On the Ball with Higher-Order Thinking
By Yolanda K.H. Bogan, Ph.D and Rhonda C. Porter, Ph.D

Preschoolers experience the world in its purest form, to the delight of those who are not too busy to observe. Preschool is an opportune time to begin to apply Bloom's Taxonomy, given young children's openness and willingness to see the world in so many ways. Using Bloom's Taxonomy, we've developed a way to explore higher-order thinking with preschoolers, using a ball as the object of study.

Knowledge: Exhibit recollection of data.

1. Have the students identify different kinds of balls. The children can then name the sports or other games associated with different types of balls.

2. Children can identify round objects in the classroom. They can use Post-it® notes, which can be easily removed, to do so.

Comprehension: State a problem in one's own words.

1. Children demonstrate their comprehension of balls in a self-created "book of balls."
   • Generalization occurs when students express that the letter O, a zero, ovals and circles are all in the "round" family.

   • By placing their family picture on the opposite page, the children have an opportunity to personalize their books and examine how things have common characteristics but may not be exactly alike.

   • Take a picture of each child practicing tumbles to serve as a demonstration of the rolling property of the ball, and, more importantly, to add individuality and to explore the feeling of "being" a ball.

   • The ball book may also include pages that have allowed the children to distinguish a ball, circle or letter O from dissimilar objects such as a square, triangle or other letters.

   • For a lasting keepsake, laminate the pages and apply a spiral binding.

2. Create a circle collage. Collecting magazines and newspapers will provide ample opportunity for visual discrimination of circles within a context.

Application: Use a concept in a new situation.

1. Buy fruits and vegetables to discover the balls and circles in foods.
   • Examples of round foods include cantaloupe, peas, heads of cabbage, iceberg lettuce and oranges.

   • Some foods appear more rounded when they are cut, such as slices of apple, tomato and bananas.

   • After encouraging the children to explore the foods, invite them to assist in preparing certain foods for a "lunch circle" in which the items will be sampled. As an alternative, ask parents and children to prepare round foods for the luncheon. We ask parents to disclose all ingredients as a safeguard for others' food allergies.

2. Have the children participate in the unit by constructing different balls.
   • Apply different arts and crafts objects such as color, glitter, foil, cotton or other materials to provide different visual or textural effects.

   • Papier-mâché may also be used to add dimensionality.

   • Provide a variety of balls such as those represented by different sports for additional interest.

Analysis: Distinguish between facts and inferences.

1. With their constructed balls, enhance expressive vocabulary by having children describe the balls in appearance of color, size, weight and other physical traits.

2. Present the students with many different types of balls.
   • Pass around the balls to provide an opportunity for description of texture.

   • A visual display of the texture of different balls may be accomplished through a simple art project. After applying a different color to various balls, roll them onto a large piece of paper to examine the different tracks left by the ball's texture.

   • Ask questions such as, Which ball is the heaviest? Which ball is hardest to roll? Which ball is the largest? What do all the balls have in common?

Synthesis: Put parts together to form a whole.

1. Solving puzzles is an excellent form of problem-solving. It's even more fun when children can create the puzzles themselves.
   • Cut various-size balls from different colors of cardstock paper, or, to make the puzzle more interesting, have the children create a design on the ball before cutting it from the cardstock.

   • Provide for increasingly more difficult puzzles by determining the number and shape of cuts of the puzzle pieces. The children will have the challenge of putting together not only their puzzles but also those created by their classmates.

Evaluation: Make judgments about the value of materials.

1. Explore the water table with different types of balls to determine which balls will float and which will sink.

2. Allow the students to estimate the number of balls in a jar. Pictures of gumball machines or marbles in a jar may be used.

3. Pre-cut lengths of string to match the circumference of different balls and have the students match the appropriate length of string to the appropriate size ball.

The focus of the activities is not to get the "right" answers. Rather, the goal is to develop different ways of thinking and learning while being creative, exploring the environment and having fun. Providing investigative activities enhances preschoolers' cognitive abilities and begins the endless pursuit of academic excellence.

Drs. Bogan and Porter are assistant professors in the College of Education at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, FL.

November/December 2005, Vol.36, No.3