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Early Childhood

Need More Time for Science!!!!!

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Vicky Reveles Vicky Reveles 455 Points

From what I have observed, witness and experienced, classrooms do not have enough time to teach science to the full capacity as all the other subjects like reading and math! I am in a kindergarten this year as part of my student teaching we only give 30 mins of instruction for science/social studies. We switch between science and social studies every other week. Sometimes we do not even have time for science/social studies because reading and math take up so much time. What are some cross-curricular ideas, lessons or activities that could be implemented into our classroom to help incorporate more science through out our instruction?

Brooke Tatz Brooke Tatz 3268 Points

Unfortunately, I believe many educators are facing the same issue of having limited time to teach science and social studies. I totally agree that the solution is "incorporating more science" or integration. Since such a significant amount of time is being dedicated to reading and math, try to include science content into these subject areas whenever possible. Another suggestion is to teach some inquiry skills throughout the subject areas; for example, encourage students to ask questions and explain their reasoning/evidence for why they are thinking that way. This will help prepare students to be productive when there is time for investigations and experiments. I find it disheartening that so many schools are minimizing time for science and social students. It is especially sad considering that science is the "study of the natural world," history is the "study of the human world," and the other subjects exist to help us understand these. (I learned this from my methods of teaching science professor).

Miranda Hansen Miranda Hansen 2574 Points

This fall I spent a week in a kindergarten classroom, and they only had science for 15 minutes at the end of the day on Friday. I was shocked that math and reading are "more important" and take up so much of the day. In my future classroom I hope to tie in science to different subjects. Reading science books or articles during reading. Introducing key concepts or ideas during the same time. Reading is a great way to incorporate science to learning. The week I spent in the classroom I saw no social studies, and if it was my classroom I would use reading again to learn about a different subject.

Vicky Reveles Vicky Reveles 455 Points

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