Help children to notice and discuss patterns around them, e.g. tree bark, flower petal or leaf shapes, grates, covers, or bricks.
Examine change over time, for example, growing plants, and change that may be reversed, e.g. melting ice.
Use appropriate words, e.g. town, village, path, house, flat, cinema, skyscraper, hydrant, cirrus, cumulonimbus, temple and synagogue, to help children make distinctions in their observations.
Help children to find out about the environment by talking to people, examining photographs and simple maps and visiting local places.
Encourage children to express opinions on natural and built environments and give opportunities for them to hear different points of view on the quality of the environment.
Encourage the use of words that help children to express opinions, e.g. busy, quiet and pollution.
Use correct terms so that, e.g. children will enjoy naming a chrysalis if the practitioner uses its correct name.
Pose carefully framed open-ended questions and prompts, such as How can we…?What would happen if…? I wonder…
