Noticing changes, observing them, and predicting when they will occur is an important science skill. We help children develop this skill when we focus on change in our classrooms.

      Begin with modeling dough. This changes again and again as children use it. Help them focus on the changes. Help them talk about what they are making and how they are using the dough. After they've done this a few days, give each child a piece of paper and a pencil. Show them how to make a tally mark on the paper each time they use the dough in a different way - rolling it into a snake form, curling it into a cup, molding it into an animal, rolling balls for a snowman. Challenge older children to draw pictures of the ways they used the dough and the changes they produced. Discuss the results.

      Children are fascinated by color changes. Build on this interest by giving each child a plastic zippered bag containing small amounts of red, yellow and blue modeling dough. Be sure each bag is closed. Encourage children to manipulate the bagged dough by squeezing the bag. What happens? Children will observe that the doughs change color as they mix together. Now give each child a zipped bag of red, yellow and blue DUPLO. Have them shake the bags and squeeze them. Do the DUPLO colors change? Encourage discussion.

      On another day, put drops of two colors of paint in each child's zippered bag. Use different colors in different bags. Have children manipulate the bags. What happens to the paint? Encourage students to compare their results.

      Help your young ones notice changes in temperature. Have children feel a thick pot holder. Now place a hot tea kettle on the holder and leave it a few minutes. Remove the kettle to a safe place and pass the holder from child to child. (Feel it first to be sure it is warm and not hot enough to burn anyone.) What change do they notice? Now place a bowl of ice atop the warmed holder for a few minutes. Have children predict what will happen. Let them feel the holder again. What do they notice? Were their predictions accurate? Did the ice change?

      Let your students notice the changes that occur in cooking. Help them make pretzels from scratch. Notice how the ingredients change when you mix them together and how the dough changes shape as you knead it and roll it into pretzel shapes. Discuss how the yeast causes the dough to get larger and how the oven's heat continues this process. Discuss the changes in the soft, raw dough and the crunchy, cooked pretzels. Encourage children to draw pictures of the experience and dictate comments for you to write on their drawings.

      Instant photos provide a great way of documenting changes that occur in the classroom. Take a picture of the room before children arrive, and others during Circle Time, Center Activities, Music and Movement, Clean Up Time, and other times during the day. Display these and discuss the changes your group sees in them.

      Take pictures of children when they are "dressing up" in the Dramatic Play Area. Compare these with pictures of the same friends in their school clothes. What's the same? What's different? Ask your group if their friends changed when they put on other clothes. Now ask the kids who dressed up. Their answers may surprise you.

      The Block Area changes from minute to minute during Center Activities. Take a picture of this area every five minutes during all of Center Time on one day. Number the pictures on the back as each exits your camera. See if the children can put them in the correct order. Who does a better job of this, the kids who played in the Block Area or the other children? Discuss the results.

      Taking children's pictures every day for a week allows them to see changes in clothing. Sometimes that clothing will indicate changes in the weather. Look at classroom photos taken over several months and observe clothing changes over time.

      Take photos of children painting at the easel. Again, see if your group can arrange these photos in order. Take a series of photos of one child as he hangs paper on the easel, begins his painting, continues painting and finishes the creation. Show the group only the first two pictures. Can they predict what he will paint? Show the next picture. Are their guesses more refined? Show the final picture, or let him show his finished painting so children can check their predictions.

      Once you help your class focus on changes, they'll begin pointing them out to each other and to you. Ask questions that help them understand why the changes occur and help them predict future changes. The biggest change that you will notice will be your young scientists' powers of observation.

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