Nov16

Magnifiers

Did I tell you how happy I was to see the returning three-year old students use magnifiers appropriately? Because this half-day preschool for 2-5-year-olds had moved to a new space over the summer, the “usual place” for everything had to be determined. It is one thing to design a preschool in a set of rooms and another to put it into action. That’s what the children did and showed us that our design needed adjustment. So I did not get magnifiers into use until late October when I brought a container of Tenebrio beetles and larvae (mealworms although they are not worms, just baby insects like caterpillars). I was all set to have the children practice using the magnifiers before getting out the beetles but these former two-year-olds showed that they remembered how to use magnifiers by immediately holding the instrument close to their fingers to view, saying, “It’s bigger!”. The beetles looked bigger too, and the children counted the tiny legs.

Here is how children often approach magnifiers (and beetles) on first encounter:

First encounter with magnifier and beetle baby--unsure how to approach

Here are experienced beetle wranglers using magnifiers expertly:

with practice, children use magnifiers confidently and competently

The Science Shorts columns in the National Science Teachers Association’s elementary school journal describe classic classroom activities that emphasize science-process skills. Larger Than Life: Introducing Magnifiers by Tracy L. Coskie and Kimberly J. Davis (Science and Children, Summer 2009) is a valuable discussion and activity about magnifier use.

Now the magnifiers are easily available for self-serve in the two-year-old class room, at the light table, and in the centers room. It is so gratifying to see that the lessons of last year are retained and used by the children to learn more about their world.

Peggy
Published: Nov-16-09 | 0 Comments | 0 Links to this post

Oct11

What science should we teach in early childhood?

I’m interested in your opinions on what should be included in early childhood science standards. We don’t want to underestimate the abilities of young children to understand relationships in natural systems, nor overestimate their ability to understand the concepts of a “fair” test or the importance of collecting data. Many states have early learning standards, and the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996) begin in kindergarten.

Is anyone very satisfied with their state or program content standards for preK-grade 2 science?

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards describes a rigorous delivery of science curriculum that is the mark of an “accomplished” early childhood teacher: “This NBPTS Standards document describes in observable form what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do.” It sounds wonderful to me, but perhaps out of reach for the majority of early childhood teachers who have not studied science in college. Read the Early Childhood/Generalist Standards, for teachers of students ages 3–8, Second Edition (2001) by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards at http://www.nbpts.org/userfiles/File/ec_gen_standards.pdf (science on pages 35-37).

A sample of the expectations that are part of Standard V: Knowledge of Integrated Curriculum, science content:

 

“[Accomplished early childhood teachers] understand that discussions can transform a class from a collection of individuals into a community of learners sharing their interpretations of the natural world with their peers. Such experiences help children reform and refine their theories and explanations—to learn how to think through their ideas, to pose additional questions, and to reconsider their ideas on the basis of others’ views.” 

Exploring water and air“They realize that science is everywhere and that it can be integrated into the curriculum in a variety of ways. They provide sufficient time to develop a deep understanding of essential scientific ideas rather than a superficial acquaintance with many isolated facts. Making bubbles of air in waterThey show a love for science and generate in children curiosity and wonder about the world around them. The importance of having ongoing exploration, investigation, and inquiry in science is clearly understood by accomplished teachers.”

“Teachers design learning experiences that will help children build their knowledge and understanding of science and uncover for themselves the counterintuitive nature of many scientific principles. They incorporate a variety of experiences from each of the three major categories of science. They realize the importance of safety, environment, and conservation. They understand the scientific method and provide experiences in which the children can explore the scientific method and document what they observe.”

If you have become Board Certified as an Early Childhood/Generalist, please let us know about your experiences and your favorite science standards. Anyone who is very satisfied with their state or program content standards for preK-grade 2 science, please let us hear from you too!

Peggy

Published: Oct-11-09 | 4 Comments | 0 Links to this post

Sep27

Thinking BIG, Learning BIG: Summer reading becomes September‘s lesson plans

July is a distant memory of 6am wake up calls for my high-schooler who took PE over the summer, balanced with my getting more than five minutes of peace and quiet—time to read about early childhood and science, to think my own thoughts and get hungry for conversation. Summer school is a wonderful thing and I thank all the teachers who work it.

Thinking BIG, Learning BIG: a great resource for integrated science activiesJuly’s reading, Thinking BIG, Learning BIG: Connecting Science, Math, Literacy, and Language in Early Childhood by Marie Faust Evitt, with Tim Dobbins, and Bobbi Weesen-Baer (Gryphon House 2009—also the publisher of my book), has become September‘s lesson plans. This book of activities reinvigorated my thinking which was in limbo because a building move had one of “my” schools on tenderhooks about our opening date and the use of space. Aligned with national standards in reading, literacy, math, and science, Thinking BIG helps me see where the science activities I know and love can incorporate more language and math goals. With intriguing, classroom-tested activities which are insightful about children’s desire to explore and imagine, Evitt also meets teachers' needs for activities which are possible, teach concepts, and come with detailed directions for how to implement. Her approach expanded my thinking—although I usually think of sprouting seeds as an early spring activity, Evitt explains that children are curious about the seeds they discover in fall from flowers and inside apples and pumpkins. The playful spirit throughout the book is so enjoyable—predicting how far popcorn will fly, playing air hockey, and making a giant rainbow! The authors understand that children are attracted to all things BIG and they will remember the concepts they learn through those activities!

Marie and I became penpals before her book was published, and we collaborated on a workshop for an NSTA area conference. She’s a fun presenter—look for Marie Faust Evitt and Mr. Tim at the NAEYC national conference in Washington, D.C. this November.

Here’s what I found especially useful in Thinking BIG, Learning BIG: Movement ideas, Insights into children’s thinking, Teacher-to-teacher tips, games, book lists, skills assessments, and Discussion Starter questions.         

  • Instructions that involve movement with language—clapping when first saying vocabulary words (SCAD system of “Say, Clap, Act out, Do again”), crouching down to “become” a seed and then sprouting a root (leg), and using American Sing Language to say the new word.
  • Insights about children’s thinking are on every page. For example, when children graph, they want to remember which object they put on the graph so teachers should make the graphs big, or should I say, BIG. For example, if graphing favorite flavor of apple (green, yellow, or red), give each child an apple shape big enough for them to write their name on before they add it to the graph. The graph is poster size, made from more than one sheet of paper. In the seeds chapter, a “How Our Seeds Germinate and Grow” number line chart with days 1-12 (more age appropriate than a calendar) is used for both predicting if anything will happen with the soaked bean seeds, and recording what is actually observed each day.
  • Teacher-to-Teacher Tips are full of details, specific information to implement the activities. In the Seeds chapter, Evitt recommends using pre-cut bean shapes for children who become frustrated if they have difficulty drawing their predictions and observations, and describes steps to teach children to draw the bean shape.
  • The games and stories (used in every chapter) creatively convey concepts. Children predict which square on a grid will catch the most popcorn kernels as they fly out of the popper, and act out The Little Red Hen while learning about seeds we eat, and play a “Traveling Seeds” game to learn how seeds travel.
  • An extensive book list for every chapter (sometimes 2+ pages!) with descriptions takes the guesswork out of which book to read.
  • The useful Skills Assessments are in the form of questions directing the teacher to reflect on the children’s abilities and understanding: What kind of pencil grip does the child use? Can the child use the vocabulary? Does the child see the connection between the wheat seeds and flour? Can the child count correctly the number of dots on the card?
  • Use the Discussion Starters (in the form of questions) to “spark children’s thinking during and after the activity”. Sometimes I write such questions on an index cue card so I remember to ask specific questions, such as “How many more days is it until we think we will see leaves?”

This book is going to help me make the transition to the new physical space and to incorporating more specific math and language focus during science activities. Hope you get a chance to view it online or at a conference.

Peggy

 

Published: Sep-27-09 | 1 Comment | 0 Links to this post

Aug10

Showing the science: using children’s work to document your program

Digital photography changed the way I do science with my students. I reflect more on what has happened and what is being left out as I look over the photos, in moments after school, at home on the computer. I have this luxury as a parent of older children who are themselves busy on the computer, and because I do some of my work at home.

Not every program has time or resources to use digital photography to document the science learning going on in their classes, but the children’s own work also reveals the learning taking place. Anytime children record their thinking with drawings, such as drawing an object they think will sink and an object they think will float (before trying to find out or drawing what happened after), they are documenting their science process skills. When recording observations, children make a record they can refer back to. In one classroom children drew the caterpillars as they grew, comparing them to a unit cube (which didn’t grow!). Over the week the growth was noticeable because they had their earliest drawings for comparison.

From NSTA The Early Years Blog
(Click on the photograph to go to the photograph folder and see more examples of students’ documentation.)

Have a few clipboards with paper and marker attached for children to carry to where the science is happening—in the block area children are discovering the need for a wide base, in the water table children are noticing the shape of drops, in the housekeeping area children are talking about how their family cooks, and in the book nook children are remembering a butterfly they saw outside that was different from the one in the book. Ask them, “Can you show me with a drawing? “Would you like me to write down your words?”

Peggy

Published: Aug-10-09 | 0 Comments | 0 Links to this post

Jul28

When does science become significant?

Math and Science in Preschool: Policies and Practice, a National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) Preschool Policy Brief, says that teachers usually do not plan and support science and math learning in pre-K. How does that happen when young children are so curious about the world and so interested in who has more, is taller, or older?

Viewing sunflowers up closeSome preschool teachers bring their own curiosity into play, in school and out, such as early childhood teacher Sue Hewitt who went out of her way to see a novel (for her—and me!) sight—a big field of sunflowers. Because science activities are full of possibilities for math and language development, they can be the basis for across-the-curriculum learning. Sue talked about how investigating a milkweed seed pod with her class of two-year-olds included sharing a history of children collecting the pods during World War II to use in making life vests for service personnel, and, upon opening the pod, the discovery of how the successfully the seed is dispersed—in the classroom! I’m sure that gave the children a lot to talk about!

 

 

Big field of sunflowers

Does anyone have a story to share about a science activity that became the vehicle for language development or math operations?

Or about a moment when you realized that teaching science in your classroom is essential?

Peggy

 

Published: Jul-28-09 | 0 Comments | 0 Links to this post

Jun19

Raise your hand if you're a scientist!

I received the greatest compliment while sitting at the lunch table with a mixed age group of my students who are enrolled in the end-of-school-year camp. The children were playing a conversation-starter game they've developed of asking the lunchers to raise their hand if they fall into the named group (have a red lunch box, have an apple in their lunch, like to eat pretzels...). Then a five-year-old sitting next to me called out, "Raise your hand if you're a scientist!" and all the hands went up.

 

What a gift to have confirmation that the science activities we did throughout the three years I taught him were seen as a process with the students as the central actors, and that all the children self-identify as scientists. Thank you to my students.

Published: Jun-19-09 | 1 Comment | 0 Links to this post

Jun02

Experiences with nature

Although I credit my early childhood exposure to orchard, field, woods, and creek as the foundation for my understanding of the natural world, I would despair if I thought that same understanding is lost to children who grow up in urban, constructed places, or mostly indoors. My father told of swimming in Wissahickon Creek, a Schuylkill River tributary, and digging garnets out of the Wissahickon schist in Fairmount Park in his childhood in the city of Philadelphia in the 1920’s. The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education is where he might go today to learn about ecosystems in Philadelphia.  My mother’s childhood was filled with box turtle sightings and catching gudgeon on the Patapsco River, on land that is now part of Patapsco Valley State Park in Maryland. I wish such experiences for all children.

 

Many of my students spend limited time in natural areas but their sense of wonder is not diminished when they encounter living organisms in human-constructed environments (indoors)—it just needs to be encouraged as the spider episode in class yesterday demonstrates:

 

As the children were gathered around listening to a teacher read aloud, one child drew their attention to a tiny spider slowly dropping on its thread in the center of the group. The teacher directed the children to move a bit and kept on reading. The discoverer came to tell me and get a small viewing container. This is what she told another teacher 15 minutes later, “I caught it from a web spinning from the ceiling. It looks like a bee because it has a ring of fur around its neck.” As they were lining up to leave the room I noticed she was empty-handed and I asked what happened to the spider. “I let it go back to its home.” She understood that the room was the spider’s habitat, an interior one.

Click on the word "Comments" below to share how your class experiences nature.

Peggy
Published: Jun-02-09 | 3 Comments | 0 Links to this post

Jun01

Preschool play as assessment tool

Preschool play can reflect young children’s knowledge about the natural world and the human interaction experiences they’ve had. I get to observe and learn what the children express through play when we finish our opening discussion and they move about the room.

Twelve four-year olds and two teachers spend about 45 minutes in the Tree House Room where I set up materials more or less tied to the topic of the activity I am sharing that week. The plan was to observe, draw, and read about tadpoles borrowed from a local nature center. But the Fours have been playing “Doctor’s Office” in their classroom with dress-up uniforms, pretend medical tools such as stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs, and plenty of tape for bandages on dolls. The doctor play was especially significant to the Four’s class because the school’s director and one child had casts on limbs for several months.

Children draw "x-rays" showing their knowledge of medical science.

To support this learning, I put out x-rays on the light table, a foam human skeleton puzzle, and small clip boards, but they mostly create their own props, taking some plastic bugs and turtles, and drawing materials from the shelves. Tadpoles do get a little attention but the world the children re-create is most important to them.

A few children lie down on their backs. One child tucked some plastic bugs and turtles underneath the “patient’s” shirts. Enter the doctor:

Child 1: How is my little girl doing?

Child 2: She broke her leg and she had those bugs in her tummy. (Showing an x-ray drawing she made.)

Child 1 (in a quiet aside): I called you “little” girl because I’m pretending to be a doctor.

Later with the second patient:

Child 1: First we have to do an x-ray of what’s in his tummy. (Holds paper over the stomach and draws the turtle.)

Child 1: He has a poisonous turtle in his tummy. You’re going to have to open it because I don’t have the tools.

Child 2 (removing the turtle): It sure is a poisonous one!

The child pretending to be a doctor explains what she sees on the x-ray.

This play is so delightful but that’s not all. I’m delighted to have a window into what children know about doctors and what x-rays are. They certainly know the difference between pretend and real, understand the need for cooperation between medical personnel, and can represent animals through drawing. We can work on “poisonous” turtles next week and the tadpoles will become more interesting when they develop legs.

(Note that the child is making the skeleton "preschool" size without all the leg bones! This may have been his re-design or an accidental omission. Constructing a child-sized human skeleton puzzle.The puzzle allows for several inventive adjustments to the human skeleton. At first I was concerned that the alternate assemblies might create some misconceptions about the human skeleton but when children find a few pieces leftover, or stand back and see the proportions, they usually self-correct. And other scientists often chime in and make changes, and we count the number of “sections” in our actual legs and arms.)

Share your science play stories by clicking on the word “Comments” below!

Peggy

Published: Jun-01-09 | 3 Comments | 20 Links to this post

May26

Standards and guidelines are great resources for lesson planning

Wanting to use best teaching practices and develop my students’ science thinking to the best of their capability, I look at what governments and curriculum developers think should be happening in an early childhood classroom, and what topics should be taught. When are children able to understand what makes a “fair test” and ready to experiment in addition to doing activities? Is learning about the solar system best taught in preK or in grade 2? What big ideas can be learned through a unit on the ever popular dinosaurs?

Do your curriculum and state standards seem as well thought out and complete as others? Do they cover the science content areas or objectives that you feel they should? Are there gaps? Are the standards appropriate for your grade? What content should be mastered before students arrive in your classroom? Standards and guidelines are great resources for lesson planning.

Look at some other guidelines to judge for yourself if you are meeting children’s needs for science learning. In alphabetical order:

Benchmarks for Science Literacy, http://www.project2061.org/publications/bsl/online/index.php  

HeadStart Child Outcomes Framework, http://www.hsnrc.org/CDI/pdfs/UGCOF.pdf 

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Early Childhood Program Standards, http://www.naeyc.org/academy/standards/ 

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (National Board Certified Teachers), http://www.nbpts.org/for_candidates/certificate_areas1?ID=17&x=61&y=4 

National Science Education Standards (NSES), http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=4962

 

Can you recommend any standards that you think we can all learn from, or should try to meet to the best of our ability?

Peggy
Published: May-26-09 | 0 Comments | 0 Links to this post

May25

Science talk

One misconception about science is that discoveries or new ideas are “discovered” then agreed upon by scientists in a complete form. Talking to children about the process of scientific inquiry as they do an activity may help them appreciate the long, exploratory, route to being certain in science. Foster discussion by letting children know it is okay to disagree about what you think might happen.

From NSTA The Early Years Blog
These children are pointing to answer the question, “What shape bubble will you make with a square bubble wand?" and they are comfortable disagreeing with their neighbors.

As you do science with young children, include comments about science, such as these, in the discussion:

  • I hear more than one answer. That’s how science is, people don’t always agree. We can try this and find out.
  • Observations may not be the same. What do you see?
  • Sharing your information about what you see is what scientists do.
  • Yes, we can look in a book. Scientists research what people have learned already.

Here are two resources that explain how science talk is part of the process of science:

A good visual explanation of how science works is available from the Understanding Science website. See "The real process of science" showing the nonlinear paths in doing science.

For more about talk in science teaching, view a slideshow by Karen Worth of the Educational Development Center, Inc., Science Talk and Science Writing: A View from the Classroom, at the 2008 Literacy Institute.  The Inquiry Diagram (slide six) is another clarifying diagram about the process of scientific inquiry.

Some students may need repeated encouragement to talk freely; others may need a reminder to listen. Listening to my students helps me find out what they know about science.

Peggy

Published: May-25-09 | 4 Comments | 72 Links to this post

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