Following children’s interests – learning about ‘The moon’
As well as our planned ‘Curriculum in Action’, in nursery and reception we take the lead from children about what we will teach and enhance provision with, based on their interests and fascinations. Taking this approach improves children’s engagement with learning as they are motivated to join and take part in activities, because of their existing interest in the subject.
Recently we had noticed that quite a few children had been commenting on the moon, which they had seen low in the sky on winter mornings on their way to nursery. Many of our children were fascinated by this object in the sky, which they had already realised changed shape and doesn’t always look the same. We have also talked about the moon when sharing our children’s experiences of Ramadan and Eid, earlier in the year.
Our time looking at and learning around the moon, began by talking to the children about what they already knew about it, with some children sharing their ideas such as:
“A crescent moon looks like the shape of a banana” Florence
“I see a fire moon” Ollie
“The full moon is a circle” Stanley
Next, we watched some videos of the 1969 moon landing and talked about the astronauts were moving and why; because of the gravity – or lack of it! In the coming days, the children took lots of pretend trips to the moon in their own, self-made space ships, they explored a range of different textures in the ‘moon’ sensory tray and then some decided to make their own rockets in the workshop area.
