Jinnie Joe’s Amazing Space Adventure
This learning story took place over a three week period in which the children
fully engrossed themselves into a variety of activities from imaginative play, to
textural play, to reading books. Their interest in space and the moon filtered
into all areas of the children’s play during the day.
Who Participated?
The children who participated in the two’s room were; Abigail Mooney, Artur
Molloy, Lauren Keenan, Colm McSweeney, Finn Reilly, Sam O’ Neill, Megan Clarke,
Megan Marshall, Ryan O’ Neill, Oisin Redmond, and Maxim Tapak.
How the topic came about
Sam came back from his Christmas holidays and had gotten a ‘Buzz Light-year’
toy from Santa. All the children enjoyed talking about how buzz flew to space in
a spaceship. We noticed that the children were more focused on the toy rocket
we had in the room shortly after Sam had brought in ‘Buzz’ and so the learning
began.
Books
Books about space, planets, the moon, and astronauts were introduced to the
room and the children instantly were drawn to them and took it upon themselves
to sit down and look at the pictures and ask both Ewa and Eimear questions
about them. We also read books at story time including Daddy on the Moon by
Oliver Jeffers, How to Catch a Star by Oliver and Daddy on the Moon by
Cressida Cowell.
Daddy on the Moon was the children’s favourite book over the three weeks.
They would read it every day.
While sitting with Finn one day he wanted to read the book with Eimear.
Finn: “Daddy on the Moon Eimear, we read it?”
Eimear: “Yes we’ll read that one”
Finn: “The moon is up in the sky…it’s in space” (Holding both
hands up in the air)
Eimear: “It is in space Finn, well done. And where did we find Daddy?”
Finn: “On the rocks”
What we discussed
We discussed how dark space was, what planets were in our solar system, how no
other people live on other planets, what astronauts do, the different
consistencies of the different planets (some are hot, some are made of gas or
ice etc.) We discussed rockets and how they get up to space, the texture of the
moon, the fact the sun is a star, and that the planets circle/orbit the sun. We
also sang songs about space and going to the moon called “Climb aboard the
Spaceship”.
Climb aboard the spaceship
Climb aboard the spaceship,
We're going to the moon
Hurry and get ready,
We're going to blast off soon
put on your helmets,
And buckle up real tight
here comes the countdown,
Let's count with all our might
10 . . . 9 . . . 8 . . . 7 . . . 6 . . . 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . blast off!
Week 1
One day Sam brought in his Buzz toy to play with and share with his friends.
Sam, Artur and Finn were playing at the table with ‘Buzz’.
Sam: “To infinity and beyond”
Finn: “You going to space?”
Sam: “I go to space”
Eimear: “What are you playing?”
Artur: “We are going to space in the rocket Eimear”
Eimear: “What are you going to see in space?”
Finn: “We going to the moon”
Sam: “I have a rocket”
The three boys picked up the rocket together and all moved over to the
construction area where they played with the rocket, lifting it into the air.
One morning Sam was playing with the toy rocket when he took it over to the
table and took out some art supplies. While standing up looking at the rocket he
began to glue and stick a variety of materials carefully onto the page twisting
and turning them until he was happy with where they were placed. Sam
continued to look at the rocket intermittently during his time creating his
picture. When Sam was finished he was asked about his picture.
Sam creating a rocket using the art materials.
Geraldine: “What did you make Sam?”
Sam: “A rocket”
Geraldine: “Wow, it’s beautiful Sam would you like to hang it up on the wall?”
Sam: “Yes”
Abigail is sitting at the table with glue and glitter and she confidently spreads
the glue over the page and sprinkles the glitter on the page. She lifts the page
up and shakes off the excess glitter allowing it to fall on the table. Abigail
brings the page up to Eimear.
Abigail: “Look at my picture”
Eimear: “Oh Abigail that is lovely, what is it?”
Abigail: “This is a rocket, and this is the moon, and these are the stars”
Jinnie Joe’s Moulding Planets Activity
The Children enjoy learning through textural activities. We thought a clay
activity about moulding our planets for our solar system would engage the
children’s attention, which it did. They all started off with a piece of clay and
used a number of techniques to mould and manipulate the clay into their very
own planets. All the children were fully engaging in conversation about what they
were making.
Eimear: “What are you making Megan?”
Megan C: “I’m making Buzz, and I’m going to paint it”
Megan Marshall opened up the book of planets that was on the table and pointed
to the page.
Megan M: “I’m making that one”
Ewa: “Do you know what planet that is
Megan?”
Megan M: “Ehm no”
Ewa: “That’s Saturn”
Megan M: “I’m going to make Saturn, it’s yellow”
Abigail opens up a book all about Astronauts on the page about their sleeping
routines. She looks at the book very intently and starts to tap the book.
Abigail: “Why’s he sleeping in a bag?”
Eimear: “He needs to sleep in that because you float in space, you can’t walk
around like we do here on Earth”
Abigail: “Oh, but why can’t you walk around?”
Eimear: “On earth we have a thing called gravity that
holds us onto the ground so we don’t float away, in
space they don’t have that.”
Abigail: “So is that why he sleeps in a bag with a zip?”
Eimear: “Yes Abbie you’re right, it keeps him in bed”
Abigail: “Eimear I’m going to make an alien planet and
I’m going to paint it red” (laughing)
Eimear: “That sounds like a fun planet, and the planet Mars is red you could put
you’re aliens on that planet.”
Abigail: “Ok I’m making Mars for my alien’s ha-ha.”
While painting the planets we asked some of the
children which planets were they making.
Ewa: “What planet are you making Colm?”
Colm: “Colm planet”
Maxim: “I’m making a Colm alien”
Artur: “I make a Colm alien too”
Finn: “We go to space on the rocket to the planets”
The children’s planets were all displayed in the room for them to see what their
finished creation looked like.
Week 2
One day Finn and Ryan found some toilet rolls in the press and brought them out
on the table.
Finn: “Look, we found these”
Ryan: “In the press”
Abigail: “What are they?”
Eimear: “They’re toilet rolls, would you like to
make something with them?”
Finn: “Yes”
Eimear: “What can we make with them?”
Artur: “We can make rockets”
Eimear: “Ok, everyone lets go and get some aprons on and I’ll get the paint”
The children got on their aprons and sat at the table.
Eimear: “What are you all going to make?”
Lauren: “I’m making a space flower”
Ryan: “I’m painting space”
Artur: “I’m making a big rocket”
Finn: “I’m making Buzz, he lives in a space rocket”
Finn then starts to sing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ and we all join in with him.
Finn and Colm playing with the rocket and the play people, they were pretending
to fly the rocket to the moon. They counted down from 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 and
blast off. Finn and Colm held the rocket in the air and flew it around the room.
Artur used creative and imaginative play with space. One day he decided to sit
under the desk in the room and make it a rocket and he was flying through
space. It tied in with the book we were reading called Adam’s Amazing
Adventures through Space.
Week 3
Activity of setting out the black tray and mixing textures and Abbie and Finn
started to say it was like the rocks on the moon
An activity was planned for the children to incorporate textural awareness. The
children wanted to do some group painting so we started off with a large black
tray and some paper lining it. The children all took turns squirting the paint out
of the bottle and using paintbrushes and their hands to spread it out over the
page. Then we took out coloured sand and glitter and the children sprinkled it on
the page. We discussed the texture of the moon and that the surface was quite
sandy and dusty. The children were completely absorbed in the feel of the sand
and paint and the colours that they created. We took out the rockets we had
made the previous week and let the children explore the sensorial tray with
them.
Abigail described the texture as being “rather
dusty”.
Artur said “It’s like the moon”
Lauren added that it was very “wet and mucky”
Megan begins to roll her rocket in the ‘Moon Dust’
Megan C: “I have my rocket on the moon”
Finn: “Nneeewwwww, Eimear my rocket is flying through space”
Eimear: “Where are you going to go?”
Finn: “I’m going to the moon”
Abigail: “My rocket is going to Saturn”
Megan M: “I’m going to Jupiter”
Colm: “My Daddy’s on the moon”
What did we learn?
Through our space learning story the children engaged themselves in many Aims
and Learning Goals throughout Aistear.
One of the most important skills for children to learn at this age is to become
independent learners and have a need for curiosity, persistence and
responsibility. This ties in with Sam and Abigail’s activities that were child
initiated and led completely without the aid of an adult. Both children saw
themselves as capable learners, tying in with Aistear’s theme of Identity and
belonging, Aim 4 Children will see themselves as capable learners. They had
confidence in themselves to take on their own activity and therefore their own
learning occurred.
Our group activities surrounding space included making our rockets and clay
planets, and exploring the surface of the moon through textural play. All of our
group activities encouraged children to use their language and listen to one
another, linking in with Aistear’s theme of Communication, especially Aim 3
which states; Children will broaden their understanding of the world by making
sense of experiences through language. Learning Goal five under this aim relates
to children learning through mark making materials, the children used various
mark making implements to create their own rockets and clay planets for our
space corner. These activities also linked in with Aistear’s theme of Wellbeing,
all of our children who engaged in our learning story expressed themselves,
their ideas and beliefs through being creative and through their artwork.
Through our books and songs the children furthered their language and
communication skills. They built firm knowledge about space and astronauts and
were confident in asking questions and using the books for information,
connecting with Aistear’s themes of Exploring and Thinking and
Communication. Under Communication the children linked with the Learning Goal
1) Interact with other children and adults by listening, discussing and taking
turns in conversation and 2)Explore sound, pattern, rhythm, and repetition in
language. Using the songs and books offered the children a way to make sense
of the world around them through interesting sounds and rhythm along with
pictures to aid in their understanding.
When the children engaged in role play and imaginative play they were fully
engorging themselves in the space environment. They believed that they were
astronauts flying into outer space. Relating to Aistear’s theme of Exploring and
Thinking the children had positive attitudes towards learning and developed
dispositions like curiosity, playfulness, perseverance, confidence,
resourcefulness, and risk-taking (Aim 4 of this theme).
Throughout our learning story we see areas where the children fully engrossed
themselves in the materials, games, songs, books, and art activities. They took
charge and responsibility of their own learning and were capable thinkers and
believers in what they were doing. They showed the traits of being explorers
and thinkers and developed higher-order thinking skills such as problem-solving,
predicting, analysing, questioning and justifying.