Blog

Butterfly Week

April 24 – April 28

As we continue to explore the world around us the children are using their natural curiosity to set a base for future scientific discoveries.  Children do not just watch their world they engage in active learning as they make observations and discoveries in the play area outside.  As the children watch the birds, spy the roly-poly bugs in the dirt, find worms and move them to the garden they are using the scientific process of inquiry: observing, asking questions, forming hypothesis, investigating, gathering data, drawing conclusions, and building ideas that lead to new questions.  (And, oh how they can ask questions!)  Science Education should not be about memorizing achieved scientific knowledge, but about living a life of scientific inquiry according to the scientific method. David Hawkins, The Informed Vision: Essays on Learning and Human Nature.

 It is important to have a partnership with the children as they are engaged in discoveries of their world. Children are active constructors of their own understanding of the world around them and developmentally appropriate teaching practices provide the optimal balance of adult-guided and child-guided experiences. — Copple and Bredekamp

There needs to be a balance between adult and child guided learning as the children explore their world.  Sometimes the learning is more exploratory play and completely child guided, sometimes it is adult supported learning that allows the child to pursue their interests with an adult adding to the learning with their knowledge of the subject, while sometimes it is a blend of adult and child guided learning that allows a give and take learning based on interests, knowledge and observations. 

These three types of scientific learning are happening every day at preschool as the children investigate the world around them.

Butterfly

Flutter, flutter, Butterfly
Flutter, flutter, butterfly.
Floating in the bright blue sky
Floating by for all to see,
Floating by so merrily.
Flutter, flutter, butterfly,
Floating in the bright blue sky

CATERPILLAR/BUTTERFLY

Caterpillar, caterpillar
See him crawl See him crawl
Crawling on the ground
Crawling all around
See him crawl See him crawl.
Butterfly, butterfly
In the air, in the air
Flying up and down
Flying all around
Butterfly, butterfly

Bugs

Big bugs, small bugs, big bugs, small bugs,
See them crawl on the wall?
Creepy, creepy, crawling, never, never falling.
Bug, bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs.