Discovering Nature With Young Children

Field-tested across the country, this comprehensive curriculum expands and extends the role science has traditionally played in the early childhood classroom. The first in a new series, Discovering Nature with Young Children explores the wide-ranging elements that make up the natural world around us. The curriculum replaces simple fact-feeding practices with the development of long-term scientific reasoning, including literacy skills and numeracy skills, such as hypothesis, inference, prediction, and estimation. A companion to the curriculum, this trainer's guide serves as an indispensable handbook for trainers and administrators interested in introducing staff to the curriculum-from planning to implementation. Special sections outline the curriculum and introduce scientific reasoning to adults, and eight workshops detail the complete curriculum for staff members. The guide also includes strategies for supporting teachers over time through mentoring and guided discussions.

Ingrid Chalufour has designed and conducted training programs for staff in child care, Head Start, public schools, and social service agencies for more than thirty-five years and is a principal developer of the Excellence in Teaching programs at the Center for Children and Families at Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) Karen Worth is a senior scientist at the Center for Science Education at EDC and is a graduate-level instructor in the early childhood education department at Wheelock College