Keyword: Curiosity/Initiative
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Exploring Project Work Through the Eyes of Toddlers and Twos
Teachers often ask if, and how, the very young children in their care can do project work. They may work in a center where prekindergarten children and their teachers are doing project work. As they watch the projects of these older children unfold, they might question whether it is possible to adapt project work for…
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Recipes for Learning: A Baking Project
The topic of baking began to generate interest in the classroom after one child began baking with his grandmother at home.
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The Squirrel Project
The Squirrel Project took place in an early childhood center that serves students ages 3–5 through morning and afternoon sessions. Program funding is provided by the local school district, statewide Preschool for All, and tuition. Of the 26 students who participated, six had Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and five were dual language learners.
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Nature Play: Loose Parts Are the Best Parts
As parents, we tend to focus on how many extracurricular activities our child is doing, thinkingthat the more they do the better their development will be. When chatting with friends, we tend to compare lists of activities as a sign of progress or accomplishment, such as “my child is doing piano lessons, tumbling, and ice…
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Curiosity and Initiative
This section describes how infants and toddlers use all their senses to learn about their world.
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Things to Do While You’re Waiting: Math Is Everywhere
Keep children engaged when you have to wait
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Peekaboo!
Peekaboo is a game that many caregivers, infants, and toddlers play together. In this video, we see 10-month-old Mario and his mother, Norma, as she encourages him to explore toys in the playroom of a community center.
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Rounding Up the Cows
Young children develop skills across domains as they grow. Sometimes, a new skill in one area allows them to make gains in another area. In this video, we see Aaron as he stumbles from the bench to the ottoman to transfer his toys from one area to another.
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Who Is in the Mirror?
As infants grow, they notice more and more about the world around them. Here, we see 3-month-old Yana looking at her reflection in the mirror while exploring the infant area at a children’s museum.
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Process Play and STEAM: Getting Started
On this podcast, we are joined by Michelle Patt, an early childhood educator, consultant, and writer. Her work emphasizes STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) learning through exploration and experimentation. She writes about the integration of art and science into preschool classroom activities to encourage children’s problem solving and innovation. Michelle is preschool supervisor at…
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Explore the Arts with Young Children
This list contains resources to help early childhood educators and caregivers plan high-quality learning experiences in the arts.
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Investigating Wheels
A project is a part of the curriculum that involves children in investigating objects and events around them that are worth knowing more about. Project work is a way of uncovering a subject rather than just covering it. A project on wheels has the potential to involve the entire class, the children’s families, and community…
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Let’s Get Up
Micah (30 months) is lying on the ground next to the slide. The teacher leans down and teasingly touches both of his hands before lifting him up to his feet. Micah walks over to the corner, picks up a ball, and throws it off-camera to the teacher, who tosses it back. Micah had shown very…
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What’s in the Box
Many young children are not accustomed to forming questions, so the teacher has developed a guessing game in which children use questions to help them guess what is in the box.
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Shaving Cream
The science fair seen in this video took place on the playground of a child care center. In one experiment, the teacher squirted a layer of shaving cream on top of a bowl of water.
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Sara Measures
The teacher placed several car parts in the sensory table for the children to explore. Paper, pencils, tape measures, and screwdrivers were provided as tools that the children could choose to use in their explorations.
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Magnets and Cars
The teacher took the 3- and 4-year-olds to visit the automotive lab next door to the classroom. The next day she asked the children to predict what parts of a car would attract a magnet.
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Getting to Know Rabbits
These supervised interactions between children and rabbits occurred during a science fair on the playground of a child care center.
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Flubber
In this clip, young children experiment with properties of matter.
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Fine Motor Skills and Safety
Automobile parts were placed in the sensory table as part of the children’s ongoing study of cars.
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Exploring Windshield Wipers
Children in a mixed-age early childhood classroom at a rural community college were engaged in a study of cars.
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Exploring Sound on the Dam
This video clip shows one kind of exploration that is possible when educators arrange outdoor experiences for young children.
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Constructing a Cradle
Several families of children in Judy Cagle’s mixed-age prekindergarten class were expecting babies. In response to this new interest, Mrs. Cagle took them to visit the maternity ward at a nearby hospital.
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The Clock Repairman and His Tools
This video clip shows some of the interaction between a preschool class (ages 3–5) and a visiting clock repair specialist.
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Climbing a Tree
Climbing a tree can be an important accomplishment.
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Bethany Draws a Wheel
The community college child care center in this video was near the automotive lab, where auto mechanics were trained. The families of the children were students, faculty, and members of the local community. Many of the families qualified for subsidized child care because of their income. Children had many different attendance patterns, due to their…
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Investigate Together
Encouraging your child’s exploration and wonder helps build a strong foundation for early learning.
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Go Outdoors and Explore: Build Upon Young Children’s Natural Curiosity
When we talk about curiosity in young children, we are referring to their desire to learn about their world. Outdoor spaces are of full of opportunities for discovery. Children can explore the natural environment as well as the “built” environment.
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Things to Do While You’re Waiting: Curious Young Scientists
Keep children engaged when you have to wait.
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Comparing Firefighter Coats
This preschool class has been investigating fire safety. In this clip, the class has gathered for a group meeting.
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Science Play with an Award-winning Toy
Generations of children have played with cardboard boxes. Many families have stories along the lines of “We got him [name of a popular toy], but he liked the box better.”
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Encouraging Scientific Thinking: Rain or Shine
Everyone talks about the weather—including curious preschool children.
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Project Approach: Helping Children Ask Questions
Here are some ways to help children develop and express their own questions during each phase of project work.
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Natural Illinois: Butterflies and Moths
You don’t have to go to exotic places to find interesting plants and animals to study at home or in the classroom!
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Outdoor Field Trips with Preschoolers: Follow Up!
After the class returns from an outdoor field trip, the teacher might offer a variety of follow-up activities to help the children build upon the experience.
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Responding to Children’s Interest in a Topic
Extensive experience of working with teachers of young children who include project work in their curriculum confirms my assumption that the quality of the learning that a project yields is strongly related to the topic under investigation.
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The Curious Child
Do you know a child who is full of questions? The way you respond can affect what and how a child learns.
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Building an Appetite for Project Work
One main reason for doing projects is to get children into the habit of “unpacking” a topic and of exploring it in depth and, in that way, gaining a sense of mastery of it.