver- her poetry is so rich and beautiful and there’s loads to to language wise with this.
Perseverance by Ieske Poppers
WB Yeats – I remember learning this in primary school and being affected by it

Art

Van Gogh of course
Kandinski
Soviet and American Space propaganda art inspired by the Space Race in the 20th century.

I’m a fan of this the Deep Space Sparkle art club and it provides loads of lesson plan ideas for art. Many of the lessons are based around a stimulus or prompt like a famous piece of art.
Here is one lesson: https://www.deepspacesparkle.com/rocket-and-space-art-collage-for-kids/

[Una Reddington]

Sorry I posted my answer into this field accidentally.

To comment on your post Amy, this is a great comprehensive way to use these resources and to get the children involved indeed in a meaningful way; using those great prompt questions and then culminating in the light map. Super, thanks- i’ve copied and saved your entry for my future use.

[Una Reddington]

I’m really excited by citizen science in general. And collecting data is an important part of the framework of inquiry. The Globe at Night campaign raises awareness of the impacts of light pollution around the world. The children could take part by measuring night sky brightness and submitting their findings via phone for computer. The data is used to “monitor levels of light pollution around the world as well as learn about the impacts of light pollution on energy consumption, plants, wildlife and human health”. The campaigns are held once a month for 10 days when the moon is not up. There are 5 clear steps and what I really like is that it involves locating the ‘current constellation of the month’. This is a prominent constellation and you’re asked to match it to images of it, corresponding to how visible the main stars in it are. There is already so much learning in the setting up of this and would consolidate nicely previous learning about the constellations, the moon cycle and the framework of enquiry.
In terms of creating a teaching resource; I would see this as a series of maybe three lessons on constellations, light pollution and then culminating in the activity of taking part in the citizens’ science campaign. If this coincided with our annual camping trip that would be perfect!

[Una Reddington]

I’m really excited by citizen science in general. And collecting data is an important part of the framework of inquiry. The Globe at Night campaign raises awareness of the impacts of light pollution around the world. The children could take part by measuring night sky brightness and submitting their findings via phone for computer. The data is used to “monitor levels of light pollution around the world as well as learn about the impacts of light pollution on energy consumption, plants, wildlife and human health”. The campaigns are held once a month for 10 days when the moon is not up. There are 5 clear steps and what I really like is that it involves locating the ‘current constellation of the month’. This is a prominent constellation and you’re asked to match it to images of it, corresponding to how visible the main stars in it are. There is already so much learning in the setting up of this and would consolidate nicely previous learning about the constellations, the moon cycle and the framework of enquiry.
In terms of creating a teaching resource; I would see this as a series of maybe three lessons on constellations, light pollution and then culminating in the activity of taking part in the citizens’ science campaign. If this coincided with our annual camping trip that would be perfect!

[Una Reddington]

Hi Tara, I hadn’t spotted that there will be the supermoon and the partial eclipse in September. I must go back and play around with that website. Thanks

[Una Reddington]

Plan to observe the Moon – which phase of the Moon is best for observing in the morning from school? What dates will that be in 2024- 2025?

I would use the Esero 62 lesson: ‘Lunar Eclipse and Phases of the Moon’ to describe and name the phases of the moon, to know what causes a lunar eclipse and to make a representation of the Sun, Moon and Earth during a lunar eclipse.

I would show the little ESA Paxi video clip explaining the moon phases and then look up timeanddate.com to find out where the moon will be in September.

We could do this with the children and lead them to discover that as Patrick said in the first post here the moon will be visible in the daytime in its 3rd quarter from 24th September.
Looking at Time and Date I could see this just from the pictorial image of the earth being in light when the moon is passing by. Is that how we know it will be visible during the day? I have to get my head around that a bit more!

We could plan then to observe and use the moon observation log that they would do at home too which would be a nice family project too.

 

[Una Reddington]

Hi Tara, I also picked this activity. I love your idea for guessing the heaviest. There’s so much scope for learning and going back over learning in this. I’m looking forward to doing it to.

[Una Reddington]

 

1. Gravity and Weight- assemble and earth tube and one other planet tube.

 

Phizzi Practical Planetary Picnic

 

First I would show the lovely video of the solar system with the little ESA fellow travelling around the solar system introducing the different planets.

Then I would trigger a discussion about Gravitational forces.

 

Next lesson, I would do the ESERO activity 68- How much you weigh on other celestial bodies. I think the children would be really tickled to be able to say how much they weigh in different parts of the solar system.

This is quite simple to set up and I like that the work sheet to fill in is enquiry based and that the children could work independently, in groups, on it.

 

For the 4th lesson I would do the Phizzi Practical Planetary Picnic which is on the Ogden site- thank you.

 

They children would have had time since the first lesson to gather the crisp tubes to use. We do a lot of wet on wet water colour painting in our school so that would be really effective for the decorating.

In my current 3rd and 4th class, I would modify the lesson and stick to kg for weight and not mass and I would skip the part about gravitational force measured in Newtons.

I like that at the end of the lesson the children lift the different tubes and feel how heavy a tube of crisps would feel on different planets. I this this is both powerful and also hard to grasp, so having the tubes lying around to pick up every so often could help with getting your head around it.

It’s also a nice visual activity for the children to bring around to the other classes after to show and explain.

 

I have one small reservation, that it can be an issue to weigh children especially if there are children who are overweight in the class. I think I’d have to play it by ear and see what the class is like and how they can support each other. I wonder what people think about that?

 

 

[Author]

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