Science! It’s A Kind Of Magic!

Although planning and setting up for science experiments can be a lot of work, as an early childhood educator I find it crucial that I make sure these opportunities are given to my students. Through science, children have the opportunity to learn about the world around them and acquire necessary life skills.

We use science in our everyday lives such as turning on a light, cooking or baking our next treat! Children love to learn and, when opportunities arise, they naturally begin to observe, collect and store information, then use logical thinking to come up with amazing questions or conclusions. They soak up all this knowledge like little sponges! As if that isn’t impressive enough for these little minds, they then go and make connections to future experiences!

As parents and teachers, it’s important that we get our children involved and encourage them to ask questions, expressing how wonderful it is to come up with great questions. But also reassuring them that it’s okay if we don’t always have the answers to every question.

Children naturally have a huge interest in science because it sparks curiosity, creativity and imagination. Not once have I ever had to persuade or force a child to participate in any of our group science projects. The moment I ask the class to sit at their seats for science time I hear excited voices and see happy faces. In our Pre-K classroom we do at least one group science project each week and through these science experiments they’ve added some impressive words to their vocabulary.

The most recent words this month are “expanding”, “reacting” and “dissolved”. Their facial expressions are priceless when they see the baking soda reacting with the vinegar. Or when the borax begins to react with the glue...It's, well, as 4 year old Sara describes it..."magical!"