ABSTRACT
It is quite common for teachers to refer to teacher's guides, talk to colleagues, seek guidance from school districts, and examine standards when attempting to reorganize aspects of the early childhood curriculum. The problem with this approach is that it often leads to a plan that forces children to experience school as a series of disconnected activities. In particular, math and science can be perceived as disconnected disciplines focused on procedural rather than conceptual understanding. This chapter discusses an approach to integrating math and science using big ideas that addresses these issues. In general, in the classroom where the goal is conceptual understanding, teachers will support constructivist ideas about teaching and learning and will support both the child's inventions of procedures and their explanation of numerical relationships. A constructivist theory can be contrasted with the traditional theory of the transmission of knowledge.
