Science Everyday, Everywhere:
Science as the Leading Activity of the Early Childhood Classroom
At TCHS Demonstration Center we teach science everyday. An important goal
is to help children create a rich knowledge base that can provide a strong
foundation for language comprehension, vocabulary development, reasoning and
drawing predictions, etc.
Our curriculum is developed with careful attention to what curriculum
specialists call "scope and sequence." Each curriculum contains several
units, and each unit contains several activities. The activities and units
build on one another such that what children do one day follows from what
they did the day before and provides a foundation for what they will do
tomorrow. (this approach is very different from the approach taken in
many preschool programs; last February we labeled this approach "dinosaurs
yesterday, Valentine's Day today, President's Birthdays tomorrow" in
response to the activities offered in a high quality program in our
community.)
In addition to building activities in a coherent sequence, we also build in
breadth by offering science throughout the classroom activity centers.
While we are teaching Measurement and Mapping Activities, we make sure that
there are plenty of measuring cups and spoons in the housekeeping area and
yardsticks and tape measures in the block area. Each week, several of the
art activities are related to the science unit, outdoor play connects to the
unit as appropriate, at least one read-aloud session each day includes a
book related to the science unit, and so forth. For each activity presented
in our curriculum guides, there are open-ended questions and additional
suggestions for related projects to help teachers and students extend the
activity.
- Click here for the Table of Contents for the Color and Optics Unit
- Click here for Sample Activities from the Color and Optics Unit
Last updated: November 22, 1997 by
Charles S. Yang
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