Lessons on absorption happen nearly everyday when drinks are spilled at snack time. I often respond with, “Your napkin is doing its job! Look at how it’s absorbing the water!” Later: “Hey! My napkin is ‘zorbing!” “Mine is ‘zorbing too!”<\/p>\n

All we need to do as teachers is guide the children’s natural instincts. Use vocabulary in natural conversations. Provide opportunities to discover something new. (Yes, sometimes I put materials out and let them explore, other times a topic spontaneously comes up!) Ask questions. Encourage them to ask even MORE questions. Sometimes I find the the children have discovered something that I hadn’t even thought of! <\/p>\n

Children are natural scientists. It’s our job to nurture their curiosity and encourage them to observe, question, hypothesize, and model researching for more information. Science can’t be limited to one small space in the classroom. Not in MY room, anyway! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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Ice and water, solid and liquid<\/p><\/div>\n

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Making our own pond or swamp<\/p><\/div>\n

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The stages of growth<\/p><\/div>\n

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A frog got loose!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Recording the growth and measurement of the grass<\/p><\/div>\n

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Bird identification<\/p><\/div>\n

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Examining a life sized bald eagle talon<\/p><\/div>\n

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Examining a dandelion<\/p><\/div>\n

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Catapults!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Releasing a butterfly into its natural habitat<\/p><\/div>\n

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Light and shadows<\/p><\/div>\n

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Constructing a life sized bald eagle nest<\/p><\/div>\n

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Painting a deciduous branch<\/p><\/div>\n

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Recording the size of an eagle talon<\/p><\/div>\n

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Pretending to be a raptor in flight<\/p><\/div>\n

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Too many concepts to name!<\/p><\/div>\n

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The metamorphosis of a mealworm<\/p><\/div>\n

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Collecting “bee pollen”<\/p><\/div>\n

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Observing chicks hatch<\/p><\/div>\n

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Chrysalids!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Squirrel behavior<\/p><\/div>\n

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An angler fish. When a child shows an interest in something, go with it!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Observing and recording the changes the life cycle of a tree<\/p><\/div>\n

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Absorption, color blending<\/p><\/div>\n

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The best type of exploration!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Examining what’s on the ground<\/p><\/div>\n

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Not just seeds!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Creating a model of a habitat<\/p><\/div>\n

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Rabbit, mammal, herbivore<\/p><\/div>\n

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Cooking<\/p><\/div>\n

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Keeping records<\/p><\/div>\n

$\"\"$

Exploring<\/p><\/div>\n

$\"\"$

Exploring magnets<\/p><\/div>\n

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Tadpoles<\/p><\/div>\n

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Wonder, awe, and characteristics of birds!<\/p><\/div>\n

$\"\"$

Growing our own salad<\/p><\/div>\n

$\"\"$

Larvae and pupas<\/p><\/div>\n

$\"\"$

Exploring rocks and stones. “I found a jewel!”<\/p><\/div>\n

$\"\"$

Making “stick soup.” They wanted things that float!<\/p><\/div>\n

$\"\"$

Ice, paint, and salt<\/p><\/div>\n

$\"\"$

Ramps. What makes the pom poms go faster?<\/p><\/div>\n

$\"\"$ $\"\"$ $\"\"$ $\"\"$ $\"\"$ <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was startled the other day as I read an article saying that many Early Childhood educators are intimidated by “doing science.” LIFE is science! Science is everywhere. Preschoolers naturally question, explore, investigate and examine. Sometimes they just need exposure to more scientific vocabulary. They can easily go from “a caterpillar changes,” to “metamorphosis,”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-everyone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rhcns.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rhcns.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rhcns.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rhcns.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rhcns.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6075"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.rhcns.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6095,"href":"https:\/\/www.rhcns.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6075\/revisions\/6095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rhcns.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rhcns.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rhcns.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}