Young children are naturally curious and often seek to experiment in order to understand how their world works. As a preschool teacher, you can help ignite their curiosity and foster their natural abilities as they develop their scientific thinking by regularly planning science activities for your students. Here are three things you can do to add the wonder of science to your preschool classroom:
- Start a Classroom Garden
Bring in a variety of different seeds and ask your students to describe what they notice about each. (e.g., colors, shapes, and sizes) After they’ve made their observations help them plant the seeds outside or in a pot indoors that you can keep in a place where it will reach the sun. Continue to have your students monitor their growth and talk to them about what they see. Your students will love seeing their progress and will quickly learn that just like people, plants need water, air, nutrients, and sunlight to grow.
- Sink or Float? Test Objects in Water
Fill a large bucket of water and set aside several objects that will both float and sink. Have your students predict which will float and which will sink and test it together as a class. Ask, “Does it sink or float? Why?” Allow children to reflect on their experiences and observations.
- Examine Magnets’ Strength
Provide an assortment of magnets such as a magnetic wand, a magnetic marble, a bar magnet and a box of paper clips. Have your student predict how many paper clips each magnet will attract and discover the results by having them test each. Once finished start a discussion by asking questions about the experiment such as, “Which magnet attracted the most clips? Which magnets were stronger, more powerful? Which were weaker?”