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You are at > Administrators/Schools > PreK - K Curriculum
The LiteraSci PreK - K Curriculum uses daily science activities as the foundation for learning language, literacy, and mathematics for authentic purposes. Young children’s drive to explore their everyday world provides a meaningful context within which they will acquire a rich knowledge base and achieve school readiness.
LiteraSci addresses national and state standards for science, literacy and mathematics.
Each module covers 6-10 weeks of instruction and contains background information about science topics as well as daily lesson plans, including relevant children's literature.
Supply bins containing all the materials needed to carry out the science activities can be provided for 10 or more classrooms. Please contact us directly for a quote.
LiteraSci creates a rich and responsive classroom environment where children:
- Develop vocabulary
- Become familiar with different genres of children's literature
- Learn the alphabet
- Read and write at developmentally appropriate levels
- Learn the sounds of letters, identify rhymes and the beginning and ending sounds of words
- Learn developmentally appropriate mathematics
- Use the science cycle to solve problems
- Develop self-regulation
- Develop and practice forms of science discourse, including questioning, explanation, inference, and prediction
LiteraSci uses a four-step science cycle:
- Reflect & Ask
- Plan & Predict
- Act & Observe
- Report & Reflect.
Daily lesson plans provide ways for teachers to:
- Encourage children to ask questions
- Support development in listening comprehension and vocabulary
- Integrate literacy and high quality children's literature into science investigations
- Support children in reporting their results through talk, drawing, writing, graphing, and demonstrating.
- Use music to support phonological awareness
- Set up dramatic play areas to encourage children to explore science through play.
- Use the science cycle to help children to reflect on social conflicts.
Training for LiteraSci is available in many formats, including mentoring and half-day, full-day, or multi-day workshops.
What teachers and administrators say:
The nice thing about it is (that) it’s their discovery. They’re coming up with their own discovery of what they can do with these colors and how they can use them. Margo Conheady, teacher of 3-year-olds.
Things look different in a LiteraSci Classroom…things like tweezers, and bugs…real live bugs, not just pictures of bugs. Early Childhood Coordinator, St. Andrew's School
They are able to understand experiences and vocabulary often beyond what we usually give little people credit for. Dianne Crowley, Early Childhood Coordinator, St. Monica's School
They are doing things that my first graders were doing, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, a 3-year-old already knows …their vocabulary, their interest in science, their enthusiasm! MR Meier, 1st & 2nd Grade Teacher, Greece Central School District
I’m not sure which of the children at my table figured out that they could write letters in the shaving cream once it had flattened out. And then everyone was trying that. This class is very exciting. The parent conferences that I’ve had so far this week, everyone is saying, “What are you doing with them? They just want to write." Last night, a parent said his son had gone to sleep holding his pencil box. Sue Strowe, teacher of 4-year-olds.
The development of language and literacy skills is a critical component of LiteraSci. Science activities support concept development and vocabulary growth. The science cycle encourages questioning, planning, reflection, and explanation, thus laying the foundation for language and literacy.
- Vocabulary: New words are introduced in the context of science lessons and reinforced during small group science activities.
- Alphabet awareness: Each day children study letters related to that day's science investigations.
- Phonological awareness: Songs, poems, and finger plays are used as the basis for exploring letter sounds, rhyme, and alliteration.
- Print awareness: Daily read-aloud sessions familiarize children with differences among genres, with distinctions among letters, words and sentences, and with features such as a table of contents, index, and page numbers.
- Writing skills: Children label graphs, write reports, keep journals and make books.
LiteraSci teachers read aloud to children everyday, from children's literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry) related to the day's science topic. This helps children learn vocabulary, develop reading comprehension skills, and begin reading.
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