This session for KS1 children comprises three distinct activities.
- Activity 1 – Story telling
- Activity 2 – Diamond 4
- Activity 3 – Teacher-in-role as Neil Armstrong
Learning objectives
- Pupils are able to consider characteristics of an astronaut, drawing on earlier experience of pioneers within this flight topic.
- They can raise valid questions to ask teacher-in-role as Neil Armstrong.
- They can give at least 3 reasons that motivated him and reject spurious ones.
- Some of the more able can place the Moon Landing in the context of the Space Race with Russia.
Activity 1
This activity is a simple story telling one using Mark Haddon’s book, The Sea of Tranquility. The story is great; the author narrates his recollection (as a kid) of Apollo 11. The picture on the cover depicts the author (as a child) in a dream, walking on the moon with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Children really like the picture of the “little kid” astronaut walking with the “grown-up” astronauts.
Tell the story, with the beautiful illustrations, using slide 2 to help.
You might like to add a short video to help give a flavour of Armstrong’s career.
An example video is BBC Teach – Explorers:
