Curriculum

Children will develop a basic understanding of where various animals live. They will observe and explore a variety of plants and animals and their environments, such as rabbits, birds, ladybugs, hermit crabs, eggs, butterflies, and bugs in the garden.

Children will make observations at different times of the year to understand how the amount of daylight changes with the seasons. They will learn to compare the amount of daylight during the winter to the amount in the spring or fall. For example, children will notice that the days are shorter and there is less daylight in the winter, while in the spring and fall, the days are longer with more daylight.

Children will make observations to understand that young plants and animals are similar to, but not exactly like, their parents. They will learn to notice patterns and features that plants or animals share with their parents. For example, children will see that leaves from the same kind of plant have the same shape but can be different sizes. They will also observe that a particular breed of dog looks like its parents but is not exactly the same.

Children will plan and conduct investigations to understand that vibrating materials can make sound, and that sound can make materials vibrate. They will explore how different objects create sounds through vibrations, such as a tuning fork or plucking a stretched string. Additionally, children will observe how sound can cause materials to vibrate, like holding a piece of paper near a speaker making sound or holding an object near a vibrating tuning fork.

Children will use and share their observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time. They will learn to observe and talk about different types of weather, such as sunny, cloudy, rainy, and warm days. For example, children will count the number of sunny days, windy days, and rainy days in a month.

Children will learn to sort toys or other objects by attributes such as color, shape, or size, and order objects based on size. This will help them to identify and verbalize characteristics of people, noting similarities and differences, such as observing that "Mom has black hair like me."

Children will be able to identify common properties, differences, and comparisons between objects and materials, such as sorting by color, shape, category, and texture.

Children will learn to use measurable attributes to make comparisons, identifying objects as the same or different, and more or less. They will be able to compare attributes of objects, such as longer, shorter, thinner, and thicker, and order a set of objects by size, length, and other dimensions.

Children will learn to describe measurable attributes of objects, including attributes like length or weight. They will also develop the ability to describe multiple measurable attributes of a single object, enhancing their observational and descriptive skills.

Children will learn to directly compare two objects that share a measurable attribute, determining which has "more of" or "less of" that attribute, and describe the difference. For instance, they can compare the heights of two children and identify one as taller or shorter.