Science

Objectives and Goals

The goal of the Science program is to inspire and enhance a child’s natural curiosity about themselves and the world they live in. Content is designed to introduce scientific observation and recording, classification, the concept of compare and contrast, living and nonliving and seasonal observation.

Strategies

Science concepts and understanding develop as the children observe and record the weather each day during calendar center, create a self-portrait, follow the child’s curiosity about themselves and their world, observe characteristics of a leaf, recording size, color and shape, planting; introducing roots, stems and leaves, experimenting with sink or float, magnets and color mixing and promoting awareness of the five senses.

Assessments

Assessments include daily discussion and observation of the weather, creating self-portraits at the beginning and end of the year. The children gather a leaf in the fall and complete an observation page to record the size, color and shape of their leaf.  They plant seeds and identify the roots, stems and leaves and what the plant needs to grow: soil, sun and water. Children choose four items to predict if the items will sink or float, testing each item and recording their findings on an observation page. The children test various items to see if they are magnetic or nonmagnetic and record their findings on an observation page. In December the children complete a Little Elf book that shows what the Little Elf sees, hears, smells, tastes and feels as we learn about the five senses.  We do group experiments and observations regarding color mixing and melting as we observe ice cubes in the sun and in the shade. We learn about shadows when we talk about Groundhog Day and complete our class graph with our predictions on whether or not he will see his shadow.