TECTA Tip of the Month

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TECTA Tip of the Month

April 2004

Neighborhood Geography with Young Children

"Where's my new preschool?" "What does 'prairie' mean?" Children's natural curiosity about places is the basis for learning about geography. Children express beginning geographic thinking and to locate objects and places in familiar environments. These tips can help children in your program learn about geography.

	Explore the neighborhood. Preschoolers and babies learn from watching the world, especially if you talk with them about it. "That's a noisy red truck!" "Mm, do you smell that bread baking?"
	Help preschoolers predict what they might notice on a walk. Make a list and take it along, adding to it as you go. What animals, plants, machines, or buildings do they see? What sounds and smells do they notice? They can sketch what they see, if time permits, or take photographs. Later, they can build models or make a book of drawings to share with their families. Or they can create a mural of the neighborhood.
	Encourage children to talk about what they see. If you describe places precisely, children learn to focus on details too. When they are very young, start using words that describe direction and position ("above," "left," etc.). Children also need terms for natural features like "hillside" or "beach" and words for colors, temperatures, sizes, and shapes. This vocabulary is useful on walking trips: "Turn left at the big tree!"
	Ask children to collect things to document the trip such as business cards, fliers, leaves, seeds, and rocks. Resealable bags or "fanny packs" are handy for carrying specimens. And the children can make displays of what they have collected.
	Invite children to investigate transportation. How do people, things, and ideas get from place to place in the neighborhood-by road, trail, railroad, waterway? What kinds of vehicles are used? Where are they going? Blocks, small wheel toys, and materials such as sand or water allow children to play with geography.
	Let children experience the tools of geography like maps, a sturdy compass, and measuring devices. They won't fully understand these tools yet, but they can begin to learn their uses. Some teachers mount a laminated map on a tabletop. They show how the map represents rivers, mountains, towns, and highways. Children might want to trace the map, copy it, or just take a look.
	Read picture books with geographic themes. They can spark discussions of how other places are like, and different from, the neighborhood.
	Plan walks throughout the year. Children can keep track of ways the neighborhood changes through the seasons. They might do an in-depth study of a park or a business. Special trips to pick up trash can foster a sense of responsibility for the environment. (Each child needs a pair of rubber gloves and must not pick up glass or sharp metal.)
	For more exercises to encourage geographical thinking, visit the following Websites: National Geographic Society http://www.nationalgeographic.com Illinois Early Learning Project: www.illinoisearlylearning.org

March 2004

Model of Learning and Teaching

What Children Do	What Teachers Do
Awareness Experience Acquire an interest Recognize broad parameters Attend Perceive	Create the environment Provide the opportunities by introducing new objects, events, people Invite interest by posing problem or question Respond to child's interest or shared experience Show interest, enthusiasm
Exploration Observe Explore materials Collect information Discover Represent Figure out components Construct own understanding Apply own rules Create personal meaning	Facilitate Support and enhance exploration Extend play Describe child's activity Ask open-ended questions, such as "What else could you do?" Respect child's thinking and rule systems Allow for constructive error
Inquiry Examine Investigate Propose explanations Focus Compare own thinking with that of others Generalize Relate to prior learning Adjust to conventional rule systems	Help children refine understanding Guide children, focus attention Ask more focused questions, such as "What else works like this? What happens if?" Provide information when requested Help children make connections Allow time for sustained inquiry
Utilization Use the learning in many ways; learning becomes functional Represent learning in various ways Apply to new situations Formulate new hypotheses and repeat cycle	Create vehicles for application in real world Help children apply to new situations Provide meaningful situations to use learning

Adapted from NAEYC and NAECS/SDE "Guidelines for Appropriate Curriculum Content and Assessment for Programs Serving Children Ages 3 Through 8", (1990).

February 2004

Early Childhood Brain Development

New research over the past several years has shown that a child's brain continues to develop in very important ways during the first three years of his or her life. Although a baby's brain has over 100 billion brain cells, or neurons, at the time of birth, these cells are not really connected in a working network. Over the first few years of life, these neurons form important connections that allow the brain to think, learn and perform other functions. A baby's experiences in the first years of life will help to form the connections that will last the rest of his or her life.

Parents and caregivers have always instinctively talked to, sung to, and played with their infants, but this new research shows that these activities are even more important than ever imagined. We now know that your daily interactions with a child will have important effects on his or her behavior, intelligence, and learning abilities for the rest of his or her lifetime! Be sure to provide love and stimulation for babies on a regular basis. Holding, cuddling, reading, cooing and providing other stimulation to a baby from the earliest days will have an impact on him or her that will last a lifetime.

To bring this new research information to the public, several organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have begun the "I Am Your Child" campaign. This campaign was kicked off late last year with the dedication of an entire issue of Newsweek magazine to the topic, and the airing of a national television show on network television. The campaign is active in every state, and has provided many public education resources.

As part of its work, the campaign has issued ten Guidelines for Promoting Young Children's Development and School Readiness. They are:

Be warm, loving and responsive

Respond to the child's cues and clues

Talk, read and sing to your child

Establish routines and rituals

Encourage safe exploration and play

Make TV watching selective

Use discipline as an opportunity to teach

Recognize that each child is unique

Choose quality child care and stay involved

Take care of yourself

For more information on the new brain development research, strategies to use in your home with your child and a discussion on the ten guidelines above, visit http://www.iamyourchild.org/brainfacts/index.html .

Visit http://www.zerotothree.org/ to view the website for Zero to Three, a national non-profit charitable organization dedicated to promoting the healthy development of babies and toddlers.

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