Science in Early Childhood + Steve Spangler Twitter Chat

Twitter Tues #TeacherFriends! 

Have you heard about our ongoing weekly Twitter chat called #TeacherFriends? If you've been wanting to join and just haven't plunged in yet -- this is the week! We have Steve Spangler in the cyber-wings ready to inspire and support you on all things SCIENCE! Yes! There will be prizes! 

FIRST Let's sort out this whole Twitter business. 

SECOND Let's have some science show & tell! 

Thought it was time for a quick review on navigating Twitter. 

1. Open a Twitter account. 

2. In a perfect world you would add your profile picture and a nifty description. 

Lovely, but not technically critical for participation.

3. Follow me @Kweezlequeen and I will follow you back!  

4. At 8:30 PM EST on Tuesday, several of us moderator-hostess types will be available to answer your questions, support your tweeting and offer encouragement. This is the time to tip-toe quietly and slowly into the water. If you're new, by all means plan to arrive closer to 8:30!

Type #TeacherFriends into the Search Bar on Twitter to Find the Conversation 

5. All you really have to 'do' is type #TeacherFriends into the Twitter search bar and our 'conversation' will suddenly appear! All tweets (conversation contributions) will be sorted out and visible in chronological order. To use this method of chatting, you periodically will need to refresh the page. When you refresh the page, you may notice that you suddenly have 19 new tweets to read. Just about the time you read through all of those and hit refresh, you'll find that there are 23 new tweets on the hashtag..... and on and on it goes until 10 PM. 

6. Of course we would be delighted for you to arrive at 9 and stay the whole hour, but that is not quite how real-life works. Think of a chat like an open house. You drop in as you are able. You are most welcome for any length of visiting. 

7. Because we have prizes to give out every week, you're going to want to make sure that you get your name entered into our weekly Google Doc. Enter one time any time between 8:30 and 10. Winners will be announced just before we conclude. The link to the Google doc will be tweeted periodically through the evening. Watch our hostess @fuzzlady66 Kristen Poindexter for tweets leading to the doc. 

Here's what I'm using now. Tweetdeck.

 I am now using a free site called TweetDeck. 

All of the tweets in one hashtag appear vertically.

You can arrange/rearrange the columns as you wish. 

That's 'us' #TeacherFriends in the first column. 

I have #Kinderchat in the second column. 

And #tlap Teach Like a Pirate in number three.  

8. Our hostess @MaggiesKinder will tweet out clever certificates for participants. You deserve to have a tangible reminder of your new found progress in joining the world wide education movement.  

9. At the conclusion of the chat (about half an hour later) 

our hostess @educatorsspin will create an archived version of the entire evening's chat. This is the PERFECT way to digest all that happened at the speed of lightning. 

STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering, Math!

Is your school district expanding it's emphasis on STEM projects? 

Are your parents asking about STEM goals for your year ahead? 

Are you on the lookout for STEM to integrate with young children? 

Let's begin today with S = Science!

How can we use science to enhance creativity? 

SCIENCE! Did someone say science?? 

What does 'science' look like for our youngest? 

Simple. 
Science is literally all around us waiting our further exploration. 

Simple Weather Graph

Keeping track of the weather is an obvious science exploration that can begin quite simply in preschool with observation and documentation. These charts can be expanded upon through out kindergarten and the early grades. These are examples of kindergarten graphs kept over the course of the entire school year in individual science notebooks. 



What about those amazing botany experiments of yore? Delayed gratification and science all rolled into one biology experiment on the window. Solar greenhouse, anyone? 

And of course there is always the incubator-in-the-spring that is always brand new and full of anticipation for young children. 

One of the best things about science in the mind of the young child? 

There are COOL TOOLS!!

Combining magnets and children is just a short extrapolation beyond the combination of peanut butter and jelly. I have this same exact set of scientific tools in my workshop. Seriously. I never tire of chasing those magnetic colorful spheres around.

In case this is your first time here -- I'm an author and illustrator of picture books. These photos are from my school visits around the countryside. I LUV any chance to 'sing' the message home. Here's a cute piggy-back song, easy to implement.... whatever age the students. 





Science exploration is indeed universal. These two images are from my day of exploration in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Their pine cones look pretty similar, don't they? 

LUV LUV LUV the way their seasonal mural turned out!

Here's another overview of seasons, as created in collaboration in kindergarten. These were HUGE in real life! Took up the ceiling to floor hallway. 

What do we know about bats?
Chart for prior knowledge

My first 'digital download' lesson for Teachers pay Teachers is based on my ubber-science friendly song entitled "Pollywog." My four verse dittie unveils the predictable cycle of metamorphosis following the entire tadpole to frog cycle. I've created numerous support materials to help augment the lesson for your kiddos. 

Chances are you don't know my little classic. I have a YouTube video of the song to serve as your introduction.

'Hop' on over to my Teachers Pay Teachers shop to purchase your instant download of the Mp3 version of the song and all of the support materials. I can't wait for your feedback! 

-- Debbie -- 

I have an entire pin-board collection dedicated to tadpoles, metamorphosis and all things Frog! 

Look at the picture I took today! 
My three babies in one photo!

Fire Trucks, Fire Dogs, Fire Safety Crafts

Is there anything as exciting as a fire truck in the eyes of a young child? 
Monday of this week was the annual visit of the fire department 
to our youngest WonderPeep's preschool out in CO. 

There was excitement in the air! 

October has the theme of "Fire Safety" 

and that's significant to the lives of young children. 

Here are some crafts and art response to this important topic. 

This may well be one of my favorite bulletin boards of all time! 

It goes a *L*O*N*G* way to helping parents of young children grasp the importance of PROCESS to the creative spirit. 

Rectangles. Squares. Circles. 

Simple shapes are transformed in the eyes of young children to become the firetrucks that they have touched and explored. My favorite aspect of this exercise is that obviously the children have been allowed to do the work of constructing their trucks ON THEIR OWN. Given access to the same materials, each young child has created their own vehicle. Wheels and hoses! Hoses and wheels! And in some cases? LOTS of wheels! 

HURRAH for teachers who allow children to explore and create unfettered! 

It is so important for children to create 'authentic' work!

These next couple of photos were from a display at "I Teach K" out in Vegas. 
Kindergarten to the rescue! 

Nothing works quite like a paper plate to be the vehicle to a larger issue. 

How cute are these paper plate Dalmatians for the fire station?

Now take a look at these easel paintings created by preschoolers in WI!

Talk about OPEN-ENDED! 

Talk about creativity! 

Talk about original!!!

Back to Kindergarten. 

This time in Cincinnati! 

The Kinder photos complete with hand-painted tshirts adorn the hallways all year. 

The seasonal embellishments change and get updated periodically. 

Here we see the whole Fire Battalion. 

October First: Pink, Tshirts, Surviving & Breast Cancer

October has returned. The sea of pink washes in. 

I am now 7.5 years into my pink journey. 

A lot happens in 7.5 years. 

I am a very fortunate person.

I am surviving. 

Despite a second diagnosis of Early Stage Breast Cancer, 

my story continues. 

My Komen t-shirt from 2010 made a recent reappearance on FB. 

I promised my sistahs that I would find the shirt, 

and answer some questions.

This is the back of my t-shirt from 2010. 

I've been able to track that much down from my blog article. 

The names on the back are those of my friends at Breast Cancer dot ORG. 

Fellow survivors below the logo. 

Angels above. 

Truth of the matter? 

There are more than a few who have earned their angel wings

 since printing their names on my shirt.

Time marches on. 

Are we any closer to THE cure? 

Scrolling over the photos and seeing some one now in heaven

brings me back to reality. 

I am indeed fortunate. 

Early stage. 

I still have the shirt.

There is still room at the bottom to add more names. 

There are always more names.

There are more and more names.  

That's me by the way. 

"Faith&Fifty"

I was fifty when I was diagnosed. 

Do the math. 

Five of our seven grand-children were born since my first diagnosis.

That's a lot of life and love that I have been graced to experience.  

The shirt below is the one that I am wearing today. 

In honor of Pinktober.

I think that it has the best message ever. 

The depth of the black is all too appropriate. 

HOPE.

HOPE.

  HOPE.