Transcript Diapositiva 1 - Bubbles Magazine

By Marisa Agostinelli
TOPIC WEB
Arts and crafts
Language
Making a poster of
the solar system
Listening to/reading a
story and reference
books, labelling
pictures,writing or
completing descriptions
Science
The solar system
Identifying the planets
and their
characteristics
Drama
ICT
Acting out a
story
Maths
Classifying the
planets according
to their size
Using the internet
to do research on
planets
The project
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Class 5
Children aged ten
Time : 3 weeks
Subjects involved : English, science, Italian
Organisation: whole class, groups, pairs
Language focus: scientific vocabulary (black
words), present simple.
• Materials: pictures of the solar system and
planets, charts, cardboard, colours, rice or sand
for the activities.
Main learning Aims
• To develop an understanding of how
knowledge is created, evaluated, refined
and changed within science.
• To support the development of a positive
disposition to learning.
• To strengthen students' understanding
within science through doing research and
exploring basic scientific concepts.
Science learning objectives
• Name the planets
• Describe some characteristics of each
planet
• Compare the sizes of the Sun, and some
planets
• Locate the planets on a sky chart.
Procedure
• Step 1
Draw a big sun on the blackboard and write the title : “ The
solar system”.
Start with a brainstorming activity.
Ask the children what they already know about the sun and
the solar system.
Ask :. What do you know about the solar system? What do
you know about the sun? How many planets can you
name? What is the sun made of? What are the planets
made of?
Step 1
Use an overhead projector to show the picture of the sun and of the planets.
Ask:”How many planets are there in our solar system?”
Give the children some information
Our solar system consists of:
•One central star — the Sun
•Eight planets.
•More than 140 moons
•Millions of rocky asteroids
•Billions of icy comets
Step 2
Focus the children’s attention on the planets. Ask: Can you name the
planets?
Give them the English translation:
The planets are (in order, from the Sun, outward): Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Pluto was
considered the ninth planet until August 2006, when the International
Astronomical Union reclassified it as a "dwarf planet."
Before showing the pictures of
each planet preteach some
new words in order to help
children understand what you
are going to say: “ huge ball,
super-hot gas, spinning ball,
clouds of poisonous gas, sand,
solid, rings made of pieces of
rock”.
Start with the sun. Ask : What
do you know about the sun?
Listen to their ideas.
Say : The sun is a star in the
milky way. It’s a huge ball of
super-hot gas.
Follow the same procedure to
introduce the planets.
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun,
and second smallest planet in the solar
system. It’s very hot. Its diameter is 40%
smaller than Earth.
Venus is similar to Earth in size, mass,
density and volume. It has no oceans and has
clouds of poisonous gas.
Venus has a high surface temperature of
about 482° C.
You can sometimes see Venus in the night
sky.
This spinning ball is our home. It’s a
huge ball of rock. Do you know its
name? It’s the Earth ! Earth is the 3rd
planet from the Sun at a distance of
about 150 million kilometers.
It takes 365.256 days for the Earth to
travel around the Sun and 23.9345
hours for the Earth to rotate a
complete revolution. Its diameter is
only a few hundred kilometers larger
than that of Venus. Earth is the only
planet in the solar system known to
have life.
visit this website to show animations of the Earth:
http://www.solarviews.com/eng/earth.htm
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is called
the red planet: it has got red rocks and sand.
The average recorded temperature on Mars is 63° C with a maximum temperature of 20° C
and a minimum of -140° C.
Jupiter is the fifth planet
from the Sun and is the
largest one in the solar
system. It is not solid. It’s
only heavy gas. Jupiter has
got about 16 moons.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the
Sun and is the second largest in the
solar system . It is the most beautiful
planet in the solar system. There are
rings made of pieces of rock and ice
around it.
It rotates very fast on its axis.
Its day is 10 hours, 39 minutes long,
and it takes 29.5 Earth years to
revolve around the Sun.
Uranus is the seventh planet from the
Sun and is the third largest in the
solar system. It has at least 22 moons
Uranus and Neptune have got bluegreen clouds of gas.
Neptune is the outermost planet of the gas
giants. It’s sixty times bigger than the Earth.
Neptune orbits the Sun every 165 years. It
has eight moons.
Step 3
After having shown the pictures and talked about the planets hand out a photocopy of the
information you gave and say:
In this worksheet you will find information about the planets in our solar system. As you
read, I want you to give an answer to these questions:
Which is the biggest planet? Which is the smallest? Which is closest to the sun? Which is
the farthest away from the Earth? Which planets are hot? Which planets are cold? Which
planets are very similar?
Help the children in their task by providing them with a chart to be filled in.
planets
Mercury
biggest
smallest
Closest to
the sun
V
Farthest
away
hot
cold
similar
Step 4
Divide the pupils into small groups.
Give a big piece of black cardboard to each group. Ask them to draw their own
version of the planets and to glue onto each of them some rice or sand which
must be coloured according to the characteristics of the planets.
Then ask them to label each planet and to write a short description underneath.
At the end, the children can take turns to show their solar system to the rest of
the class and their posters can also be displayed.
Step 5
Literacy – creating a poem
Explain: Let’s write together a five line poem. The first and fifth
lines have one word. The second line has two words, the third line
has three words, and the fourth line has four words. The first line is
the title. The second line describes the title. The third line expresses
an action. The fourth line expresses feelings and the last line refers
to, or is a synonym of, the title.
Stick a picture of a planet onto the board, for example : The Earth
Write the first line
Earth
Ask the children to read the description of the planet and to find
words which can be used to make a poem.
Earth
Venus’s neighbour
Large spinning ball
My home sweet home
Life!
Step 6
Storytelling
and drama
session
Emergency Landing
by Louise Cooper
readapted version
“ Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking”,says the captain. “ We have an engine in trouble, so we have to
make an emergecy landing. Please don’t be afraid. Sorry for the inconvenience”.
“ What time is it?” asks one of the passengers : “ I don’t want to be late for dinner!”
“ Oh, it isn’t late, don’t worry about that!” says the passenger in the next seat to him. They look outside through the
window.
“ Where are we?” asks a passenger to the steward. “ Sorry Sir. I don’t know. That’s a new place. Look there are oceans
and rocks and …”
“ Oh, yes I see. There are also strange high boxes on the ground and… What are those small metal boxes moving
down there?”
“ I don’t know. Small metal boxes with creatures inside!”.
Before carrying on with the story ask the children some questions :
Where are the passengers?
What part of the day is it?
What can the passengers see?
Where are they landing?
What kind of place is it?
What do the local inhabitants look like?
What language do they speak?
Story part two
“ The steward laughes and waggles four of his six antenae.
“ Don’t worry” he says “ We have got powerful weapons!”.
The passengers look out through the windows and see a little blue and green world.
It is called Earth.
“ We are landing now.” says the steward “ Please fasten your seat belts and enjoy the new world !”
Suggestions :
Tell the children the story more than once, then ask them to split into small
groups, take the role of the characters and act out the story.
Then ask them to draw their own spaceship and the aliens from the story.
Ask them to imagine they are leaving for a trip to a planet. They should
invent the name of the planet, describe its characteristics and decide what to
put in their suitcase.