Keyword: Science
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Science Exploration for Preschoolers
This list contains resources to help educators and families explore early science concepts with young children.
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Teaching and Learning about Insects
These resources provide information for early childhood educators who want to help children investigate insects.
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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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Make a Mess and Explore STEAM
This tool kit provides ideas and resources to help you plan engaging and developmentally appropriate STEAM activities for young children.
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Exploring the Sensory Table
In this video, we watch Cameron and Anthony, both age 4.5 years, as they play at the sensory table in their classroom. Children enjoy exploring materials with their senses. A sensory bin or table is a place teachers can set up opportunities for children to do this type of exploration in the classroom while containing…
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Lots of Dandelions
Nature play presents opportunities for teachers to introduce scientific concepts. In this video, we see a teacher join Fawn and Edwin, both age 4, as they blow the seeds from dandelions growing on the playground.
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‘Look at Your Lines!’
Teachers help children develop their science skills by creating engaging activities that activate children’s curiosity and desire to discover the properties of materials. A visual art activity, such as the finger painting activity we see in this video, can be an opportunity to explore science concepts.
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You’ve Got Blue Hands
Visual arts provide opportunities for children to use their fine motor skills to express their creativity. Children are active investigators as they explore color mixing and texture. Visual arts activities spark conversations where children can appreciate the expressions of others.
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Look at It Go!
Messy play is a rich opportunity for conversation with peers and teachers. Exploring open-ended materials invites children to observe, make predictions, and use complex vocabulary to describe their experiences.
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Looks Swampy
In this video, we watch several students conduct an experiment with glue, food coloring, and water. The teacher encourages the children to actively explore the materials, think about what is happening, and describe the experience.
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Get Growing With Your Young Children
Spring is a wonderful time to “get growing” with young children. Children are eager to observe the outdoors during the change from winter to spring. Grass changing from brown to green and the buds appearing on the trees sparks children’s curiosity.
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Explore STEAM with Young Children
This list contains a variety of resources associated with making messes while exploring STEAM for young children.
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Appreciating the Natural World with Young Children
This resource list contains sources which can aid teachers and caregivers in helping young children appreciate the natural world.
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Discovering the World of Insects on the Playground
Kendra Nenia and Denise FennNorthern Illinois University Campus Child Care Center Our project was completed in a full-day childcare classroom at Northern Illinois University’s Campus Child Care Center. The children in the classroom were 2 and 3 years old. The study lasted six weeks.
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Cracks and Holes Project
Alicia Lindhorst and Beth FlickAkin PrekindergartenSouthern Region Early Childhood ProgramFranklin County, Illinois The Akin Prekindergarten provides full-day early childhood education for 17 children ages 3 to 5 years old in Franklin County, Illinois. The program is part of the Southern Region Early Childhood Program, a 5-county collaboration of 15 school districts, Head Start, and the…
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The Horse Project
Darby Harden and Tasha VerdeyenProto-Tykes Childcare CenterSullivan, Illinois Proto-Tykes Childcare Center provides high-quality full-day educational programs for infants and toddlers, 6 weeks to 3 years of age, and preschool-age children, 3 to 5 years old, in mixed-age classrooms. The center was founded in 1989 by a local company to provide on-site child care for its…
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Tools People Use
Karen McFadin and Kim HackPershing Early Learning CenterDecatur, Illinois Our project on tools took place in a half-day prekindergarten classroom at Pershing Early Learning Center in Decatur, Illinois. Children attend for 2.5 hours in the morning or afternoon, 5 days a week. Thirty-three children participated in this project. The morning class included 5 children with…
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One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish…NEW Fish: A Preschool Fish Project
Scott Brouette Western Illinois University Preschool Center Macomb, Illinois The University Preschool Center is located on the campus of Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois. The children are ages 3-5 years and are children of university faculty, staff, and students. Most of the 21 children attend full days, 5 days per week. The center is…
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The Tamale Project
Domenica AguileraAnn Reid Early Childhood CenterNaperville, Illinois The title of this project was “Making Tamales.” This project took place at the Ann Reid Early Childhood Center (ARECC) in Naperville, Illinois, where I have been teaching for two years. The children range in age from 3 to 5 years old, and they attend 2.5 hours in…
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The Worm Project
Kim Burd and Laura De LucaJ. L. Hensey Elementary SchoolWashington, IL District #50 The Worm Project took place in morning and afternoon sessions of two self-contained ECE classrooms in the J. L. Hensey Elementary School in Washington, Illinois, a community of about 15,000 near Peoria. Head teachers in the classrooms were Mrs. Kim Burd and…
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Garden Project Sprouts From Simple Question: “What’s That?”
Mary Klug, Deb Wintrip, and Simone HaughtonOwl Child Care Services–Lincoln RoadWaterloo, Ontario The preschool Garden Project started mid-April 2015, while the new shoots where coming up out of the ground. The project lasted until late August 2015, when the harvesting of our garden was completed. The preschool children ranged from 2.5 to 4 years old.…
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Things to Sit On
Projects are the 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 focusing on “Things to Sit On” has the potential to involve the entire class from the…
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From Door to Door: A Project about Doors and Gates
Projects are the 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. Doors are so much a part of our daily lives that we tend to take them for granted.…
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Changes in the Trees around Us
Projects are the 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. Most young children growing up in Illinois have opportunities to observe and study the dramatic seasonal changes that…
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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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Where the Chick Came From
This clip suggests some of the benefits of introducing very young children to live animals.
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Talking about Waterslide Models
The children in the study group used a commercially made marble run to learn about how materials move on ramps and slides.
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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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One Morning at the Construction Table
When children build something, they often address physics problems related to keeping the structure together.
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Observing Chickens on the Playground
Teachers have given children an opportunity to observe chickens during free play, after first having arranged some activities that allowed the children to become somewhat familiar with the chickens in another setting.
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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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Learning about a Stethoscope
This video clip depicts interaction between some preschool-age children and a guest expert. The class has been investigating measurement. One small group of children has focused on measurement at the doctor’s office.
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Keep It Moving: Playing With Hoops
This video shows children playing with hula-hoops in a large space for motor activities at an early childhood center.
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Ideas about a Marble Run
Along with another mixed-age classroom, the preschool class has been investigating ways to turn the school playground into an outdoor learning area.
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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 Trees on the Playground
This video clip provides a glimpse of some of the interactions among the children and between the children and the environment that can occur when teachers involve children in outdoor education experiences.
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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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An Engineer Changes His Mind
Along with another mixed-age classroom, this class has been investigating ways to turn the school playground into an outdoor learning area.
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Counting Chickens
This video shows preschool children engaged in mathematical thinking and in complex use of language as they watch chickens in a pen on their school playground.
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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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Bouncing Balls
During circle time, the children played a guessing game about balls.
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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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Air and Tires
A mixed-age group of children in a preschool class at a rural community college studied the cars in the automotive lab where mechanics are trained.
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Pour It! Stir It! Yum!
Cooking is a wonderful way to engage children and provide rich learning opportunities. Cooking engages the senses and gives children hands-on opportunities to explore food.
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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.