History Invades the Preschool Classroom

Bobbie Gibson Warash, Jessica Day, Melissa Workman, Jessica Troilo, Keri Law, Meghan Devito 
(West Virginia University, 507 Allen Hall, Morgantown WV 26506-6122, USA)

Abstract: Young children in a university nursery school engaged in a personal history project. Even with obvious developmental limitations to understanding past events, young children investigated occurrences of the past related to their families. The concepts of centration, reversibility, and transductive thinking impact the cognitive thinking of the young child and certainly present a limitation in young children’s study of history in the typical manner. However, accounting for these limitations of a young child’s thinking, it is important to understand and respond to their capabilities. With this in mind, a simple pictorial family tree was designed and completed by parents. The tree listed only immediate family members as far as the great great grandparents. Interesting tidbits about the family member were included and used to entice the children in their personal study. The results of the project were multifaceted with the engagement of not only children but family members.

Key words: early childhood, project, history