We report a longitudinal study carried out along 3 years in an early childhood education (ECE) classroom in which we examined children’s (aged 3–6) engagement with science representations. The research questions are as follows: (1) How do children’s science representations develop from ECE1 to ECE3? (2) What are the features and affordances of the teacher’s scaffolding of the production of science representations and how is it facilitated from the first to the third year of ECE? The participants were 21 children and their teacher. The group was involved in long-term science projects that lasted for 5 months each. Sessions (N = 30) were recorded and children’s drawings (N = 487) gathered. Data were analyzed using discourse and content analyses, coupled with an analysis of the intensity of scaffolding. The results indicate that children’s representations of science phenomena became more complex along several dimensions. We have identified teacher’s scaffolding strategies which supported children’s increasing autonomy in producing representations. Implications are drawn for teaching science at the ECE level as well as for further research.

我们报告了一项在幼儿教育 (ECE) 教室中进行了 3 年的纵向研究，其中我们检查了儿童（3-6 岁）对科学陈述的参与。研究问题如下：（1）儿童科学表征如何从ECE1发展到ECE3？(2) 教师制作科学演示的脚手架有哪些特点和可供性，从 ECE 的第一年到第三年，它是如何促进的？参与者是21个孩子和他们的老师。该小组参与了每个持续 5 个月的长期科学项目。记录会话（N  = 30）和儿童绘画（N = 487) 聚集。使用话语和内容分析以及对脚手架强度的分析来分析数据。结果表明，儿童对科学现象的表征在多个维度上变得更加复杂。我们已经确定了教师的脚手架策略，这些策略支持儿童在产生表征方面越来越多的自主权。对 ECE 水平的科学教学以及进一步的研究产生了启示。