Early Childhood Science in the Classroom

Preschool teachers know that the primary emphasis of kindergarten readiness testing revolves around language development and reading readiness. Do not short-change the children when it comes to early childhood science education; ready-made curricula are available.

Getting Started

Instructors can feel intimidated when it comes to introducing science-related lessons or activities into the day to day preschool activities, but with the ready availability of teacher guides and even complete curricula, there are plenty of ideas and tips to go around. In some cases, these programs may require just a little adaptation or tweaking to make them useful for your classroom or the developmental abilities of the children in your care.

In other cases, you can actually sneak in the occasional science lesson as part of your already planned curriculum activities. PBS suggests evaluating your curriculum for potential science opportunities that do not require the need for additional curricula or materials.

Hands-on Science in the Early Childhood Classroom

Introducing hands-on science to young children is no different than it is for older students; the primary exception is the attention span and the depths to which you would take scientific explanations. Preschoolers learn how to observe a situation. Observation takes place before, during and after any actions affecting the science experiment's object.

Children classify what they see. This will obviously be the most rudimentary form of classification, but it gets youngsters accustomed to look for commonalities.

Students communicate verbally what they notice. Color changes, scents and actions are put into words.

Teacher Resources for Hands-on Science

Bubbles

Blowing bubbles is fun, but learning how to mix the perfect solution for the perfect bubble offers a number of interesting science activities. The Bubbles website offers three different formulas and ingredient substitution suggestions. Within the classroom, preschoolers learn how to mix the best soap solution for bubble blowing, how to measure the ingredients, and also that not all kinds of water are created equal.

Color Mixing

As outlined by PBS, coloring and color mixing are excellent science exploration activities that can take place during your regularly scheduled activities. You may even decide to add little extras to the colors, such as sand or water. Changes in the consistency and also finished look upon drying make for some great scientific exploration and discussion.

Water Play

The Early Years library from the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) features a cornucopia of ideas and easy to implement suggestions for bringing science into the preschool classroom. Their water play activity idea incorporates sink/float experimentation of various items that -- coupled with hypothesizing -- get young scientists thinking. Additional study group projects foster teamwork.

If curriculum augmentation or separate science curricula are not desirable in your preschool setting, these experiments can incorporate bona fide science into your ongoing daily classroom activities.

Sources

PBS: "Science in the Preschool Classroom"

Bubbles: "Bubble Formulae"

PBS: "Dinosaur Train - A Colorful Hypothesis"

National Science Teachers Association: "The Early Years - Water Works"