CATEGORIES
-
Recent posts
- Meet the parents
- Technology topics
- What teachers do in the summer…
- New teachers, new principals
- More resources for science teachers…
- “Are you ready?” (What I learned on my summer vacation: ramps, video conferencing with children, and climate)
- Classroom seating arrangements
- Back to school with SciLinks
- “Iron Science Teacher”
- Professional development
- Creativity and safety
- Preserving specimens
- What’s new for July 19th on NSTA’s various online outposts
- Differentiated instruction in science
- Summer reading
Recent comments
- John on What teachers do in the summer…
- Huntsville Homes on What teachers do in the summer…
- Gulf Shores Teacher on What teachers do in the summer…
- Joni Dogtra 1900NCP on Science-related nonfiction books
- john martino on Back to school with SciLinks
- Wooden Toy Chests on Recording in a journal—video clips model using a science journal
- John on Is “connecting with nature” the same as “science”?
- Remove Moles on Is “connecting with nature” the same as “science”?
- Larkland Morley on Creativity and safety
- MaryB on Back to school with SciLinks
Category Archives: Early Years
Conceptual Framework for New Science Education Standards, draft ready for our review
Teachers of K-12, including early childhood educators, we have until August 2nd, 2010 to comment on the preliminary public draft of the Conceptual Framework for New Science Education Standards Here are a few paragraphs from the beginning of the document to get you interested: “This document is an interim draft of a report from a [...]
Is “connecting with nature” the same as “science”?
Take a look at The ChildCare Information Exchange’s current “Insta-Poll” (a casual poll of readers) on their views on the Highest Priority Teacher Training Topics. “Connecting children with nature” is fifth in priority today when I looked at the poll, mentioned by 19% of the 263 people who had so far responded and “Science” is 42nd, tied with [...]
Safety information for teaching science
In planning for the school year, I check for safety considerations on the National Science Teachers Association website, at www.nsta.org/portals/safety.aspx#elem Of course, each class of children is different, and I won’t know until September if any of the four-year-olds still put small objects in their mouths, or if any of the children have allergies.
Re-grouping in the calm after the end of the school year
This past year I didn’t communicate well enough with some of the classroom teachers I work with so some science activities that might have been used sat on the shelf instead. Putting my efforts into doing science with the classes of children has introduced their teachers to many activities but has not developed the teachers’ [...]
Free journal columns on early childhood science
In the interest of making it easier for early childhood educators to teach science, I am unabashedly tooting my own horn—read the Early Years column I write in the National Science Teachers Association’s elementary school journal, Science and Children. Not an NSTA member? Some of the Early Years columns are available online to non-members at [...]
Update on the success of using local butterflies
Yes, I will do this again next spring! We had caterpillars crawling out of the net housing, more caterpillars appearing than expected, wasps pupating next to their caterpillar host, a few deaths due to neglect, and beautiful (is there any other kind?) butterflies emerging from their chrysalids. My plan to introduce the butterfly life cycle [...]
Posted in Early Years Tagged activity ideas, butterflies, early childhood, life cycles Leave a comment
Summer reading, summer camping, summer science
What can you suggest to your students and their families for summer science explorations? Indoor museum and library visits, and outdoor trips to the local park and to a novel environment—prairie, riverside, city parking lot, mountain, desert or beach—may entice you and your students to seek new experiences and knowledge that can be built on [...]
Jean Craighead George
I read Jean Craighead George’s My Side of the Mountain at just the right time in my life—young enough to believe that I could live in the woods like Sam and old enough to try some of the living-off-the-land strategies he used (while I still lived comfortably at home). Her writing and illustrations taught me [...]
Farm, frogs, and weather—children making connections
There was a farm set on the light table and there were tadpoles in an aquarium nearby. One child (in the Green Frog class of course) was taken with the frog-to-tadpole sequence models and wanted to add them to the farm set-up. I asked, “Don’t they need some water?” and he said he would add [...]
“Are you ready?” (What I learned on my summer vacation: ramps, video conferencing with children, and climate)