Free Direct Instruction Curriculum and Training/Science K

Created: 2007 02 08 | Percent completed:

What is Free Direct Instruction Science K (Free DI Science K) File:25%.svg
Free DI Science K is the parent or teacher's guide for teaching science at the kindergarten level depending on ability of learner and state standards.

Each section is numbered and can be taught in one day. Each section also contains scripted instructions for the teacher. Most sections contain workbook pages, images, and/and video clips.

Short video clips (5 to 20 seconds) can be added to integrate current events into the curriculum. For instance, the idea of science is to ask questions and get answers. Could there be life on Mars? To answer that we sent rockets and rovers to Mars to get pictures and samples of the surface. You can show video clips, often free from NASA, a government agency, that shows rover taking samples.

Also, pictures can be added to enhance and describe scientific ideas, experiments, or events.

What order do I teach this in?
Each state has different standards that include subject matter to be taught at specific times. This makes teaching this science module more difficult. It might be a good idea to align your state standards to this curriculum and make some modifications. Please make a note of your state standards and it's alignment to this program in the talk section (discussion tab).

Understand structure and properties of matter.

 * Describe size and color of objects.
 * Things are made of parts

Organisms: Understand the characteristics, structure, and functions of organisms.

 * People, animals, plants need water, food, and air.

Heredity: traits in living things

 * Cycles are patterns (leads to life cycles, hereditary)

Diversity/interdependence

 * Different external features of plants and animals

Earth materials

 * Materials can be used over again
 * Change can happen to many things
 * Things change in some ways and stay the same in some ways.
 * People can keep track of some things, seeing where they come from and where they go.
 * Things can change in different ways, such as in size, weight, color, and movement. Some small changes can be detected by taking measurements.
 * Some changes are so slow or so fast that they are hard to see

Earth in solar system & universe - Earth, sun, moon, and solar system

 * Identify the sun, moon, stars, and Earth.

Ask questions and get answers based on observations

 * Raise questions about the world around the students
 * Describe things in terms of their number, shape, size, and color
 * Make observations

Design investigation to answer question

 * Follow a list of steps

Collect and present data

 * Describe or draw simple observations
 * Understand and make a simple graph as a class or group
 * Observe changes in world

Analyze & interpret results

 * Describe data from graph

Activities

 * M&M counting activity
 * Guess how many things there are in a set and then count to see who is right
 * Students compare, combine, equalize, and change numbers as well as "take away" and "add to"
 * B is taller than A, C holds more than D - do bar graph