STE for Junior Infants

What your school gets

Everything a teacher needs to teach STE for Junior Infants this year.

In class

36 lessons, ready to teach Each one planned step by step, taught from the interactive whiteboard. 11 interactive activities across the course.
Try the first lesson: Hello! Let's Wonder Together

On paper

Pupil Investigation Journal Science, Technology & Engineering

Teacher Resource Book Science, Technology & Engineering

Investigation JournalA page for 17 of the lessons, for each pupil to record their work.
Look inside
Teacher Resource BookThe whole course laid out for the teacher, lesson by lesson, ready to print.
Look inside The sample lesson's pages

The whole books come with the course, in each class's Resources.

For planning

Yearly plan See the first two pages
Fortnightly schemes See the first two pages
Curriculum coverage See the first two pages
Programme progression See the first two pages

Included with the course, in English and in Irish. Teachers find them in their class's Resources.

The curriculum it covers

Every lesson is mapped to the specification. This course teaches 12 of the 12 outcomes for this class.

NCCA STE Education Specification (2025)

Nature of STEM 1 of 1 outcome

Living things 3 of 3 outcomes

Materials 2 of 2 outcomes

Energy and forces 3 of 3 outcomes

Technology 2 of 2 outcomes

Engineering 1 of 1 outcome

See every outcome

Curriculum Area

Outcomes

Nature of STEM

S1.1.1

Living things

S2.1.1 S2.1.2 S2.1.3

Materials

S3.1.1 S3.1.2

Energy and forces

S4.1.1 S4.1.2 S4.1.3

Technology

S5.1.1 S5.1.2

Engineering

S6.1.1

Tap any outcome to read it. The coloured ones are taught in this course. The curriculum does not include official reference codes for individual learning outcomes, so we have assigned a code scheme to make it easier to identify and track coverage.

The course, module by module

36 lessons in 5 modules. The lesson marked Sample opens in full.

1 Living Things: Me, My Body, My Senses and Nature Outdoors 9 lessons · about 5 hours

The youngest science begins with wondering, then moves through the external parts of the body and their jobs, the main phases of the human life cycle (baby, child, grown-up), the five senses, and exploring, observing and sorting the plants and animals of the school garden and what they need. All play-based: noticing, naming, sorting and drawing.

Wondering and My Body
1 Hello! Let's Wonder Together Sample lesson
2 My Amazing Body
3 What My Body Parts Do
4 Baby, Child, Grown-up
My Senses
5 Our Wonderful Senses
6 A Senses Walk Outdoors
Nature in Our Garden
7 Minibeasts in Our Garden
8 Sorting Plants and Animals
9 What Plants and Animals Need Outdoors

2 Materials: What Things Are Made of and How They Change 7 lessons · about 4 hours

Notice that everything is made of a material, name common materials and sort by them, feel their properties (hard or soft, bendy or stiff, see-through or not), and explore how we can change a material by squashing, bending and wetting, with the teacher showing ice melting safely.

Naming and Sorting Materials
10 What Is It Made Of?
11 Sorting Our Materials
How Materials Feel
12 Hard and Soft
13 Bendy and Stiff
14 See-through or Not
Changing Materials
15 Squashing and Bending: Things Change!
16 Wet, Dry and Melting

3 Energy and Forces: What Makes Things Go, Pushes and Pulls, and Magnets 8 lessons · about 4 hours

Notice that energy makes things go and that toys go in different ways, feel how pushes and pulls move things, explore float and sink at the water tray, and have fun finding what magnets pull, sorting magnetic from not, and spotting magnets at work.

What Makes Things Go
17 What Makes Things Go?
18 Toys That Need Winding, Batteries or a Push
Pushes, Pulls, Floating and Sinking
19 Pushes and Pulls
20 Big Push, Little Push
21 Float or Sink?
Magnets
22 Magnets: What Do They Pull?
23 Magnet Sorting: Yes or No
24 Magnets Help Us

4 Technology: the Helpers We Use and Steps in Order 7 lessons · about 4 hours

Notice the everyday helpers (technologies) that help us do jobs, sort screen from no-screen, then have fun with first computational thinking: putting steps in order, spotting a repeat, spotting a wrong step (a bug), and driving a floor robot. All unplugged or using a physical floor robot, with no ScratchJr this year.

5 Engineering: Find a Little Problem and Make Something to Help 5 lessons · about 3 hours

Notice the helping things engineers make, then have a go at making simple things, a tall tower, a little boat and a bed for a teddy, and show them, talking about the little problem each one solves. Every make is a single make-and-show lesson.

Engineers Make Things to Help
32 Engineers Make Things to Help
Making Things to Help
33 Build a Tall Tower
34 Make a Little Boat That Floats
35 Make a Bed for a Teddy
Showing Our Makes
36 Show and Tell Our Makes

What pupils learn

This course introduces young children to core STE concepts through hands-on exploration of living things, materials, energy and forces, technology, and engineering. Pupils investigate their bodies and senses, name and test materials, discover pushes, pulls, magnets and energy sources, sequence steps unplugged and with floor robots, and design simple solutions to everyday problems such as building towers, floating boats and cosy beds for toys. It nurtures curiosity, observation, problem-solving and creative making.

By the end of the course, pupils can

Identify and name the main parts of the human body and describe what each part does through movement, song and discussion.
Use their senses to observe and describe the world around them during indoor carousel activities and outdoor sensory walks.
Sort objects and pictures into groups by material (wood, plastic, metal, paper, fabric) and by properties (hard/soft, bendy/stiff, see-through or not).
Recognise and demonstrate different types of energy and forces including pushes, pulls, winding, batteries and magnetism through play and investigation.
Follow and create simple sequences of steps to programme a floor robot, identifying and fixing errors when it goes wrong.
Design and build a simple product such as a tower, boat or teddy bed to solve a given problem using appropriate materials.
Explain what problem their made object solves and share their engineering work with others in a show-and-tell circle.