It's All About Early Learning  

Science in the ELC

Students can experience the joy of scientific discovery and nurture their natural curiosity about the world around them. In doing this, they develop critical and creative thinking skills and challenge themselves to identify questions and draw evidence-based conclusions using scientific methods.

(http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/ Science/Rationale, 2013)

Inquiry-based science can provide wonderful opportunities for adhering to the fundamental principles of the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) in an early childhood classroom.  Science can be a legitimate form of play and it can also provide wonderful opportunities for teachers to observe and assess students in ways that are appropriate for young learners.

An inquiry-based, hands-on science experience can include opportunities for children to:

• use play to investigate, imagine and explore ideas
• initiate and contribute to play experiences emerging from their own ideas
• and participate in a variety of rich and meaningful inquiry-based experiences to build science concepts, language and understandings.

During last week’s Science Week, the ELC children were invited to participate in science experiences with our Kilvington star science teachers, Alice James and Grace McDonald and  Year 9 and 10 students. As the pictures illustrate, the children were thoroughly engaged with the spontaneity of the experiments.

Later in the week, I asked my four-year-old students to draw on these experiences and asked what they thought a science experiment was. Here are some of their responses:

Otis: ‘An experiment is when you make things’.

Holly: ‘It’s when you make new stuff.’

Kobe: ‘It’s when you put water on rocks and it makes it go down and up.’

Maisy: ‘It’s when you do something and you talk about it.’

Indeed, Science is when ‘you do something and talk about it’. Through the provision of a

play-based program, educators are able to incorporate meaningful science experiences into their existing programs. When educators join children in their science learning journey they will be developing all the necessary science processes to sustain them for life.

We thank Ms James, Ms McDonald and the Years 9 and 10 science students for inspiring our youngest scientists.

ELC Concert

Our ELC concert will be held on 5 September from 5.30 to 6.30pm in Dalton Hall. Refreshments for parents will be available from 5.00pm. Book your tickets here.

Meet the Authors of Magenta Group

As part of Book Week, our four-year-old Magenta ELC group enjoyed a special reading from Mr Earle in The Library. He read a book authored and illustrated by the children - their very own version of Jack and the Beanstalk! An impressive piece of work.