A) Content should include life cycles and characteristics of organisms, and environment. B) Three and four year olds should observe diverse animals and plants, especially developmental change in plants.
C) Five and six year olds should categorize and compare observations.
D) Seven and eight year olds should learn scientific language and conduct more complex comparisons.
6. Physical Science for young children must be based on observable, recreatable and immediate actions.
A) Content should include properties of objects and materials, motion, light, heat, electricity and magnetism.
B) Three and four year olds should manipulate physical objects.
C) Five and six year olds should categorize and compare manipulations in more systematic ways.
D) Seven and eight year olds should keep records of more complex and abstract comparisons.
7. Earth Science
A) Content should include properties of earth material, objects from the sky and changes in the Earth and sky.
B) Three and four year olds should have opportunities to observe and interact with snow, sand and water.
C) Five and six year olds should categorize and compare geological objects.
D) Seven and eight year olds can conduct experiments related to weather, air and geology.
8. Activities are better organized around experiments, with textbooks used as an informational resource, than the reverse.
9. Science is easily integrated into language arts, crafts and mathematics.
10. Teachers should integrate reading and writing opportunities within science activities (e.g. an observation log of a plant growing or a cinquain about a class tadpole).
11. Children with Special Needs
A) Multisensory adaptations may let children with sensory impairments experience an activity in another way.
B) Multisensory adaptations can also offer new avenues of exploration for gifted children, and foster discussion and communication among all children.
12. Teachers should be sure to include the contributions of various cultures when discussing inventions and innovations. Classroom role models should reflect diversity.