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What a great idea to have it as part of Aistear. So many of the resources on this course will be ideal in September.
The activity set I have chosen for this assignment is The Stars.
I think an ideal time of year for this would be around Christmas where there are so many references to stars and the night sky happening for the pupils. Songs like Catch a Falling Star or When you wish upon a Star could be used to introduce the topic. Stories like How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers would also provide a great prompt.
I would use the ESERO lesson, Lots and lots of stars. I think this would be a very effective lesson to illustrate the vast number of stars. If I had another adult in the room, I would aim for group work with this as the different ‘starscapes’ produced would provide a great source of discussion and response for the pupils. If not, individual responses would work very well also.
I would make a conscious decision to give the pupils a mix of equipment so that we don’t have 24 splatterboards or 24 toothbrushes etc. The use of different tools means that the pupils would get to see the effect and results of the different methods and it would make the lesson more interesting for them.
I like the opportunities for integration of maths. The pieces of equipment can be counted as well as the stars on the worksheets at the end.
At the end of the lesson, I would display all of the pieces on the corridor/in the hall as a starry sky from our whole class and allow the opportunity for the pupils to explain their process and share what they have learned about stars at a school assembly or for visiting pupils from another class.
This Twinkl link has lots of great ideas and activities:
https://www.twinkl.ie/blog/astronomy-for-kids-with-star-facts-from-twinkl-kids-tv
Hi Susan,
I love that book by Tom Fletcher. It does a lovely job to promote inclusion and would definitely be an ideal springboard for exploring space and aliens.
I would choose the activity pack based on the moon.
Pupils are always fascinated by the moon, it’s so familiar to them yet so far away and magical. It is mentioned in so many stories, poems, rhymes, songs that could provide lovely prompts at the start of the lesson and provide lots of opportunities for integration. I have used Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Whatever Next by Jill Murphy in classes previously and they have worked really well.
I would explore background information on the moon, facts, figures, etc. first so that prior knowledge could be explored.
I would follow this with the Lunar Landscape experiment on craters which I think any class would really engage with. This could be done as a whole class or in groups. I think I would aim for groups as the different craters created by each group would provide super opportunities for comparing and contrasting the effects of different stones, the force of the throws, the distance from the target, the height from the target, etc.
Creation of a lunar landscape as an Art project would provide opportunities for creative expression as well as consolidation of the exploration of craters in the experiment, as the pupils would be considering how best to shape and mould their craters, thinking about the velocity of the matter that formed them and referring back to images of real craters.
Integration with Literacy, Art, Music, SPHE, Science would provide a really meaningful and impactful exploration of the moon which could take place over a month to tie in with a moon cycle.
Hi Sharon, this sounds like a really lovely lesson. That book is one of my favourite ones to read with a class. Thank you for the idea!
Hi, my name is Valerie and I still remember a sun fact I learned in 3rd Class – the sun is 93 million miles away! I was so struck by the colossal number. Pupils always have such fun with huge numbers and space provides endless opportunities to engage with them.
An enquiry based activity I have done with junior classes is the Ice Melting experiment which explores turning solids into liquids and allows the pupils to hypothesise. This experiment works well either as a whole class or in groups if you have another adult to hand!
I did this in groups and had the following materials/equipment: bowl of ice cubes, salt, sugar, water, access to the staffroom fridge and our heat source was the windowsill on a (rare) very sunny day in June.
The pupils discussed in advance which method they thought would melt the ice fastest. They picked a method in their groups, made their predictions and then carried out their experiment, recording the time taken for the ice to melt. The times varied widely and the experiment was revisited throughout the day.
The pupils evaluated their hypotheses afterwards and compared their ice with other groups, leading to further discussions with their classmates, thinking about alternative scenarios, e.g. what if we used more/less ice in each bowl, bigger/smaller cubes, a different heat source, etc.
They loved the practical aspect of it, seeing their own results as well as the results in other groups.
Hi Michelle,
I love that idea with the class teddy. Junior classes would be engaged straight away and the possibilities for integration are endless. Thanks!
My question will be related to our local beaches, whether climate has an impact on the beach, specifically erosion.
There is widespread erosion along the Co. Wexford coastline. Many of our pupils will know of farms which have been affected and in some cases, even houses which were lived in once but are now deemed unsafe due to erosion. I would start with what the pupils know already and what they have observed in their daily lives in their area.
For the EO part of the investigation, we could select 2 beaches to visit and record findings in relation to erosion. I would love to see parents and grandparents involved here also as they will have witnessed changes in the local environment first hand. Having extended family members come to the school as guest speakers would be invaluable. Satellite imagery could also be used in this instance.
Groups would be arranged so that the pupils can decide themselves what equipment, materials, etc they will need to investigate, whether they will need to source anything outside the school, how they will record their information. Collection, organisation, management and analysis of their data can take place in a number of locations – at the beach, in the classroom, on the yard depending on what they have gathered. Photographs, satellite images, screenshots etc can all be used to create a picture of climate change and its impact on erosion on local beaches in the past 30-40 years.
I think a very useful resource for the pupils would be our own Co. Council. County engineers have produced a coastal erosion plan which the pupils could study and invite a speaker from the council to discuss the findings of the pupils and solutions/steps that could be taken at local level and in their homes to try to address the impact of climate on the erosion of local beaches.
Hi Jane,
I really like this one as you’re working with the local environment which is what I’ll be doing here also, focusing on the beach. It means the information gathered by the pupils will be more meaningful for them.
I have opted for part 3 of this assignment – carrying out the activities myself – as I love something practical.
We live in a coastal area and the red sky at night proverb is for fishermen rather than shepherds. I find this so interesting as I didn’t grow up by the coast. We would have known red sky at night, shepherd’s delight. I only heard red sky at night, fisherman’s delight when I moved to fabulous Co. Wexford! I think this aspect of the proverbs part of the activity would be wonderful as it might throw up all sorts of variations when pupils ask at home. Then there are some universal ones – when cows are in a huddle, expect a big puddle – I’ve heard this in the US as well as at home.
The possibilities for integration in this activity are super. Oak before ash, we’re in for a splash or Ash before oak, we’re in for a soak – these two proverbs which I have heard locally here, could spark a hunt for ash or oak buds on the trees in the area and could form part of a wider study of trees. Similarly, I have also heard here that when crows build high, it’s a good sign for weather which could spark an exploration of birdlife in the area.
The anemometer would need to be sturdier than my attempt I have to say! Depending on the age group, a little more preparation and help would be needed but I think the pupils would really enjoy working in groups to make them and working in groups to count the rotations, integrating maths into the activity. They would be so much more aware of wind speed even in the space of one week on yard.
Hi Jane,
I agree re the lessons. I like your idea of comparing the home made anemometer and rain measurement device with commercial ones. The pupils would find that so interesting!
The film, Home, was a stunning piece of cinema. Imagine seeing it on the big screen! I was so struck by all of the images, the variety of them, the different settings, contexts, countries.
I think I would introduce it to my class slowly and in sections. I think there is so much information and so much to consider that they might be overwhelmed if too much of it was presented all at once.
The film very successfully illustrates the rapid rate of growth throughout the world in the last 30-40 years. The number of skyscrapers in Shanghai for example is staggering at 3,000 in 20 years. Some of the pupils might be familiar with Dubai if family members have gone there for work over the past 7-8 years. The difference in 20 years there is hard to believe. Footage of then and now would be so interesting for pupils to see. Climate justice is a key area to be explored. I feel it is essential for pupils here to realise the effects of our choices on people in countries they may never even have heard of, to understand the impact of 20% of the world’s population consuming 80% of the resources.
I do feel it is so important for pupils to have hope. It would be easy to fall into despair for a lot of that film. I was glad there was reference to positive changes and interventions in various places around the world like Lesotho and Gabon. Our pupils have to have hope, they have to feel like there is a meaningful contribution they can make.
Hi Jane,
I agree that some of the video clips might be distressing for some of the younger pupils. Maybe for some older also. I think that a lot of pupils in primary schools now are very well informed but some would be very upset by some of the images. We would need to consider all of this while at the same time exploring the material in an age-appropriate manner.
For activity 3, Climate Reporters, I like the group work approach. I think pupils would find this so engaging and would love the research aspect of it, maybe using TEAL or other tools. We use Chromebooks a lot in our school and this would be a perfect activity.
I would start with a discussion around climate to elicit prior knowledge. I feel that many pupils have such a grasp of climate-related issues already and so this would be an opportunity for those pupils to contribute so much at the early stage of the lesson. The Paxi video would explain greenhouse gases in a very accessible way. The visualisations and diagrams would really aid understanding.
An aspect of the above that I feel would be extremely important is for pupils to feel they and their families and communities can actually do something to help, even simple things like turning off, unplugging, recycling, walking, etc. There is a danger of some pupils feeling hopeless and anxious about climate change. I have seen this in my classes previously and I have had parents mention their child’s anxiety to me. It is important to have pupils informed, but also crucial for them to feel there is some hope.
