If you are a regular reader of this blog, you already know that this week's Sid episodes are some of my favorite ones. They encourage care for the environment; they provide science-based reasons for doing so, without being too PSA-y; and they get us thinking about our amazing natural world and the flora and fauna we share it with. Reuse and recycling are important ideas that run through these episodes. And, if you've perused this website or blog before, you also know that one key idea that underpins our educational approach could also be thought of as "reusing and recycling" the concepts and vocabulary that we use with young children (http://www.pbs.org/parents/sid/educationalPhilosophy.html AND http://www.pbs.org/parents/sid/faq.html). All learners benefit from the opportunity to revisit ideas multiple times and through various activities to really begin to understand and "own" ideas and words.

With words, specifically, research tells us that having a rich vocabulary predicts reading comprehension and success. The terms that describe science content and processes are often unusual in everyday conversation with preschoolers, which makes them just the kind of words that are terrific to add to their receptive and expressive vocabularies. We want kids to not only understand the words when we use them (receptive understanding), but also to use them themselves, expressively. When they do so appropriately, it's like a big neon sign flashing, "I understand this word! I can use it to talk about what I know."

Anyone who's been around kids knows that they love having a new big word to use - I have colleagues who call them "juicy" words. Think how you feel when you master a new gadget or recipe or computer program. (As for me, I still get excited about new words!) For a child learning so many new things, a word can engender just that kind of excitement. For those of us listening, it can inspire awe and wonder about the marvelous preschool mind. Just about a week ago, I was in a classroom in New Jersey that serves children from lower-income homes, many of whom do not speak English as their first language. Engaged in a science experience that involved mixing dish soap with other ingredients, the teacher encouraged the children to describe what they were observing (And, yes, she used that word - Hooray!). One child said something that we four adults had to ask him to repeat. As he did so, recognition slowly dawned on us - He was describing the color of the mixture as "aquamarine." And, he was entirely correct with that description. He's the same child who, upon seeing the materials laid out on the table asked whether we were doing an "experiment."

His teacher tells us that his parents read and talk to him a lot. She herself clearly incorporates the words of science - observe, predict, experiment - into their classroom routines. These are not "special" words that children hear once; they are terms that are part of their every day lives, used repeatedly, appropriately, and often. In Sid the Science Kid episodes, we try to do the same thing. Our viewers at home hear words like compare, contrast, observe, and experiment a lot across all episodes. They also hear specific words related to the content of each show repeatedly within an episode, such as this week's habitat.

Adults who want to support children as scientists and readers can make an effort to introduce new words regularly (although not all at the same time!) and use them repeatedly. You might use our vocabulary glossary to help with kid-friendly definitions of many science-related terms. Read books that include one or two new terms and provide photos or actual items that represent those words to help support understanding. Engage children in activities and conversations that will enable them and you to re-use and recycle those words over and over again.

Even more gratifying for me than learning a new word is hearing evidence that a child owns a word we've introduced on Sid. There's the child who said, "I would like a ripe banana so I could investigate it" and the one who told me that "Molecules float in the air to your nose," among many others. So give a kid a gift, and give yourself one, too. Introduce a new word today...then re-use it tomorrow and the next day and the next....