So… you want to teach kinder science without a science degree?
Our littles are naturally curious and constantly developing new insights and ideas as they explore and investigate their surroundings. When we’re teaching science to your kinders, this is exactly what we need to capitalize on!
Science lessons aren’t as complicated or intimidating as we make it and DOES NOT require a science degree or in depth understanding of the natural world. Because your job as a kinder teacher isn’t to show up as an “expert” in everything, it is to encourage your children to explore, observe, and learn things for themselves.
In a simple three ways, you can set the foundation for your children’s science education:
1. USING DEMOS
Demos are the most common and foolproof ways to get your children excited about science. Start with a kitchen science experiment and pull your littles into groups to perform it. In this guided teaching method, you will also have complete control over the tools and processes your little ones handle. Tips to make the process more fun:
1) Describe the experiment and list the equipment and ingredients needed beforehand to incite interest.
2) Ask your children to make a hypothesis about it. Encourage them to record their predictions and observations on paper in ways they can understand.
5) Encourage them to make a conclusion about what happened during the experiment and what they can learn from it.
6) Ask for parent volunteers. It could be a tough gig but still sparks interest.
2. VISUAL PROMPTS
In this educator-led teaching method, you present objects to your children to learn from. They could be as simple as a photo or video. Gather their guesses and questions and make them a part of the research process. The beauty of this method is that though it is teacher-initiated, the students take the discussion forward.
3. OPEN-ENDED EXPLORATION
In this purely student-led teaching-learning method, your littles learn the things they’re exposed to on their own.
Tune in to the episode to hear me explain it to you in detail! Trust me, kinder science without a science degree is FUN and ENGAGING. You and you’re littles are going to love it!
PS. Looking for science resources? Check these out!
KW: science degree, visual prompts, parent volunteers, science education, kinder science, science experiment
