The History of Wheels
2/22/2018
Insight Into What Project Based Learning Looks Like In PreschoolThis week we explored the history of wheels. We talked about what the world would be like without wheels and how ancient peoples didn't have wheels. We looked though non-fiction books to find pictures of people moving things with horses, sleighs, and on their backs. We learned that before wheels when people wanted to move really really heavy things, like building stones, they used special types of sleds called sledges to drag the rock. Over the week we followed the development of wheels from sledges to the addition of rollers to help move the sledges more easily, and then the transition of making rollers into wheels. We explored this history in many ways, but most excitedly we experienced and compared each of these methods with a laundry basket and our friends as weights. What the Explores told me they learned was that dragging the sled took the most energy and was the slowest. Using rollers was much easier, but not any faster. Wheels were the fastest and took the least amount of effort. Physically exploring the history of wheels with our own selves was engaging and meaningful way to teach social studies, physics, and history to children who many would think too young to understand these concepts. Using rollers to move heavy objects What Does Project Based Learning Look Like in Preschool?Project Based Learning in preschool follows a model based on units called investigations, or studys. We spend 4-6 weeks exploring, experimenting, and seeking answers to the questions we have about our study topic. This month we have been investigating wheels. Wheels are everywhere and children love wheeled objects. Wheeled toys give children mobility, ignite their imaginations, and enable them to get places more quickly. Wheels are a good study topic for preschoolers because children are already familiar with them and can explore them first hand. Preschoolers can investigate and examine them first hand without depending totally on adults. Wheels also provide an interesting way for us to explore physical science concepts as we learn about the characteristics and properties of wheels, how wheels move, the construction of wheels, and friction. Wheels also help us explore social studies concepts about how people live, work, and travel, and how wheels have changed over time. Throughout our study of wheels we have worked on oral and written language skills, learning new vocabulary, and reading fiction and nonfiction books. We used mathematical skills in counting, comparing, measuring, and organizing data from our experiments. Our Early Kindergarteners have represented their learning through the construction of models, drawing and painting, and dramatic play. Highlights From Our Wheel StudyComments are closed.
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