How NGSS Science and Engineering Practices Show Up in 20 Board Books

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) define eight Science and Engineering Practices that K-12 students should develop. They are the verbs of being a scientist or engineer.

You will sometimes hear that NGSS is K-12 territory and does not apply to preschool. That is bureaucratically true and developmentally wrong. The practices begin much earlier, by ages 2 to 4 toddlers are already doing most of them in primitive forms. The job of a good preschool curriculum is to recognize the practices in toddler behavior and scaffold them so they stay through kindergarten.

Kit's Little Sparks was designed as a 20-book curriculum that maps each developmental phase to one or more NGSS practices. Here is the map.

Practice 1: Asking Questions and Defining Problems

The first NGSS practice is the most natural for toddlers. Two-year-olds ask why several hundred times per day. The work is to channel that into spotting a defined problem.

• Book 1: Kit's Big Curiosity, noticing
• Book 3: Kit Sees A Puzzle, defining problems as puzzles

Practice 2: Developing and Using Models

For toddlers, "model" means "drawing." The leap from picturing something in your head to putting it on paper is the foundation of every engineering practice that follows.

• Book 5: Kit Draws An Idea, scribbles as models

Practice 3: Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

For toddlers, an investigation is "I am going to try this thing." Tape, cardboard, glue. The investigation is the build.

• Book 6: Kit Builds Something, turning a model into a real thing to test

Practice 4: Analyzing and Interpreting Data

"It fell apart" is data. "It works but the tape comes loose" is more refined data. Books 7 and 8 are the data interpretation phase of the curriculum.

• Book 7: Kit Tries Again, interpreting failure
• Book 8: Kit Makes It Better, iterative refinement

Practice 5: Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking

At ages 2 to 4 this practice is mostly counting and noticing patterns. The series does not foreground math, but the activity sheets that come with each book (free via QR code) include counting and sequencing exercises.

Practice 6: Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

This is where Phase 2 (Making) lives. By Book 8, the toddler reader has watched Kit do this loop four times. The fifth time, they will do it themselves.

Practice 7: Engaging in Argument from Evidence

Surprising place where this practice shows up for toddlers: handling copycats. The argument from evidence at age 4 is "I made it first, and here is my stamp on it."

• Book 12: Kit's Special Stamp, marking your work as evidence
• Book 13: Kit And The Copycat, discussing evidence with another person

Practice 8: Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

Show and tell is the toddler version. Telling someone what you made and why is exactly this practice in its earliest form.

• Book 17: Kit's Show And Tell, communicating
• Book 19: Kit Helps Lily, teaching as the highest form of communicating

Free educator guides

Every book has a printable educator guide that maps the book to specific NGSS practices, plus a discussion guide, activity sheets, and an assessment rubric appropriate for ages 2 to 4. Educators get access at our Educators page after a quick signup.

Chris Kuczynski is a registered patent attorney and the cofounder of a preschool in Carlsbad, California. He writes the Kit's Little Sparks 20-book board book series.