Knowledge Building

The faculty at Christ Church Episcopal Preschool love hearing, "Why?" It means our students are curious and are ready to dive deep into learning, discovering, exploring, and building their knowledge. We know that the research clearly shows that children develop important scientific thinking skills and a basic understanding of natural phenomena in their earliest years. Early science learning experiences have the potential to capitalize on children's natural abilities and seem to be vital for the development of children's core scientific knowledge and essential inquiry skills. In addition to the potential for learning science concepts, children naturally enjoy observing and experiencing nature (Trundle & Sackes, 2015). 

Nell Duke and Lynne M. Watanabe share that studies suggest many benefits for young children who engage in reading and writing informational text. In their 2013 chapter titled, Read All About I.T.!: Informational Text in the Early Childhood Classroom from the book Best Practices in Early Literacy Instruction, they suggest that some of these benefits include discovering new interests, increasing content knowledge, and developing language knowledge. Duke and Watanabe share that after hearing information books read aloud, kindergarteners included more language features and vocabulary specific to information text like timeless verbs, generic nouns, repetition of the topic, classification structure, and compare/contrast structures.  

We use current research and students' interests to plan lessons, invitations, and activities that allow all students to chase their curiosities throughout the day!