10.4: Introducing the Foundations

While exploring the play yard, children became fascinated with pill bugs (usually called roly polies by children). In the yard, they would look for pill bugs and enjoy watching them curl into balls. One day, Ms. Lopez noticed that a group of children collected pill bugs in a bucket. She invited the children to put the “roly polies” on a tray and observe them closely at the outdoor investigation table. Ms. Lopez said, “Let’s use our tools and look really closely at the pill bugs. What do you notice about their body?” Ms. Lopez assisted Jennifer in holding the magnifier above the pill bug: “Wow, it looks so big,” Jennifer said. Jose observes the pill bug with a magnifier and gets excited: “I can see its head.” Ryan asked, “When is it going to open up again? I want to see how many legs it has.”

Ms. Brown presented children with a big cube of ice. She asked the children to touch or hold it and tell her what they notice about it: “What does it feel like? What does it look like?” Children shared their observations: “It is cold.” “It is slippery.” “It is very smooth.” “It is wet.” “It is white.” “It is square.” Ms. Brown asked the children, “What do you know about ice?” Some children shared their ideas: “We keep it in the freezer,” “It’s very, very cold.” “If you put it in water, it disappears.” She invited children to draw their observations of the ice cube in their notebooks. The next day, Ms. Brown told the children that together they are going to explore what will happen to ice when it is left outside of the freezer. She has asked children: “What do you think will happen to this ice cube if we leave it in this bowl? What is your prediction?” “Will it stay the same?” “What will be different?” Children made predictions, and she wrote them on a chart (e.g., “It will not be so cold anymore.” “It will turn into water”), “After lunch, we’ll check our ice cube and find out what happened.”

The children in Ms. Moreno’s group are taking turns bringing home the picture book they created as a group. Today, it is Emilia’s turn to take home this book. This picture book was created to document the growth of their plant. Emilia points to the photos in the book (taken by Ms. Moreno to document the process) and to children’s drawings. She tells the story out loud to her grandmother, who is picking her up, “First we had to buy seeds (points to a photo of the seeds packet on the first page), then we put the soil, and then we put the seeds inside the dirt . . .” Emilia continues with more details while looking at the pictures in the book: how they put the pot in the sun, watered the plant, and measured its growth. “Here it was one inch, and here it was bigger, and here it was very tall, and it has many leaves.” At home, Emilia will share it with her family, and together they will retell the story in her home language.^[3]

Pause to Reflect

How would you facilitate children’s thinking skills through everyday observations and interactions?

In exploring objects and materials, children develop understanding of key concepts about the physical world.

They learn about the size, shape, weight, texture and other properties of objects and materials.
They learn about the form and function of objects and that the form of an object supports its function.
They continue to learn about cause and effect—that certain actions lead to certain reactions.
They learn about changes in objects and materials. For instance, how mixing, heating, or cutting will produce changes in materials and that some changes are reversible and some are irreversible.
They begin to understand that objects not in motion are in a state of balance.
They learn more about force and motion (inanimate objects are set in motion; pushing and pulling put objects in motion; objects can move in different ways).

Ms. Yen introduced children to a variety of solid materials, including feathers, wood chips, pennies, foam pieces, marbles, and eggshells. After the materials were introduced, she left them for children’s free exploration in the discovery center. The center also included tools such as magnifiers, trays, cups, and a balance scale to expand their observations of the materials, and the children were familiar with how to use them. Children enjoyed exploring these materials, especially finding out how they are similar or different from each other. One question they investigated was, “Which materials are rigid and which are soft?” Children tried pressing, poking, twisting, tearing, and breaking the different materials and shared their conclusions with their classmates as they worked: “The pennies are hard.” “The feathers are very soft. You can bend them, and they do not break.” “The eggshell breaks when you press on it, and these (points to foam pieces) are soft, and you can break them like this (the child demonstrates how they break easily).” “The wood chips are very hard, too.” With the teacher’s assistance, some children recorded their findings on the chart, by gluing a sample of each material under “Rigid” or “Soft.”

During the last cooking activity Ms. Moreno noticed that the children were fascinated when they mixed the flour with water. The children’s reactions gave Ms. Moreno an idea for extending the group’s explorations with dry materials and engaging them in exploring mixtures. In small-group time, Ms. Moreno introduced the children to different dry materials, such as salt, flour, cornstarch, and sugar, and invited them to explore them. She then suggested that they mix some of these materials with water. The teacher asked the children questions to invite them to make predictions: “What do you think will happen if we add salt to water . . .” As the children watched the salt crystals disappear, they discovered that when salt is mixed with water, it cannot be seen anymore. The teacher immediately asked questions that encouraged the children to check their predictions. Ms. Moreno asked the children, “What happened when you stirred the salt in water?” Children came up with different answers: “It disappears.” “It is inside the water, but you cannot see it anymore.” Ms. Moreno invited the children to taste plain water and the water stirred with salt, and tell the difference. When the children communicated that they tasted the salt and that it was still in the water, the teacher introduced the word dissolve to the children and explained that the salt dissolved in water to make salt water. The children tried out different materials and discovered that some dissolve in water and others, such as flour or sand, do not. The next day, the children tried mixing other materials such as glue, lemonade powder, tea leaves, and play dough to find out what happens to each of these materials when mixed with water.

The children were playing at the water table and taking turns tossing an object into the water, to find out which objects sink and which objects float. Ms. Schultz held a plastic cup, and asked, “What do you predict will happen to this cup when you put it in the water? Will it sink or float?” David said, “It will float like the other cup,” referring to the Styrofoam cup they tested earlier. Dana said, “It will sink because it is more hard than the white cup.” Gaby said, “Maybe if we put it in like this (facing up), it will not sink.” Ms. Schultz asked, “Why do you think so?” Gaby said, “Because the water will not go inside.” She put the cup in the water, facing up, and the children observed the cup floating. “You see! It is floating.” David said, “Now, let’s put it in like this (facing down).” Ms. Shultz said, “That’s a great idea. Let’s put the cup in the water facing down and see what happens. What is your prediction? Will the cup sink or float?”

The children predicted that the plastic cup will float again. Ms. Shultz asked, “Why do you think it will float?” David answered, “Because it was floating before.” She put the cup in the water, facing down, and everyone, including Ms. Schultz, was surprised when they saw the cup sinking in the water. The children were fascinated with what they discovered. They kept putting the cup in the water, one time facing up and one time facing down, watching it turn from a “floater” to a “sinker.”^[5]

How can different interest areas in the preschool environment (e.g., the block area, the water table, the sensory table, and the playground) be used to enhance children’s explorations of objects and materials?

In studying animals, plants, and humans, children develop an understanding of key concepts related to living things such as:

• All living things have basic needs that must be met for them to grow and survive.
• The body parts of living things are useful for them in meeting their needs.
• The physical characteristics of living things reflect how they move and behave.
• Living things have their habitats in different environments.
• All living things grow over time and go through changes related to the life cycle.

There is variation and diversity in living things

While playing outdoors, Gregory pointed up to the oak tree and shouted, “Look, a squirrel up in the tree.” Joanna whispered, “Shhh . . . You will scare the squirrel away.” They stood there silently, watching the squirrel. Soon more children joined them. Ms. Leon, watched them observing the squirrel and asked, “What do you think the squirrel is doing?” (Pause) “What do you think he is looking for?” She listened carefully to the children’s ideas and questions while observing the squirrel: “It is climbing up.” “He is looking at us.” “I think he is looking for something to eat.” Joanna asked Ms. Leon, “Is that where he lives?” Ms. Leon turned the question right back to her and asked, “What do you think?” Ms. Leon expected this question to come up because recently they were talking about the habitats of different animals and commented that some animals live in trees. Later, during group time, Ms. Leon invited children to share with the group their observations of the squirrel. She brought up her question again: “What do you think the squirrel was looking for in the tree?” Some children said that squirrels were looking for food. Ms. Leon asked, “What kind of food do you think squirrels may find in the tree?” Joanna suggested, “Maybe they eat leaves.” Miguel said, “Maybe the squirrel was looking for seeds.” Ms. Leon answered, “Oh, so you think that squirrels may eat leaves, nuts, and seeds. Let’s get our small binoculars and journals and observe the squirrels to find out what squirrels are doing in the tree and what they like to eat.

The teacher cut open the avocado, and Danny got really excited. “I knew there was going to be a big seed inside.” Ms. Wilson replied, “You did predict that there was going to be a big seed inside.” She invited children to observe the inside of the avocado. Rena said, “It has this thing inside.” Sara pointed to the empty half and said, “This is where it was.” The teacher replied, “It is the avocado seed.” She took out the seed and handed it to Rena. “Oh, it is slippery.” Ms. Wilson put it on a tray and said, “It does feel very slimy.” She invited children to observe the seed. “What does it look like? What does it feel like?” After she gave children time to observe the avocado seed, she pointed to the other fruits in the basket and said, “I wonder if these fruits are also going to have seeds inside. What do you think?” Rena said, “Maybe the orange will not have very big seeds.” Danny said, “The avocado has a big seed inside, not the orange.” Ms. Wilson asked, “What do you think is inside the orange?” The teacher invited the children to predict what kind of seeds are inside an orange, a mango, a butternut squash, a papaya, and a plum and wrote down their predictions. She then invited the children to cut open the fruits and check what was inside^[7]

How can you find out what ideas, interests, cultural beliefs, or fears the children in your group bring to their study of living things?

In studying earth materials and phenomena, children become aware of key characteristics of earth:

• Earth materials (soil, sand, rocks, air, water) are part of the natural environment.
• Earth materials have different properties.
• There are patterns of change in earth phenomena (day/night; seasons). Natural objects in the sky (sun, moon) are not always in the same place.
• Temperature and weather changes can be tracked over time.
• Weather and seasonal changes affect the environment.

People should respect and care for the environment.

Ms. Tina observes the children playing at the sandbox. Ted fills up the bucket with water and pours it on the sand. Olivia and Ted watch as the water is absorbed by the sand. Next they begin to pile the sand into a mound. Olivia says, “It’s like a mountain. Let’s make it bigger.” They add more sand and compact it together. Their mountain is beginning to take shape and gets bigger and bigger. Olivia says, “I am going to get water.” She gets a small bucket and gently pours it on top of the mountain. She notices how the water creates a depression in the sand and then flows down. Ted says, “Like a river.” He gets more water in the bucket and pours it again in the same place. The depressed part gets bigger. Ms. Tina gets closer and asks, “What happens when the water is flowing down your mountain?” Ted describes, “The water makes a hole in the mountain. Olivia says, “It takes the sand down.” Ms. Tina said, “A little bit of water at the beginning helped to hold the mountain together, but pouring a large amount of water causes the sand to slip and slide away. It can also happen in nature, when water breaks down the land.”

Today, Rena’s father came to school to share with the group some of his kites and to build a kite with the children. First, he invited the children to observe him flying one of his kites in the air, and then the children took turns flying the kite together with him. After they came inside, Rena’s father asked the children, “So what do you think makes the kite fly up?” Children came up with different answers. “The wind touches the kite all around, and it goes up in the sky. It pushes the kite up, up, up, up in the sky.” Another child said, “The air goes through the holes of the kite, and it moves the kite to the sky.” Rena’s dad invited children to notice the shape of the kite, and together they discovered that the kites he brought have a similar shape, “like a diamond.” He also asked them why they think the kite needs to be light and not heavy, and one of the children said, “Because it needs to fly up.” Rena’s dad told them, “A long time ago, kites were invented in China. People used bamboo sticks and silk to make kites.” He then invited children to build a kite. “Now we are going to build our own kite. What do you think we need to build a kite?

Every month the children observe the oak tree outdoors and keep records of how it changes from month to month. Ms. B. encourages children to make drawings of the tree, and together with the children, she takes photos of it once a month. While observing the tree, Ms. B invites them to share their observations: “What changes do you see?” “Why do you think the tree changed like that?” Through such discussions, Ms. B helps children to begin to draw the connection between the changes they observe in the tree and the changes in the weather and seasons. In the fall, children collected fallen oak acorns and leaves. They were fascinated with its deeply lobed leaves, and some of them made drawings of the oak leaves in their journals. They also observed the acorns and talked about them as well as other trees around the yard that have dry fruit similar to the acorn. Ms. B creates a class book with the observational drawings, children’s words, and photographs documenting the changes the children observe each month. By the end of the school year, the book will include their documentation of the tree in order of the seasons: fall, winter, spring, and summer.^[9]