Encouraging Future Scientists

Little C, transfixed by the movement of the water and colorful rocks beneath it

How do you get more kids interested in math and science? This was the question posed to me in a conversation this weekend about education after I made my claim that standardization and high stakes testing are boring students out of pursuing math and science careers. Being an introvert, I froze up on the spot and my response was pretty long winded and ended up as more of a general introduction to the Reggio Approach and the difference between what I do and how science is traditionally taught in schools. But I didn't really say much about my actual science curriculum and what it looks like in practice and I have been thinking about how to better answer the question all week. So today I flipped through all of my documentation folders for some good examples of how I "teach" science in my preschool classrooms and what I do to keep kids interested in these important subjects.

I spent one morning with a group of toddlers smelling, naming, touching, and looking at a rosemary bush in the back garden patch during outside time at Bella Mente. This impromptu lesson on plants was the result of little L's curiosity about this big green thing beside her, inspiring each of her classmates to have a smell. Engaging all of the senses is a great way to figure out how each of my students learns most effectively.

Back in Hawaii, K and I learned about the local farm flora by exploring the pigeon pea bush. She preferred a more hands on approach, working her fine motor skills by plucking the peas from their pods. We got in a great vocabulary lesson along with our science as K inquired about the name of each part of the plant and practiced saying leaf, pea, pod, bush, branch, and more as she pinched the pods carefully to get her pea.

Learning distance and landscape was something my buddy little E was particularly drawn to, he loved to look at maps and took great pride in his ability to name the places he recognized. Each time we brought out the world map he always showed me where Africa was, followed by England and Seattle. Here he's trying to find our school on a map of our neighborhood, West Seattle, Washington. He had a blast showing me all his favorite places as we looked over the streets together, naming them and putting his memories on the map.

Here is another example of a day when maps were one of the provocations set up on the science table but little E was onto something else and little M barely noticed the maps, fascinated instead by the magnetic sand boxes, first examining them, then manipulating the magnetic sand with a magnet wand. I always set up multiple materials and ways to explore them so there are options speaking to a number of different interests.

When the kids in my 4s class seemed a bit bored with our typical outdoor options one day, I pulled out a sensory table and filled it with birdseed  and these two practiced scooping, dumping, and measuring, and learning the physics of a water wheel. Later we observed from the other side of the window as the crows came to feast. I try to seek out activities with multiple dimensions because they tend to draw in more students and allow for more chances to inspire learning. Not everyone wanted to play with the birdseed when we were outside but many who didn't were thrilled to watch the birds gather to feed on it later on. 

The school age kids couldn't seem to get enough of math when we introduced the woodworking table where they also learned valuable lessons about the concepts of balance, weight, adhesive strengths, texture, and so much more. But best of all, they had so much fun stretching their imaginations and bringing their ideas to life. These kinds of hands on activities that engage multiple senses are a fantastic way to reach kids who just don't learn their best seated at a desk. They're learning the same concepts but their senses are awakened and engaged in all new ways from the smell and feel of the wood in their hands and the sounds of hammering and working with tools. Through the application of math and science concepts they understand their relevance.

On this particular day at the block table a few boys were experimenting with height, testing the impact of using the different shape blocks, trying to figure out which blocks or combination of blocks would make the tallest tower. They worked hard, challenged their patience, and experienced the thrill of discovery in the end. I asked, as I often do, to share their hypothesis, which blocks they thought would win out, I don't remember their specific response but through narrating their process I taught them the language of the scientific method.

There are so many ways for kids to learn scientific and mathematical concepts but most importantly I want them to learn how to think like scientists so whatever they don't learn from me or other teachers they will have the motivation and capability to resolve their queries for themselves. I've found that when I observe my kids carefully and play alongside them frequently they will show me exactly what they are most motivated to learn, making my job of curriculum planning a whole lot easier if I pay attention to their cues. Joining my buddy little N in observation of the tadpoles, we told each other what we liked about frogs and shared our ideas on why some of the tadpoles seemed to be growing faster than the others. Our conversation inspired research on what frogs eat and the details of their natural ecosystems. And in retrospect now I would have shared that interest with the class by reading a story like Mo Willems's City Dog, Country Frog, and  reach across disciplines again to paint a frog using water colors just like Jon J. Muth does in the illustrations. The possibilities for scientific exploration and discovery and are endless in any environment and once I got in the habit of looking for them, I started to wonder why anyone ever bothered with the traditional methods of lecture and test when this is so much more effective and a million times more fun for both my students and myself. Now that I've discovered the benefits of an emergent curriculum, I am in love and I will never go back.

We Teach Each Other

Have you ever read Peter Reynold's book, The Dot before? It is a fantastic story that I read many times with my former Bella Mente Kiddos and I recommended it to Heather for little K and the future farm preschool kiddos in Hawaii. I have always enjoyed reading this story with kids for its beautiful message but it wasn't until I read this story with my campers this summer that I fell in love with it. The library where our camp was housed had a pretty spotty picture book collection, being that it serves a K-8 program, so The Dot stood out as an obvious selection to read with my kiddos. Having stumbled across countless ideas and examples of art projects this story provoked, I decided to see how it would inspire this group of little ones. I was blown away by the volume and quality of work that resulted and I have been dying to share how it went for weeks.

All I said after reading this story was "I wonder what kind of art we could create in our class using just dots? Do you guys want to try it out?" The kids seemed to enjoy the story, many of them had read it before in school or at home with their parents, so I was hopeful that I could provoke their interest in testing out their skills. I had anticipated a lot of really big water color circles in a variety of colors like the ones in the story and like the images I've seen on Pinterest. Many students did do this, big circles, a bunch of polka dots in various colors, and then the dots kept getting smaller and began to take shape as larger, less abstract pictures. One boy decided that the dots reminded him of planets and stars so he made a solar system dot picture. Then another said the dot looked like the earth and made a big dot of blue and green. Then somehow the dots kept getting smaller and a handful of us, myself included were suddenly working on elaborate pointillism style dot pictures of trees.

The dot picture I started alongside my campers, inspired by theirs

I am not an artist by nature, most of my art work comes from my classrooms, but I have always enjoyed art. Painting and drawing have always come second to collage, photography and calligraphy for me because my perfectionist nature leaves me too frustrated most of the time with my own lack of skill. When I sat down to show the kids how to make art, one dot at a time, I was doing so for the first time and I had no idea how it would turn out. Well, it turned out to be the perfect form of drawing for me. One dot at a time allowed me to take my time and plan out my picture in smaller segments and adjust as I go so that I have more control over the final product. I started my dot picture with just a few brown dots representing the trunk of a tree and after many, many more dots I ended up with a big fluffy tree in a starry night sky. To my surprise, I seemed to be enjoying this art project as much as (and often, it seemed, even more than) my campers. The fact that I discovered this kind of art right along with them made it all the more exciting and enjoyable for all of us. The room was buzzing with inspiration and enthusiasm, the kind I as a teacher always hope for.

One of my campers got so into our dot projects that he spent the remainder of camp glued to the art table whenever we were in our classroom making more and more elaborate and detailed pictures. He didn't come back the next few weeks and without his lead, enthusiasm waned, even though we read the story again. I continued to work on my dot tree picture that I never ended up finishing that first week, making sure to park myself next to each week's new children and when the asked I got to explain to them about the project started in the first week. No one got quite so into the project, though plenty of new dot pictures emerged over the following few weeks. C-man, my dot picture partner in crime came back and immediately asked me if I ever finished. I hadn't yet but eagerly showed him the progress I had made. He excitedly asked if he could help fill in the final black dots of the night sky and so after adding his name to the trunk of the tree in bright orange dots, I handed it over to him. He finished it that afternoon and I sent our collaborative home with him to get framed in remembrance of the project of which he was such an integral piece.

The little artist's work in progress.

I already can't wait to read this book again with another group and see where else it takes us. It always amazes me what I can learn about myself and the world from the kids I get to share my time and learn with. This is why I teach. Children are amazing little people.

Hello from the Forest

find this story on Amazon.com here

A whole month has gone by since my last post... woops! Time flies in the summer time and this month has been a busy one. Lots of travel, lots of friends and families, a month-long art and nature summer camp, and a much needed respite from the daily routines that had started to wear me down. But, I'm am back refreshed and revitalized and ready to share lots of goodies and stories I've collected over the past few weeks. To start out, I'd like to share a book I stumbled across at the library one morning as I browsed for stories to share with my 4-6 year old campers. Although this powerful and important book is on the longer side, the story and illustrations held onto everyone's attention and the web-of-life concept kept most campers involved in a lively discussion long after I put it down.

The story starts with a young girl discovering that her cat had gone missing during the night and as she heads off into her beloved forest to investigate, she finds his collar and a few patches of fur on the ground. Suddenly, the girl is introduced to a side of wildlife she had not yet encountered and though it frightened and saddened her, she set out to understand it, and in turn the world, a little bit better. The author takes what could be a traumatizing and grim experience for a child and invites children to understand both sides of the predator-prey relationship.

Having the river in the forest as our playground made it easy for the kids to take what they learned in the classroom the world at large. Out here we came across a painted turtle, craw fish, wild mushrooms, and birds of all kinds to observe.

With my particular group, this story opened up conversation about losing pets and the emotions and rituals that surround dealing with death. It also invited children to share what they know about the food chain and what kinds of animals eat what. We talked about how although it seems mean that a mountain lion or wolf might have eaten the girl's cat, that each animal has a family to feed and are designed differently so that there is enough food for everyone. One child in my group suggested that if all animals ate grass there wouldn't be any grass left. Even though the children were sad for the girl and the loss of her feline friend, they were able to look beyond their sadness at the grander picture of life. These are important concepts that are often avoided with younger children because of their seriousness, but I have always found that children are never credited enough for their ability to both understand and work through even the most complicated emotions and concepts when guided and supported by loving adults and peers.

Depicting their new-found knowledge of birds via drawing

Following our reading and discussion, the children headed off to the art table to investigate and animal pictures in the National Geographic magazines I had brought in and many of them made collages of their favorite animals, pointing out the herbivores versus the carnivores. Other children gathered around the computer to watch episode three of this BBC documentary about birds, exploring how their beaks are uniquely shaped to suit their diet. Other children headed outside to do a bit of bird watching with the binoculars I had brought in while others grabbed one of the many non-fiction animal and nature book on display in our classroom. I also set out the story on the art table with some paper and markers for children as an art provocation and a few sat down to draw animals and forest scenes of their own. All in all, I was pleased with the fun and learning that was born out of this story and I can't wait to read it again with another group. If you have ever read this one with a child or class, I'd love to hear stories of the discussions, projects, and inquiry that resulted.