Observe the child in the back yard or a park. Take a pail and shovel, a car, and cup with you.
Depending on what is in the outdoor area, the adult can ask questions about what will happen. For example, what will happen if you put the car up here on the slide? What will happen if you blow on the dandelion?
The child will be able to say what will happen on inclines and with events she has experienced before.
Encourage early childhood educators and parents to let the child discover how tools can help solve problems. Instead of telling the child what to do, provide options and let the child investigate on his own. He will be proud to share what he has learned.
 North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 2015
©2015 by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.