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The bike store displayed many different styles of bikes for children to observe, compare, and use for their investigation. |
How do bikes work? Does a bike have an engine? How much do bikes cost? These questions intrigued two public preschool classes and their teachers. When the teachers (a lead teacher and a teacher assistant) explored possible project field sites within walking distance of their school, the bicycle shop at the corner offered great promise. This project summary details the shared experiences of children in both classrooms.
Before their exploratory field site visit to the bicycle shop, the teachers and children read books, created webs, and generated questions to ask the workers at the bike shop. The bike shop employees demonstrated the parts of a bicycle and explained how a bike works. After their trip, the children collaborated in building a large model of a bike. They also worked in small groups to construct their own models of bicycles out of wire and other materials. The project concluded with a bike show for families and invited guests.
The bike project offered many experiences that easily incorporated the early learning standards in all content areas. The children read and shared numerous fiction and nonfiction books about bikes, acquiring new vocabulary as they did. They connected the information in the books to their prior knowledge of bicycles. During their field experience, they improved their skills in asking questions. Through building webs, they saw a purpose for writing, generated related ideas, and wrote to express their thoughts.
During their construction of the bicycle models, the children worked with ideas and skills related to mechanics, science technology, and scientific inquiry. They represented this learning by shaping bikes out of many different materials. The children explored and identified parts and wholes of familiar objects, participated in simple, spontaneous scientific explorations with others, and offered ideas and explanations of objects, all part of the Ohio Early Learning Content Standards for Science. These learning experiences occurred naturally because the children were interested in what they were learning.