PreK - K Lesson Plans

LiteraSci lets you achieve all your goals for children’s learning. LiteraSci weaves together literacy, science and math so teaching is more meaningful for children.

University of Rochester researchers developed the LiteraSci preschool curriculum to nurture children’s natural ability and enthusiasm for learning about the world around them. Learning goals for lessons are developmentally appropriate and flexible lesson plans allow you to meet the needs of children at different developmental levels.

LiteraSci helps children:

• Learn about the natural and social worlds
• Understand what is read to them
• Develop their vocabulary
• Learn literacy skills in meaningful contexts
• Develop a strong foundation of informal mathematics
• Think critically and learn to problem solve like a scientist
• Share their thinking
• Develop a strong sense of themself as a learner
  

Each LiteraSci lesson is built around the Science Cycle, a 4-step inquiry sequence.

Reflect and Ask begins the cycle. Reflect and Ask introduces the science topic by discussing what children already know about the topic and by reading and talking about a fiction or nonfiction book. Adults model asking and answering questions and children quickly begin to participate.

Plan and Predict helps children think about how they will do an activity and imagine its outcome. Graphing children’s predictions incorporates math into the science lesson, providing a record to compare to the actual results. Using these graphs supports children's discussions about what they learned.

Act and Observe is the time for the children to do the activity. Sometimes teachers model the activity for all the children and then have small groups do the activity. New vocabulary is introduced while taking with children about what they are doing.

If you take photos of the children working, you can use them during Reflect and Ask to make classroom books. Children love to read and share them with visitors and family.

Reflect and Ask is a time for children to report their findings. They can make posters, charts, books and drawings.   These materials can be used when you introduce the next related science lesson.

The Cycle in Action

Reflect and Ask		Introduce the topic with a book. Elicit from the children what they already know about this topic. Ask new questions: what else do you want to know?
Plan and Predict		Plan activities designed to answer the questions. Make predictions: what will happen if...? Record these predictions.
Act and Observe		Create a representation of what happened and compare this to the predictions. Reflect on what was learned and use this to ask further questions.
Report and Reflect		Create a representation of what happened and compare this to the predictions. Reflect on what was learned and use this to ask further questions.

"The vocabulary was richer, the experiences that they were taking home were... richer. The parents were coming to me and saying, ‘I don’t believe my child was saying that, … that the shadows are made by something blocking the sun.’"

"We’ve been doing comparison for the last couple weeks, a lot of comparison – … and it was so exciting! They had their center time, play time, and they were in the housekeeping corner, …. and two of them come over with different size cups and say, ‘Look! … This is a small cup, this is the middle size cup and this is the large cup.' Now . . . 2 years ago that would never probably have happened. (Before LiteraSci) I think sometimes we introduced something for a day or two, and then we’re on to the next thing. And sometimes we don’t reintegrate that into the next piece of our learning… we constantly try to keep heading in the right direction, but we forget to go back and review it."

"I just think that the amount of words and vocabulary that is built by this program by the time they’re 5 is just absolutely amazing. Each curriculum and each unit that we did just opened up more and more doors, not only for me in the direction that I wanted to move as a teacher and a mentor, but for the kids. I mean, I seriously was, like I can’t believe we’re talking about solids, liquids and gases and these kids are 4, and they’re understanding what we’re talking about!"

"Kids are really involved and they’re so busy, they don’t have time to be naughty."

“I don’t seem to have as many behavior problems as we had before LiteraSci. I would say that they’re more active and more involved and therefore they’re not misbehaving."

"Well, when I looked through the curriculum, it was like I was wowed by the book. LiteraSci offers a lot of – just a lot of experiences – that I wasn’t able to even think of! I loved the way it was presented, the themes and the way the science topic was integrated into everything." 
 

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Language development is based on personal experiences and activities and literacy development is based on language development. Supporting literacy development in the early years means making certain that children have rich experiences and that they are exposed to language that helps them to understand and talk about these experiences. Children’s competence with written language is supported and/or limited by their competence with oral language.

Young children enter preschool and kindergarten already beginning to participate in literacy learning. This learning is critical not only to success in school, but also to enjoyment and success in later life. LiteraSci has been designed to build on the experiences and interests that children bring to school in the area of literacy by providing language-rich experiences for them as well as opportunities to participate in meaningful reading and writing activities. We agree with NAEYC and the IRA in stating that the early childhood years – from birth through age eight – are an important period for literacy development.

The following components, each identified through research as core skills that young children must develop are featured in every LiteraSci lesson Pre-K – K level:

• Oral language – both receptive and expressive
• Phonological awareness
• Alphabet knowledge
• Print awareness

Many literacy experts suggest that reading aloud with children is the single most important activity for building literacy skills and understandings. For this reason, each LiteraSci lesson features a “Reading Aloud” section that not only suggests a book to be read, but also provides guidance for discussion points as well as key vocabulary words.
LiteraSci views each child as a young scientist. Just as older scientists must keep a record of their research activities to refer back to and to share with others, children in LiteraSci classrooms create reports of each day’s science activities. In the PreK classrooms these reports are typically created by the whole class with support from the teacher. In primary classrooms, each child keeps a science journal and records in it frequently. Through these authentic writing activities children learn about types of texts, purposes for writing, and personal expression while also developing skills such as writing letters of the alphabet, directionality of print, and combining letters to make words.