Pre-Assessment
- To record the sounds of various weather types beforehand (wind, thunderstorm, rain, puddle splashing, birds’ songs, snow crackling, etc.) and make a list of the sounds chosen;
- To make pictures of the weather conditions chosen for recording;
- To ask students to choose the pictures of the weather as soon as they hear the sound of the weather and understand what it is;
- To compare students’ results and define which students have a more advanced level of knowledge and who need more attention;
- To talk about the weather conditions and check out the level of children’s receptive language skills and background knowledge about weather.
Formative Assessment
- To observe the weather on a daily basis;
- To draw the pictures of the current weather on their notebooks;
- To say a few words about the past, current, and possible weather conditions and develop language skills;
- To develop discussions about the most favorable weather and follow some new words that may appear in child’s language;
- To check out the temperature and help students learn the numbers.
Summative Assessment
- To discuss what children like the most in the lesson;
- To make some predictions about tomorrow weather;
- To ask children to share their predictions in a form of drawings to compare the results the next time.
Summary
Science education for preschool grade students aims at providing children with information about the natural environment, improving their abilities to conduct simple investigations, and developing children’s communicative skills about different weather conditions, observations, and general knowledge about numerous scientific and environmental events (Ohio Department of Education 15). According to the ODE content standards, preschool children (3-5 years) should know that weather changes take place outside; temperature may be below or above a given point (warm or cold); the wind is one of the main weather components that may influence the quality of air; sun, rain, or snow are the events that influence the environment, etc.
Of course, science education is not only about the weather conditions. The standards under consideration prove that preschool children are also able to develop their cognitive skills and enlarge their scientific knowledge about the animal world, flowers, earth, material qualities, experiments’ varieties, etc. Students between 3 and 5 years should be able to combine their communicative, language, drawing, and cognitive skills to demonstrate their readiness to learn new material and use the already gained knowledge about science, and the weather conditions in particular.
Rubric for the Summative Assessment
Work Cited
Ohio Department of Education 2011, Ohio’s New Learning Standards: Science Standards. Web.