the science

My Child as a Learner

Capitalizing on joy to build knowledge

At these ages, learning happens where flexibility meets intention

I love my day job as a preschool teacher--I get to see kids make new connections all day! Though one of the most beautiful parts of preschool is that it is flexible, everything in my classroom, from the words we use to the routines and schedules, is completely intentional.

I want to make what I do accessible for you as a parent or caregiver, because I know children thrive on consistency. Here are a few ways I prioritize learning at the Nature Network, and a few tools you can take with you to extend the experience further. 

I get to experience wonder and exploration daily with the children. Following a child's lead as they ask questions and dive into a detail is key at this age to support an interest and enjoyment of learning. Part of my goal with the creation of the Nature Network is to get the family involved and connected with each other, not just with the natural world.

Children learn best when they feel connected to others and seen by their peers and their adults. The Nature Network is a place where they are safe to ask questions, not know the answers, and be wrong sometimes. They can be uncertain or nervous about new experiences. This is where the child's trusted adults come into play. Intentional choice of kindness, openness, curiosity, and exploration gives the adult the flexibility to be present with the child instead of seeking to change or control the experience. 

1-2 years

Toddlers

Language has to be absorbed before it can be projected. At this age, the best thing for children's development of communication skills is to be surrounded by language. Even if your child does not verbalize yet as you talk and ask questions (indicating they know conversation is a back-and-forth exchange), continue to talk after a short pause as if they responded. This shows them how the structure of a conversation works.

Adult scaffolding (guidance):

  • Name objects they are looking at or pointing to and describe their function: "This is a magnifying glass. It makes objects look bigger!"
  • Describe objects of interest: "Here comes a vehicle! Look! It is a mail truck. See how it is a white truck with red and blue? All of the mail trucks have the same color and design. Mail carriers are the ones who drive mail trucks. They deliver mail, such as envelopes and packages, to people's houses in a mailbox or other special place for mail."
  • Describe what you see your child doing: "Wow! You made yellow lines on the paper with your crayon! You did this by holding your crayon with your hand and moving your arm around."
  • Describe what you are doing: "I can't look at the book right now with you. Maybe you can tell me about it! I'm cleaning up our art project so we can get ready for lunch. We painted rocks, which was so fun! It was messy. Now we will eat. Is your tummy hungry? Mine is! We're going to have pasta and fruit today."

Other tips:

  • Watch for their attempts to establish joint attention or communicate with eye contact. For example, if you ask where an object is, they may not yet have the language, but they may shift their eyes to where the object is hiding.
  • When your child points to things, ask for clarification and look for signs of recognition: "What are you trying to show me? The clock? (Child might say or sign "yes," or nod.) The clock tells us what time it is. The clock says it is 2 pm. That means it's playtime for ten more minutes. Then we will change into pajamas for a nap."
  • Build recall with your child by highlighting what they did that day: "What did you do today at the playground? Did you go down the slide? (Child might say or sign "yes," or nod.) Yes! You went down the slide. Then what did you do? Do you remember what we ate for snack? We had pretzels and orange juice. You seemed to like your snack. You ate all your pretzels."
Take it home!
  • Great talking times include diaper changes/potty time, driving in the car or sitting in the stroller, mealtimes, and other transitional periods between activities or locations.
  • Make it a habit to read at home! It's great for children to have access to books to practice turning the pages, but they get even more out of reading with you! Identify the pictures or ask them to point to things they see or like.
  • Songs are also a good tool for language. Kids love the classics, but they also enjoy your made-up tunes and creating their own songs!
Toddlers are naturally curious, though they may not be able to articulate specific questions yet. Early math and science is explored by "experiencing" concepts (watching, manipulating with their hands, listening) such as:
  • Quantity (more)
  • Same/different
  • Size (big/small)
  • Color
  • Shape (square, circle, triangle, heart, star)
  • Texture (rough, smooth, slimy, sticky, wet)

Adult scaffolding (guidance):

  • Describe what is happening: "You chose to dig with your hands! I chose to use the shovel to move the dirt around."
  • Describe changes and cause and effect: "You poured red food coloring into the water. Then when you stirred the water with the spoon, it changed color."

Other tips:

  • If there are objects or experiences they consistently gravitate towards, make a note. This is something to build on. For example, if your child likes vehicles, you can go outside and show them all the different color cars there are in the neighborhood. The next time, you could count how many cars you see, or talk about which cars are big and small. 
  • Problem solving: Encourage your child to keep trying when something doesn't go the way they planned. Give them the language to ask for help (such as, "Do you need help? You can say, 'Help please!'") or suggest other strategies as you work through it with them. Explain what happened, if there is an obvious reason. 

Take it home!

  • Talk about what you see, hear, or smell outside. Draw their attention to what they can observe with their senses: "I hear a bird! I hear the bird saying, 'Tweet, tweet, tweet.' Do you hear it?" Or: "How are your strawberries?(Child might say, "Yummy!") What does it taste like? Is it crunchy? Is it sweet? Look, it's staining your hands red!"
  • Toys, activities, and manipulatives: cause-and-effect toys, containers to fill and dump, plastic blocks or other toys they can pull apart or push together

2-4 years

Preschool

Preschool-age kids enjoy repeating the sounds and words they hear. They also can answer questions that are more open-ended. You can use more domain-specific (focused on the subject) vocabulary with short definitions at the end (for example, "This kind of dinosaur was an herbivore. That means it only ate plants").

Adult scaffolding (guidance):

  • Invite the child to label or name objects. If they don't know what it is, encourage them to try to repeat it: "This is a magnifying glass. Can you say magnifying glass?" When introducing new words, I speak slowly and, if I'm wearing one, I pull my mask down so they can see how my mouth shapes the sounds.
  • Invite the child to describe objects of interest: "(Child might say, "Look! A car!") That's right, it is a car! What kind of car is it? ("Van.") Yes, it's a white van. What do you think they might be carrying in the van?"
  • Invite the child to describe what they are doing: "Wow! You made yellow lines on the paper with your crayon. What did you draw?"

Other tip:

  • Build recall with your child by asking what they did that day: "What did you do today at the playground? Which friend did we see at the museum?"

 Take it home!

  • Great talking times include diaper changes/potty time, driving in the car or sitting in the stroller, mealtimes, and other transitional periods between activities or locations.
  • Make it a habit to read at home! For familiar stories, invite children to finish the sentences, or even tell you the story as they turn the pages.

Preschool-age kids can begin to build on the same concepts of space, size, and other characteristics. They will start to ask questions such as, "What is that?," "Why?," or "What does [word] mean?" They will also begin to answer simple questions based on memory or by sensory exploration.

Concepts:

  • Quantity: more, less; number words (even though they may not count in order); empty and full
  • Same/different; sorting by characteristic
  • Size: other words in addition to big and small (long, short, tall, fat, thick, thin, wide, skinny); comparison words such as bigger or smaller; superlative words such as smallest; understanding how big and small are relative; having a medium or middle value
  • Colors, including value (dark blue and light blue look different but they are still both blue)

Adult scaffolding (guidance):

  • Invite them to share with you what they are doing: "Can I play with you? Looks like you're using a shovel to dig. What are you trying to find?"
  • Ask them "why" or "how" (process): "I see you changed the color of the water. What materials did you use? (Child might say, "Red food coloring.") What happened to make it red? ("I use the spoon to stir.") Wow! You made that happen! How could you change the color of the water again?

Other tips:

  • Answer the "why" questions to the best of your ability. If you don't know the answer, offer to look it up: "I'm not sure if bunnies can swim. Let's find out together!"
  • Problem solving: Encourage your child to keep trying when something doesn't go the way they planned. Younger children might need more specific hints or suggestions: "I see you tried to open the jar by shaking it. Looks like that didn't work. How about you try twisting the lid?" Older children might be able to follow a strategy: "That puzzle piece didn't fit. See how it's green? Look, the piece that fits here will be blue. Can you match the color? Which piece has blue?/Which piece will you try next?" They might have a thought process or reason they tried that method; be sure to listen and validate their effort, even if it was an unsuccessful attempt.

Take it home!

  • Talk about what you see, hear, or smell outside (sensory exploration): "I hear a bird! Do you hear it?" You can also ask them to recall a fact (memory)/describe what they are sensing: "What sound do you hear?/What sound does the bird make?"

  • Prediction: "What do you think will happen if we put the rubber duck in the bathtub? Will it float, or stay at the top? Or do you think it will sink?" Or prediction could look like this: "What do you think we will see when we drive to Grandma's house? (Child might say, "cars," "bus," "rainbow," "squirrel," etc.)"
  • Sorting by characteristic: "This rock is smooth. Can you find another one from the pile that is also smooth?"
  • Toys, activities, and manipulatives: cause-and-effect toys, containers to fill and dump, plastic blocks or other toys they can pull apart or push together, real-life objects and tools to imitate and pretend, objects of similar and different shapes, sizes, or colors

4-5 years

Pre-K

As a child grows, you can continue to build on the foundation of vocabulary they have and encourage them to expand their knowledge.

Adult scaffolding (support):

  • Use domain-specific vocabulary (focused on the subject; for example, words like "cocoon," "hibernate," "predator"). You can ask if they know what the word means, or explain it in a few simpler words. If you don't know the word/how to pronounce/how to define, invite the child to look it up with you: "I'm having a little trouble describing a volcano. Let's look together to see if the dictionary/someone else might be able to tell you what it means."

Take it home!

  • Invite your child to "read" a book to you, or describe the pictures!
  • Ask your child to tell what they did, learned, or felt during an experience. They may need prompts or "leading questions" (for example: "What did you do today? (Child might say: "The aquarium!") What animals did you see? ("Sea turtles!") I liked seeing them too! Do you remember what makes them different from turtles on land?").

Children in Pre-K continue to display curiosity and have increasing amounts of language to express their interests. Start them off exploring concrete characteristics, but they can also begin to understand abstract concepts or objects not in view. For example, they may see a white oval and draw the conclusion that it is an egg. The adult could then ask what color they think is inside, and they might say yellow because that is the color of the yolk of the boiled eggs they eat.

Concepts:

  • Quantity: counting (one-to-one correspondence) 
  • Patterns: recognition and continuation of an existing pattern ("There is a big circle, then a small circle, then a big circle and a small circle. Would the next circle be big or small?")
  • Sorting: based on verbal direction, instead of by visual cue, with help ("Can you sort it by color? Purple here, yellow here, and pink here?")
  • Measurement: "We have a scale, a ruler, and microscope. Which tool could we use to measure how long the caterpillar is?"
  • Change: "How did the leaf change when we put it in the water? (Child might say, "It got wet," "It's not crunchy anymore," etc.)"

Adult scaffolding (support):

  • Provide hints in the form of options--they may not be able to draw out the answer from thin air. For example: "We want to look more closely at the spider. Should we use a magnifying glass or a microscope?"
  • Encourage imagination in problem solving. Children often surprise us with what ideas they have--they think "outside of the box" more naturally than we as adults do. Prompt their creative thinking: "I've not heard of that before. Will you tell me more?" or "I've never thought about using a robot to clean up parks! How would that work?" or "What do you think/what makes you think that?"

Other tips: 

  • Your child may count, talk about shapes or colors, etc. on their own! Encourage them in this endeavor (For example: "That's right, those are both circles," or "Yes! There are five rocks. Great counting") or join in ("Let's count together this time! One, two, three, four").
  • At this age, children can start to come up with their own research questions.
    • Model it by "thinking" out loud: "I wonder how many candies are in the jar. How do you think we could find out? (Child might say, "We can count!")" Be sure to validate whatever method they come up with, even if it's unconventional.
    • Prompting might also look like, "You picked out a stuffed lemur from the zoo. Let's find out more about them. What would you like to learn?"

Take it home!

  • Talk about what you see, hear, or smell outside. Allow for the child to make predictions and use their imagination! For example: "I see a squirrel! What is it doing? (Child might say, "Digging!") What do you think it might be looking for?"
  • Prediction and recall: "What happened when we put the rubber duck in the tub? (Child might say, "Float!") What other bath toys do you think will float?"

5-6 years

Kindergarten

Kindergarteners have a more expansive vocabulary than ever before and increasing ability to explain concepts or what they learned. As they are also exposed to (and can understand and articulate) more differences between themselves and others, it is also a great time to build appreciation for diversity and encourage unity and kindness.

Adult scaffolding (support):

  • Invite your child to use domain-specific (focused on the subject) vocabulary: "The puma sleeps during the day but is active at night. Do you remember what that's called?"
  • Help them build language that they can use: "What could you do (or say) if you saw your friend throw trash on the ground instead of in the trash can?" 
  • Encourage your child to cheer on their peers as they're completing a task: "Let's say, 'Go, John!' as he's climbing up the steep hill. What a great job he's doing! Sometimes it helps to remind our friends they can do it!" 
  • Encourage your child to use their imagination or think abstractly about their community and/or problem solve: "What does it look like to take care of our earth? Why does it matter that we help keep our community safe/clean/etc.?"

Other tips:

  • Encourage verbal recall for comprehension with increasingly open-ended questions:
    • "What book did you read today? (Child might say, "Charlotte's Web.") How did you feel when reading it? ("At first I felt sad, because everyone was mean to Wilbur. But I was happy when everyone was nice to him.")"
    • Reflect their answers for clarity and to help them feel heard: "So you didn't like how people said things about Wilbur before they really knew him." (Wait for child to affirm or correct your response.) 
    • Take it one step further: "How can you make sure people don't feel misunderstood, perhaps like Wilbur did? (Child might say, "Say hi," "Invite them to play or sit at the lunch table," etc.)"
  • Encourage verbal recall about learning and events: "What did you do at the Nature Network? (Child might say, "I looked at books and I went on a nature walk and I dug for worms.") What was your favorite part? ("I liked digging for worms. They're so wiggly and slimy. I got to hold one and let friends gently one-finger touch.")"

Take it home!

  • Talk about what you see, hear, or smell outside. Start a conversation, and connect it back to the child's experience. For example: "I see a squirrel! What is it doing? (Child might say, "Digging!") What do you think it might be looking for? ("Food.") What do you think it wants to eat?/What do you like to eat? How do you get your food? ("Grocery store," "garden," "parents/caregivers cook it for me," etc.)"
  • Read at home! Questions you could ask include: what they liked about the story, if they related to a character or their experience (for example, "Why did you like Peter Rabbit? Have you ever eaten too much like him? What happened?"), what they would have done if they were in that situation (for example, "If you discovered someone eating all of the food in your garden, what would you do?"), etc. 
  • Encourage your child to write or draw their own story, and then "read" it back to you or describe the pictures.

In kindergarten, children may learn traditional arithmetic (for example, addition and subtraction), but there are still other scientific and mathematic concepts to both introduce and continue to build on.

Concepts:

  • Data/concept representation: physical creations of what your child did/liked/felt
  • Patterns: creation of a pattern (though maybe with an example to remind them of what a pattern is)
  • Sorting: "These objects have some characteristics, or properties, that are similar and different. How would you sort them? (look for a verbal answer)" or "These objects are in two piles. What do they have in common/how are they sorted? (again, look for a verbal answer)"

Adult scaffolding (support):

  • Invite your child to come up with the scientific inquiry: "What questions do you have about snails?"
  • Invite your child to choose the method or process to answer their question or fuel their curiosity: "How do you think we can find out what a snail eats?" or "How should we measure how far a snail can travel in a day?" or "Is there anything new you want to try?"

Other tips:

  • Try a "KWL" chart if you and your child do a lot of experiments or research at home. Your child may have seen a similar chart at school already; they are used for data collection and to build recall. The letters stand for Know (e.g. "What do you already know about spiders?"), Want to Learn ("What questions do you have about spiders?"), and Learned (for after the activities).  

Take it home!

  • Ask your child what they can observe with their senses. For example: "What do you hear with your ears? (Child might say, "Airplane.") I hear it with my ears, too. Are you able to see it? ("No.") Why do you think we can't see it? ("It's too dark outside," "It's cloudy," etc.)"
  • Invite your child to watch and/or participate (when appropriate) with DIY projects or other tasks around the house. They might enjoy playing with a toy set of power tools or gardening tools and join you as you measure, fix, or work.
  • Toys, activities, and manipulatives: real-life objects and tools to imitate and pretend, books on subjects of interest