Description

To a young student, the oak on the corner, the pines at the park, and the orange tree at school are all phenomena. The anchor phenomenon for this module is trees in an environment. The driving question is What is a tree? Systematic investigation of trees and their leaves, the animals that make their home in leaf litter, the soil and rocks around the roots, and the wood that comes from trees will bring students to a better understanding of the place of trees at school and in the community.

These five investigations use local trees through the seasons to provide pre-K students with age-appropriate experiences with life, earth, and physical science. These experiences will serve them well as they investigate these concepts in more sophisticated ways when they are in kindergarten.

Throughout this module students engage in science and engineering practices by asking questions, participating in collaborative investigations, observing, recording, and interpreting data to build explanations, and obtaining information from photographs. They have opportunities to draw and label their observations, and to share their ideas verbally with their peers and adults. Students gain experiences that expose them to the crosscutting concepts of patterns, cause and effect, and structure and function.