Children are provided varied opportunities and materials to learn key content and principles of science such as
a. the difference between living and nonliving things (e.g., plants versus rocks) and life cycles of various organisms (e.g., plants, butterflies, humans)
b. earth and sky (e.g., seasons; weather; geologic features; light and shadow; sun, moon, and stars).
c. structure and property of matter (e.g., characteristics that include concepts such as hard and soft, floating and sinking) and behavior of materials (e.g., transformation of liquids and solids by dissolving or melting).
This standard is illustrated through our choice of investigations that we have studied throughout the year. Some of our topics of study include: space, the water cycle, frogs, rocks, plants and food. These curriculum topics were all interests of the children and chosen by them for further investigation. Their questions were the main drive for the investigation, however, the content was supplemented by the teachers in The Tree House.
a. To view a lesson plan about the life cycle of chicks, click here
b. To view a lesson plan about winter weather, click here
c. To view a lesson plan about floating hot air balloons, click here
2.G.03
Children are provided varied opportunities and materials that encourage them to use the five senses to observe, explore, and experiment with scientific phenomena.
Our weekly cooking activities involve all kinds of sensory exploration. For example, when a friend from Jamaica came to cook with us, we got to mash bananas,
feel flour,
watch the oil fry the fritters and of course taste the end product!
Activities that support the investigation often require sensory exploration. For example, we played a “Guess the Food” game by smelling and looking at different spices and foods in little jars.
We have a water table and flour table open for exploration in the classroom.
Depending on the children’s interests, we sometimes use the tables for bean-play or rice-play.
2.G.04
Children are provided varied opportunities to use simple tools to observe objects and scientific phenomena.
Science tools are available for use throughout the day at the science area. These tools include but are not limited to magnifying glasses, bug jars, containers for collecting, scales, clipboards and writing tools.
In this example, we used a clear plastic container filled with water to hold our tadpoles. We used magnifying glasses for closer observation and clipboards to draw our observations.
2.G.05
Children are provided varied opportunities and materials to
a. collect data and to
b. represent and document their findings (e.g., through drawing or graphing).
Children document their findings through charts, graphs, drawings and journals. Opportunities for this to happen occur during choice-time and work-time.
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| (a) collecting information from books about our topics of study |
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| (b) recording what we know about frogs using a web method |
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| (a)recording our observations of tadpoles using writing tools and journals |
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| (b)documenting the tadpoles as they grow with pencil and paper |
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| (a and b) observing and recording data from the hot air b | alloon experiment using charts |
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| (a) using technology to collect data/information about trees |
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| (b) writing down our questions for when we would visit the firefighters |
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| (b) graphing what the weather is that day using a bar graph and markers |
2.G.06
Children are provided varied opportunities and materials that encourage them to think, question, and reason about observed and inferred phenomena.
The Tree House children are given individual, small group and large group opportunities to observe, reflect, question, predict and conclude about scientific concepts. These conversations may or may not occur with a teacher present and can be spontaneous or planned activities during the day.
These photos illustrate a group discussion about tadpoles during worktime and a small group discussion and observation with a teacher about the same topic during individual choice.
2.G.08
Children are provided varied opportunities and materials that help them learn and use scientific terminology and vocabulary associated with the content areas.
The Tree House children are provided with observable elements, books, magazines and technology, as well as, introduced to people who work within the sciences, to help them learn, understand and use language related to scientific concepts. Scientific terminology is modeled and encouraged by The Tree House staff members.
researching frog habitats on the computer
observing the tadpoles
A professor from campus who is an expert on frogs came to visit The Tree House.
