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Taking Water to a New Level in Pre-Kindergarten . Gail Laubenthal Barbara Wilson. CAST Conference November, 2010. Investigating what four year olds know and can do in science.
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Taking Water to a New Level in Pre-Kindergarten Gail Laubenthal Barbara Wilson CAST Conference November, 2010
Investigating what four year olds know and can do in science The research study— Building Base Line Objectives for Children’s Knowledge & Skills for Science (BLOCKS): What young children should know and be able to do when they enterkindergarten—is designed to begin the dialog and to contribute a significant amount of data toward understanding where K-2 science teaching and learning should begin.
Physical Properties of Water • Water flows down, unless acted upon. • Water take the shape of its container. • Water sticks to itself (cohesion). • Water sticks to other materials (adhesion). • Air makes bubbles in water and rises to the surface.
Sharing Prior Experiences • Share one of your own experiences. • Where do you play with water? • What do you do? • What do you play with? • Help the children make connections.
Establish Rules and Routines • Smocks • Spills • Clean up • Appropriate use of materials • Water
Transition from Open Exploration to Focused Exploration • Observe the children. • Listen to what they are saying. • Is their play more focused? • Do some choose the water center daily? • Have they lost interest?
Focused Exploration: Flow • Moving water through tubes Pumping water
Sharing Prior Experiences • When have you seen water moving? • What do you think was making it move? • Tell about a time when you played with a garden hose, under a faucet, or in water running down a sidewalk on a rainy day.
Flow Continued Water in Bottles with Holes
Focused Exploration: Drops Make and observe drops Drops on various surfaces
Focused Exploration: Sinking and Floating Test objects Tubes and/or Bottles
Resources • Field Trips • Guest speakers • Children’s Books • Teacher References • Web Sites
If you want to know more: Gail Laubenthal glaubent@austinisd.org or Barbara Wilson bwilson@austinisd.org or Dr. Mary Hobbs at maryhobbs@mail.utexas.edu or Melissa Garcia at melissa.garcia@mail.utexas.edu National Science Foundation Center for Science and Mathematics Education