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outside to chase and trace shadows. Or maybe the children in your class are extreme wigglers. Talk about how their bodies move, and describe the di erent parts of the body. Take a class poll: How many of the children are le ies? Take it a step further and graph the results. Use science to help students understand the wonder and excitement that lies in even the most ordinary, every-day objects and actions. Encourage their questions and applaud their responses, even if they are wildly o base. Like young children, science thrives on interaction and good company. e more your science activities overlap with language arts, math, art, and physical education, the better! Because science encourages inquisitiveness, you’re bound to be hit with dozens of questions you can’t answer. What do you do? Don’t sweat it. In fact, Susan Wood, executive director of the Children’s Center at Caltech and educational consultant to Zula, says, “If you don’t know the answer, that’s actually kind of ideal, because if you do know the answer, you’re very likely to just say it. It’s always appropriate to respond, ‘ at’s a really good question; how do you think we can nd that out?’ I really encourage adults, including parents, not to give the answer. Instead, ask other questions that lead the child to greater understanding. Give a child a cue or a clue, such as ‘I think we might be able to nd that out at the library.’ It’s less important what children are thinking about than how they’re thinking about it.” And there is no better way to model the importance of learning new things than to demonstrate how even you, a teacher, are always learning too. Activity extension for The Zula Patrol’s “Look to the Rainbow” episode What do you know about rainbows? Finding out what the children already know about a subject is as easy as 1, 2, 3! 1. Shine a ashlight and ask questions • What do you know about light? • What color is light? 2. Now shine the light through a prism or onto a compact disc. Call attention to the colors that are visible. Draw the connection between the ashlight as a light source and the sun and sunlight. • What do you think makes light outside? • What does a rainbow look like? 3. Then share some pictures of rainbows. • Have you ever seen a rainbow outside? • What time of day did you see it? • What was the weather like when you saw it? • Did the outside rainbow look like the one we just made inside? • What do you think a rainbow is made of? Tip: Focus on exploring questions rather than answering them. Tool: Record initial investigations on a KWL chart (which you can download and print at www.edu- place.com/graphicorganizer/pdf/kwl.pdf). Researching rainbows Nothing beats hands-on, heads-together investigation and experimentation. 1. Organize the children into small groups. Give each group plastic bowls of soapy water and straws. Demonstrate how to use the straw to blow large bubbles. The children should take turns blowing bubbles, observing, and recording. 2. When the sunlight hits the top and bottom of the bubbles, the light is split and sepa- rates into colors. Remind children what they said during the previous activity about the color of light. How does this experiment change that thinking? What color is light? 3. Give each group a prism to compare the spectrum made by the prism with the one made by the bubbles. Or remind children about the inside rainbow and note how it com- pares to these outside rainbows. Reinforce that in both cases, two things were needed to create the rainbows: a light source and a medium that breaks the light into colors such as raindrops, bubbles, or prisms. Tip: For true experimentation and exploration to take hold, let the focus be on fun, not on the mess. Reinforcing rainbows Don’t move on too quickly to the next theme or subject. Create deeper experiences by revisiting key concepts again and again. 1. Set up tubs of water outside or on inside on a sun-drenched windowsill. 2. Place white cardboard between the tub and the window. 3. Place compact-size mirrors inside of the tubs so that sunlight travels into the water, hits the mirror, and re ects onto the cardboard. (The water in the tub will separate the sunlight into a rainbow of colors!) What happened? Why? How are the room rainbows similar to the rainbows we’ve seen elsewhere? How are they di erent? Rainbow of resources Family and community participation is a sure re way to engage children and encourage exploration. • Inform families about your study of light, color, and rainbows. Encourage parents to help their children go on an indoor and outdoor “rainbow hunt.” Can they nd rainbows outside in puddles after a rain; in fountains, waterfalls, or sprinklers? • Provide children with red, blue, and yellow paint. Invite them to paint. Point out when children have mixed pairs of colors resulting in di erent colors. You can also invite a local painter to your classroom, or arrange to visit a local paint or store to watch paint being mixed. • On a sunny day, go outside and turn on the hose and select a “mister” setting. Have students stand so that the sun is shining on their backs. Move the hose around until the children spot rainbows in the water. Discuss what is needed in order to have a rainbow. 46 CHILDREN AND FAMILIES Back-to-School 2008 THE MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL HEAD START ASSOCIATION
The Zula Patrol’s Head Start Teacher Award! Look for details about The Zula Patrol’s Teacher Award program to be released soon! Head Start lead teachers may apply for this award — which is sponsored by The Zula Patrol and will be o cially awarded at the 2009 National Science Teachers Association conference in New Orleans. The winner will receive a small cash prize, a colorful Zula Patrol plaque, a one-year NSTA mem- bership, a stipend toward travel to the New Orleans conference, and local press coverage (news stories and announcements). The primary goal of the award is to support early science literacy by highlighting innovative practices in the eld. A key criterion for the award is the inclusion of parents or families in the Head Start science program. More information about this and other Head Start-Zula Patrol collaborations will be released in the coming months, so stay tuned! Planting the seeds of success It can sometimes seem hard to believe because they have so much learning and growing ahead of them, but what happens to the children in your program now really can a ect their future success. If we can capture preschoolers’ sense of wonder while they are young, however, we can plant the seeds that will help them succeed beyond our classrooms. Once the seed has been planted, it must then be nurtured. And when this happens, children grow and blossom into life-long learners. For Head Start teachers who are already pressed for time trying to meet national, state, and district goals, remember that, rather than adding a whole new component, the key is understanding how to incorporate science into an existing curriculum. Our goal as educators is to create life-long learners, and the best way to do this is to instill in children the desire to learn. Science accomplishes this by making learning an adventure! is article is presented by e Zula Patrol — a national educational series on public television designed to support science inquiry, Earth/physical science/astronomy standards for children from preschool to grade 2. For information on Zula’s teacher and family workshops, e-mail andrea@zula.com. Or visit www.carolinacurriculum.com/zula/index. asp for details about Zula science kits and formal science curriculum (with special discounts for Head Start programs). Development & Learning Products for Young Children from 13 Different Manufacturers Guarantee 04.08 ChildrenFam #8023.indd 1 04/25/08 1:43:53 PM THE MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL HEAD START ASSOCIATION Back-to-School 2008 CHILDREN AND FAMILIES 47
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