• Curriculum Overview
• After School
• Events and Celebrations
• Service Learning and Partnerships
• Special Assemblies
• Mini Courses

By Ann Suchecki
Kindergarten Co-Teacher

Integrating science into our literacy curriculum has been a fun and enriching experience for both the Kindergarteners and their teachers. Learning about how scientists characterize and categorize animals has enabled us to become better observers, artists and writers.

One Science Monday, Dawn, the science teacher, brought in Madagascar cockroaches for us to observe, hoping that we would notice that these insects looked quite different from the mammals, fish and reptiles that we had studied so far. She quickly discovered that 'just looking' was not enough for curious Kindergarteners and within no time the roaches were being held and were crawling on hands and arms! What better way to learn than through this truly 'hands-on' experience – one that was easy to remember and draw upon when making entries in journals and writing non-fiction books.

Another science lesson that helped to deepen kindergarten students' understanding of insects, took place through reading and writing about the book Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk. They noticed that spiders do not fit into the insect family as they have eight legs. As such, none of the bugs invited to Miss Spider's party wanted to go since she was seen as a predator. A discussion about how the author used facts and fiction to make the story interesting showed what the kindergarteners had learned and understood about the insect world. Kindergarteners had a tea party of their own (with real china, tea and oatmeal cookies) and each attended as a character from the book. Nita, Dawn and I were the three Miss Spiders who waited on all the insects present.

The process of integrating both the science and literacy curriculums has allowed kindergarteners to use the information they learn in science in their writing and reading. It also helps to drive home the point that science is all around them and not just something that takes place in the science room.