Exploring The Topic

WHY INVESTIGATE BEGINNING THE YEAR?

Planning carefully for the first few days of school can ease transitions and help children feel more comfortable and secure.  If we can anticipate their needs, we'll be better prepared to plan for their arrival and support them successfully.  

Some children with prior experience in group settings may have learned the skills needed to be members of a classroom community.  For other children, preschool may be their first experience away from home or in a group.

FOCUS QUESTIONS

1.  What names do we need to know at school?

2.  What should we do if we get sad or scared at school?

3.  What are our rules?

4.  When do things happen at school?

5.  Who works at our school?

6.  How do we make and keep friends?  How can we be part of a group?

Trees fascinate children and spark their curiosity and wonder.  Close your eyes and think of your childhood memories that involved trees.  Did you ever climb a tree?  Did you play chase and hide behind a tree?  Did you lie down under a tree and wonder whether it touched the sky?  Did you ever try to wrap your arms all the way around a tree?  Did you wonder why there are holes in trees and what's inside them?  Di you every imagine what the world would be like without trees.

This study builds upon children's interest in trees to help them explore science and social studies.  Rather than emphasize naming different trees, this study focuses on helping children develop an understanding of the characteristics of trees and their role in our natural and man-made worlds.  During the study, children use skills I literacy, math, technology, and the arts to investigate and represent their knowledge about trees.

FOCUS QUESTIONS

1.  What are the characteristics of the trees in our community?

2.  Who lives in tress?

3.  What food comes from trees?

4.  Who takes care of trees?

5.  How do trees change?

6.  What can we do with parts of trees?

Children are interested in clothes from a very young age.  Babies tug at their clothing, toddlers study buttons, snaps, and zippers, and by the time children are in preschool they develop distinct preferences for colors, fabrics, and styles.  Children's interest in clothing can be the foundation for learning about different kinds of clothes, a variety of fabrics, the processes involved in making and selling clothes, the specialized purposes of same garments, and how clothes have changed over time.

This study shows how to use children's interest in clothes to help them explore social studies and science concepts about different kinds of clothing and where and how clothing is made.  The study also helps children use skills in literacy, math, technology, and the arts as they investigate.

FOCUS QUESTIONS

1.  What are the features of clothes?

2.  How do we take care of our clothes?

3.  How do people make clothes?

4.  How is cloth made?

5.  Where do we get our clothes?

6.  What special clothes do people wear for work?

7.  what other special clothes do people wear?

Week 1- Semana 1

• Investigation Question- What do we know about buildings? What do we want to find out?

• Pregunta de Investigación-¿Qué sabemos acerca de los edificios? ¿Qué queremos averiguar?

Week 2- Semana 2

• Investigation Question- What do the buildings in our neighborhood and in other places look like?

• Pregunta de Investigación- ¿Cómo son los edificios en nuestro vecindario y en otros lugares?

Week 3- Semana 3

• Investigation Question- Who builds buildings? What tools do they use?

• Pregunta de Investigación- ¿Quién construye edificios? ¿Qué herramientas utilizan?

Week 4- Semana 4

• Investigation Question- What are buildings made of? What makes them strong?

• Pregunta de Investigación- ¿De qué están hechos los edificios? ¿Qué los hace fuertes?

Week 5- Semana 5

• Investigation Question- What happens inside buildings?

• Pregunta de Investigación- ¿Qué sucede dentro de los edificios?

Week 6- Semana 6

• Investigation Question- What is special about school buildings?

• Pregunta de Investigación- ¿Qué tienen de especial los edificios escolares?

Exploring The Topic

WHY INVESTIGATE REDUCING, REUSING, AND RECYCLING?

Trash and garbage are around us.  We find rubbish and waste in our homes, on the streets, and in places where we work and play.  We pay more attention to garbage when it becomes a problem a community with more garbage than it can dispose of faces the prospect of a new landfill; dangerous waste begins to affect people's health; a tragedy, such as a hurricane, produces mountains of debris; or excessive litter creates an eyesore.  However, once immediate problems are resolved, we often forgot about the ongoing challenge or dealing with trash with and garbage.

Children are fascinated by what is in garbage cans and often pick up trash against our wishes.  This natural curiosity provides a good starting point for finding out what happens to trash after it's thrown away and exploring the concepts of reducing, reducing, reusing, and recycling.

A Study of reducing, reusing, and recycling not only offers opportunities for children to explore a topic that interests them but allows them to gather information, become more aware of the world around them, and solve problems.  They will use skills in mathematics, literary, the arts, and technology to represent their understanding of important concepts related to science and social studies.

FOCUS QUESTIONS

1.  What do people throw away?

2.  Where does trash go?

3.  How do trash and garbage affect our community?

4.  How can we reuse junk?

5.  How can we create less trash?

Insects make a great topic of study for preschoolers.Whenever we go outside, there is always a lot of interestin insects. They show curiosity about the different types of insects they see, how insects

move, where and when we see insects, and the kinds of jobs that involve insects. Children find them, watch them, follow them, and try to capture them. In this study children will learn the characteristics of an insect, what they eat, where they live, their life cycle and how they help our environment.

FOCUS QUESTIONS

1. What are the characteristics of the trees in our community?
2. Who lives in tress?
3. What food comes from trees?
4. Who takes care of trees?
5. How do trees change?
6. What can we do with parts of trees?

From very early ages, children demonstrate their enjoyment of music by smiling, clapping, bouncing, and dancing. Songs that they frequently hear sung or played by caregivers

become easily remembered and "performed." Children soon learn that they can strike objects and make sounds that will cause others to listen, allowing them to become "musicians" in their own right.

This study offers many opportunities for children to investigate music making firsthand while they explore social studies and science concepts, experiment with and create instruments, interview musicians, and identify their feelings and preferences associated with different music experiences. The study also helps children use and develop skills in literacy, math, technology, and the arts.

In preschool years, children are often very interested in performing musically, understanding how music is made, and learning new ways to generate sounds. Music is an important part of preschoolers' lives and the preschool classroom community and is an invaluable part of children's academic, social, and emotional development.

Focus Questions:

1. What do we know about music making?
2. What instruments can we play by hitting, tapping, or shaking them?
3. What other musical instruments are there?
4. What other musical instruments are there?
5. What different styles of music are there?
6. Who works with music for their job?

Young children are in nearly constant motion! Moving makes children feel capable and confident, releases

tension, and builds strong bodies and minds. Children’s love of movement will make this study of exercise very exciting! We’ll try many types of exercise, watch other people exercise, find out how bodies move, and learn what our bodies need to move and exercise.

As we study exercise, we will learn concepts and skills in physical development, literacy, math, science, social studies, the arts, and technology. We’ll also develop thinking skills as we observe, investigate, ask questions, solve problems, make predictions, and test our ideas.

Focus Questions:

1. What do we know about exercise?
2. What are different kinds of exercise?
3. How do our bodies work when we exercise?
4. What do our bodies need in order to move and exercise?
5. What jobs are related to exercise?
6. How do people stay safe when they exercise?

Children learn:

• Listening
• Paying attention
• Managing their behavior
• Get along with others