Infants as scientists

 While visiting the infant room recently, I had the opportunity to watch as an older infant explored the water as it came out of the sink faucet.  He touched the metal of the faucet itself; he attempted to grab the stream of water.  He allowed the water to run over his hands and his arms while he observed carefully.

For our youngest children, one of their biggest jobs is to understand how the world works on a basic, physical level.  The metal faucet has certain properties-- it is hard, it is cold.  Touching it doesn't make it change shape. The water stream, on the other hand, has a different set of properties.  It is cold (sometimes!), but it isn't hard.  It changes shape when I put my hand under it.  I can't grab hold of it like I can with my toy ball or the metal faucet.  When I put my hand on it, water sprays on me and I experience the feeling of being wet. 

This exploration is key to children's cognitive development.  In their minds, they are fitting the world like puzzle pieces into what they already know, and when a puzzle piece doesn't "fit" with what they already know, they create a new concept in their minds, plus all of the neural connections that go with it.  Child development theorist Jean Piaget called these dual concepts "accommodation" and "assimilation."  In these photographs, the infant may already have a concept, or "scheme," as Piaget called it, for water.  But perhaps he hasn't had as much opportunity to explore water coming out of a faucet.  Through exploration, he may determine that this is indeed the same water he's familiar with from the bathtub, and just "assimilate" these new properties of water into his already created concept of what it is (a thing to drink, a thing to bathe in.)  If he didn't already have this concept, he would have to change his view of the world (accommodation) to fit this puzzle piece into his world.

How can you extend this learning at home?  Observe your child as he observes the world around him.  What catches his interest?  Is she really just waving her hand in the air, or is she raptly watching as the sunlight coming through the window dances on her hand while she feels its warmth on her face?  Is he stopping on your walk because he doesn't want to walk anymore, or is he working hard to understand how the grass feels on his ankles? Children who are allowed to explore their world naturally build neural connections in the brain.  The only thing you have to do is let them!

Cooking with kids

When we're busy trying to get dinner ready at the end of a long day, children often seem more "in the way" than helpful!  That, of course, is completely understandable.  Did you know, though, that children can learn a LOT during cooking experiences?

Many of Indiana's early childhood standards for math, science and language arts can be reached through children's experiences with food and cooking.  For example, counting out 4 cups of flour teaches children not only about measurement and counting, but also one-to-one correspondence (the concept that we count one number for one scoop of flour.)  If you've ever tried to play a board game like Candy Land with your young child, you have seen a lack of one-to-one correspondence when they move 12 spaces while counting to 5!

Indiana's science standards ask us to allow children to investigate and talk about the characteristics of matter.  What's the difference between oil and water?  They are both liquids, but they act very differently.  What happens when we mix them in a recipe?  Flour and salt are both white, but they feel differently when touched.  Science standards also ask us to give small groups of children opportunities to engage in scientific experimentation.  Mixing ingredients for a recipe, adding heat (which causes a chemical reaction) and then observing (tasting!) those changes certainly meets this criteria.


When following a recipe, children also have the opportunity to meet language arts standards, and working with a small group helps them gain important social/emotional skills as they take turns with friends. 

How can you extend this learning at home? We know it's unlikely that you'll be able to fit in cooking experiences with your child at home after a long day at work, but perhaps on a weekend you'll find some ways that your child can help out in the kitchen with a simple recipe you can make together!

Need some additional resources?  Look here for additional things children learn while cooking, and here for some fantastic recipes and other information!

Observational Drawing with Young Children - a scientific process

Besides art, drawing can be used for more scientific purposes, too.  One of the ways we use drawing with children at the YCCF is in the process of "observational drawings."  Children at the art table often draw for fun and to express their thoughts and ideas.  While this is a vitally important experience for children to have, there is another reason (and way) to use drawing.

Observational drawing is the experience of looking closely at something-- and drawing what you see.  We use this type of drawing for a different reasons, but generally, it is intended to help children focus on what it is they are looking at, to notice the different elements of the object(s) and to create a representation in order to help them better understand it. 

These drawings represent preschool children's  observations of tadpoles in their early stage of development.  In the coming days and weeks, the children will watch as the tadpoles change-- as they first grow legs, then lose their tails, and ultimately become frogs.  As this happens, children will have the opportunity to watch and sketch the changes.  They will record, as scientists do, their observations onto paper so that they can reflect on the changes they saw.  Teachers will ask questions, "What's different now about the tadpoles? Let's look at the drawings from last week and see what changes have happened." 

How can you extend the learning at home?  Help your child notice the phenomena that happen all around him.  Give her a clipboard and pencil to sketch things they see and wonder about in the world.  For very young children, it is helpful to choose parts of things to sketch instead of entire objects (e.g.- sketch the wheel of the car, not the whole car.)  Talk about and label the parts of things that you see if your child is interested.  This is yet another opportunity to expand her vocabulary!  Compare his drawings of one tree/bird/truck to other ones you see.  How are they alike and how are they different?  Refrain from giving your child suggestions about how to approach her drawing.  Learning to draw is a developmental process-- one that takes time and practice, and each child goes about this in his own way. 

But what is it? Understanding and responding to children's art

Do you have one of those kids who come home with a huge pile of artwork everyday?  Paintings, drawings, teeny-tiny scraps of purple, red and yellow?  Or maybe your child brings home just one "jewel-encrusted" piece of construction paper, sopping with glue still, that they insisted you bring home instead of allowing to dry in the classroom? 

For older children, sometimes this art work is easily recognizable, but for many children in the early childhood years, the paintings are gray or brown blobs, or simply scribbles all across the paper.  As adults, we're using to considering art as a representation of something, so we're tempted to ask our children, "What is it?"  Here's the surprising news:  sometimes it (really) isn't anything at all, and more importantly, it's just fine if it isn't anything at all! If that's the case, though, how do we respond when our children enthusiastically show us their painting or drawing?

Very often, art work is an exercise of process for children; they are not always working towards a product.  Art materials like paint, clay, glue, markers and other drawing materials are fun just to explore and "see what happens" on the paper.  That's why you'll so often see big blobs of gray or brown.  What you don't see is the twenty minutes the child spent adding blue to yellow to make green, and then adding red, just to see what happened.  (Brown happens when you add all three primary colors.) From this experimentation process, children learn a LOT.  They learn about the qualities and properties of the medium they are working with. They learn how oil pastels feel slippery compared to crayons. They learn that the viscosity of finger paint is different than tempera.  They learn what happens when you add blue to yellow (and if you were in the classroom, you'd hear their exciting discoveries as they cry out, "Green! I made green! Look, it's green!" They figure out (eventually!) how much glue you really need to hold that feather onto the construction paper. They learn about straight lines and circles and they gain lots of fine motor control as they learn to manipulate their paintbrush, marker or pencil (yes, this will help them with writing later, but this isn't even the most important part of the experience of art!)  More importantly though, they learn that art can be a way to express feelings and beauty and eventually, that it can be used to represent ideas.

"This is the ice cream monster. This is the syrup monster.
This is a cake monster.  More syrup monsters.

So how do we talk to children about their art?  One of the easiest ways to go is to simply tell your child what you notice about his or her art.  "Oh, I see you used a lot of BLUE on this painting," or "I notice that you used a lot of CIRCLE shapes here."  Noticing what a child does in this simple manner supports the process of what they've done because in doing so you have demonstrated a non-judgmental appreciation of what they've done.  It can also expand their vocabulary. Instead of "blue," say "slate-blue," instead of noticing a green-yellow color, say "I see you've made chartreuse!"

But what is it? As long as you keep noticing things about their work, children will tell you "what is it," when and if it is something!  If you ask, "what is it?" children who aren't yet creating representations with their art are likely to just make up something they think you'd like to hear.  And unfortunately, if they weren't representing, but just experimenting, it also sends the message that their art should "be something," and that they did it incorrectly.  So just enjoy noticing. And when you're done, they'll very likely want to tell you more things about their art work.  And they'll keep on creating!

Preschoolers conduct a ball study

 

Measuring the circumference of the football with tape

 When choosing what to study in preschool, following children's interests tops our list!  When children are allowed to pursue knowledge related to things that are interesting and relevant to their lives, they, just like adults, stay focused and can get so much more out of the process.

The Sycamore Preschool is currently doing a study of balls-- footballs, baseballs, basketballs, soccer balls and more.  In this activity, they are considering the sizes of each of the balls.


Comparing the circumference of each ball

 Children talked about the idea of circumference, or how big around each of the balls were.  They used colored tape to "measure" around each one.  Then, they lined up their tape measurements to compare which ball had the largest circumference, and which ball had the smallest circumference and which were in between. 

When children explore a concept like circumference in early childhood, it deepens their understanding of it when they learn this concept more formally in the upper elementary grades.  Compared to children who haven't had this experience, these preschool children will "get it" much more intuitively.


Children line up the balls in order of size

After measuring the circumference, the children lined up the balls in order of size (a math skill called "seriation.") 

In this process, children have the opportunity to talk about "big, bigger, biggest," and "small, smaller, smallest."  In addition, they have the opportunity to use their social-emotional skills to discuss their opinions and ideas about where each ball fits on the continuum, and solve such problems as the best way to measure the circumference of a football-- around the middle or across the ends?

How can you support this learning at home? Watch your child at play.  What is she interested in?  Ask your child, "what do you wonder about that?" Sometimes we have to demonstrate intentional curiosity by posing our own questions.  For example, if your child is thrilled to find an interesting nest of ants on the sidewalk, you can pose your own questions.  "I wonder why the ants are all gathered here on the sidewalk? I wonder what they are doing?"  It's likely that your child will have some ideas, maybe even silly ones, to offer.  Instead of just telling your child the answer, or discrediting his theory, spend some time just observing the ants.  Or even ask your child, "I wonder how we could find out?" Being curious with your child helps them understand that they can be in charge of their own learning.  They can be researchers who found out the answers to their own questions.  The intellectual pursuit of knowledge was never so interesting!