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When does science become significant?
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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…
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From The Early Years photo cache (click the pic for more). The summer science activities for my children that I remember as working best (that is, holding their interest and not requiring an enormous amount of time…
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"I had a carrot for breakfast"
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From The Early Years photo cache (click the pic for more). “I had a carrot for breakfast.” No, not me, this was a young child, a participant in the Early Sprouts program. Young children’s connection between…
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What was your favorite color when you were five? Many young girls like pink, a stereotypically female color. Do girls who love pink ever grow up to be women who do work that historically has more often…
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Read “Safety First” by Sarah Pounders and you can reassure your director and students’ parents that you are informed about how to avoid potential health hazards in eating food from a school garden. Did you guess that…
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Raise your hand if you're a scientist!
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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…
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Rocks: collecting and classifying
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On the playground two sisters collected rocks and set them on a bench where they grouped them by size. When I asked, “What kind of rock is that?” one said, “A triangle” referring to its outer shape. They also had a…
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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…
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Preschool play as assessment tool
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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…
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From the Early Years photo cache (click the pic for more). What percentage of children ever get to see a tadpole grow into a frog? Reading about tadpoles amazing metamorphosis into adult frogs is less amazing than…
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Standards and guidelines are great resources for lesson planning
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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…
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From the Early Years photo cache (click the pic for more). One misconception about science is that discoveries or new ideas are “discovered” then agreed upon by scientists in a complete form. Talking to children…
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Certain trees in my neighborhood are currently supporting populations of growing Eastern Tent Moth caterpillars. Children were excited to tell me about the “nest” they saw “way high” up in the tree (about 15 feet up).…
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What shape is your bubble wand? Children and making choices
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From the Early Years photo cache (click on the pics for more). The children were happy that I had enough of each color pipe cleaner (known as “fuzzy sticks” nowadays) that everyone could choose their favorite color. We…
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Can you tell that it will rain soon by the way the air smells? Do you like the smell of snow? I like the way the air smells just as a badly needed rain begins—it makes me think of the earth exhaling as the water soaks…