TT: Water as a Thematic Unit in Infants

Water as a theme offers lots of opportunities for learning - here are some lesson ideas based around the theme, for use in a Senior Infant classroom:

1) Geography/Science/Environmental Awareness and Care: Water Collages

Talk about why water is important and whether we could live without it. Get the children to come up with ways people use water. The children who answer correctly choose the picture on the table that best suits their answer and stick it on the chart until all pictures have been used. The children can then draw a picture of a time today when they used water.
In the next lesson, ask the children whether it is only people who need water to live. Discuss where they might find fish in their local area - whether there is a sea, river or lake nearby. Following a discussion of the differences between these, identify local rivers, seas or lakes. Get them to think of animals that live on a river, sea or lake and then chose the correct picture from the hidden table and stick it on a new chart. Finish the lesson here with an individual/pair activity. 
In the next lesson, revise the animals discussed in the previous lesson, then go on to discuss how litter affects people and creatures living in lakes, seas and rivers. Discuss how people could stop others from littering. Create posters/signs to leave by the river to encourage people to stop littering. Before undertaking this activity, talk about what pictures they could include and what words they would need to use.
(Lesson idea derived from Greenschools' website lesson plans).

2) Science: Floating and Sinking

Identify the terminology of floating and sinking and talk about objects they think would sink and others they think will float. Test various objects in pairs, estimating and giving reasons for their choice first (as a class), then, mark results in on the worksheet. Once these experiments have been completed, talk about why certain objects floated or sank, mentioning the materials, weight, etc (floating objects could be identified as being light, made of wood or filled with air for example). Check out the BBC website for a revision concluding activity. 

3) Music: The Little Mermaid
Listen to 'The Little Mermaid' songs 'Under the Sea' and 'Part of Your World' and discuss whether the songs make them feel happy or sad and why. We picked suitable actions to match the sad/happy quality of the music and used these to respond to the music through movements.

4) Maths: Capacity
Compare various sized containers and whether they would hold more or less water than each other (as a class or in pairs). Test this out by filling one container from another. Estimate (as a class) and then test out how many egg cups or spoons of water (and sand) would fill the containers. Choose which method of measuring to use (cups or spoons) to measure various containers.  

5) Gaeilge: An Aimsir

Describe the weather every morning. Teach actions to accompany the weather elements (ag cur báiste, an ghrian ag taitneamh, an ghaoth ag séideadh, etc) and mime these, getting others to guess what they were showing. Pick out pictures from the mála draíochta and describe the weather shown in the picture. Learn the song: "An bhfuil cead agam dul amach?", with one half of the room singing: 'An bhfuil cead agam dul amach, dul amach, dul amach, An bhfuil cead agam dul amach, dul amach ag sugradh?' The other half of the room reply with: ' Níl cead agat dul amach, dul amach, dul amach, níl cead agat dul amach, tá sé ag cur báiste/tá cead agat dul amach, dul amach, dul amach, tá cead agat dul amach, tá an ghrian ag taitneamh.'

6) Religion: Water
There is ample opportunity to integrate water into Religion as Alive O2's term 3, lessons 1, 2 and 3 are all based on the theme of water.