Rationale
Science tends to be an afterthought in today’s early childhood curriculum. Minimal curriculum is provided and the brunt of teaching time is required for Language Arts and Mathematics. Any cross-curricular usage is created by the teachers. This is a disservice to all scholars. The world around us is not just made up of reading and math. The young child’s brain has incredible potential to build neural connections and create a strong foundation. The older a child is the less chance they have for building those connections, and those they do build are weaker. Why then does the curriculum not emphasize a strong complete foundation in early childhood? It does not make any logical sense other than the underlying concern over test scores. Test scores should not define the scholar. This unit seeks to bring balance to the academic rigor in early childhood. Science is necessary to every scholar’s foundation. These concepts, skills, and experiments have the capability to provide scholars with strong neural connections and motivate their curiosity in learning.
Current standards dictate that all units must have clearly stated, rigorous objectives. My Kinderscholars will master the following objectives. They will identify, research, experiment, and analyze the three basic states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. Scholars will identify what heat is and three types of heat transfer. They will explain the effect heat has on states of matter. The scholars will use their five senses to investigate the result of heat when applied to states of matter in cooking. They will create a presentation and share their knowledge with another class. These objectives tie into numerous standards which are listed in the appendix of this unit.
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