Young children are born with the desire to understand everything that goes on around them. Â It has been estimated that four year olds ask an average of 400 questions a day! Â Yep, that sounds about right! Children are definitely natural explorers and young scientists. Â That is precisely what led us to our latest unit of study…
We began our scientist unit by reading the book “Meet Einstein” by Mariela Kleiner. Â Now, if you had just seen the cover of this book, you would perhaps pass right by it, concerned that it would be over the heads of young preschool age children. Well, that just isn’t so. Â “Meet Einstein” is a simple, easy to understand book with gorgeous pictures…
While the book briefly tells us about Einstein and the amazing things he discovered, including the properties of light and gravity, it also covers some of the basics about scientists such as scientists study plants, animals, and the human body and that all scientists ask questions and make observations. Â One of the best parts of the book is the illustrations of all the tools scientists use…
As a class, we discovered that some of these tools are ones we already use. Â After finishing the story, Deborah brought out a set of our very own “scientist tools” for us to look at and discuss during our circle time…
The children were familiar with most of these tools. Â We use tweezers, pipettes, and magnifying glasses on a regular basis at preschool. Â Of course, flashlights and binoculars are always a favorite among preschoolers. Â The stopwatch, however, had them a little stumped! Â After talking briefly about each tool and how scientists use it safely, we sent our little scientists off to explore the tools on their own…
The chalkboard was available for children to record their observations throughout the morning…
We even practiced making marks on a paper chalkboard just like the scientist in our book did…
We also had special clothes available that scientists might wear, like lab coats and booties…
One of our centers had a popular DIY color and light discovery box that we created for the children to explore. Â Through one end of the box was a small flashlight and a paper tube was in the other end. Â The color paddles diffused the light and created a wonderful combination of colors…
The children could remove and insert the color paddles as they wished then look through the tube to see the light shining through the colors…
We made two different light boxes for the children to explore. The second light box was open at the top so the children could put whatever they wanted inside to look at. Â Most of the children liked looking at our water bead bottles since the bottles were bigger to see through and had a fun color and design that could be seen in the light…
Paper tubes and tape were available at another center. Â With these simple materials, our little scientists created telescopes: a tool that they could take home to remember all of the fun they had at preschool exploring tools of a scientist…
Lots of fun all throughout our day exploring the tools of scientists…
PS. Our classroom is small and easy to keep a safe watch on our young scientists at play but for those of you who worry that cords should come off of tools or batteries should be removed, then simply take off any long cords and seal flashlight battery doors shut…
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