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The idea of evolution is a hard one for me to teach, since it is not something I believe in. However, we do regularly do a unit on fossils and it is always one of the favorite life science activities we do in third grade. It was interesting to me how introducing fossils in 3rd grade leads to the idea of DNA evidence of evolution by grade 12. I didn't realize we were laying the groundwork for that understanding.
One of the preconceptions our students come to third grade with are we are directly related to apes. They have seen pictures or heard it talked about in movies, but they don't understand how that happened. This is such a touchy subject for so many, so I don't often talk much about it. Last year, we had a parent who was very upset because she thought we had taught her 3rd grade son that people are descendants of apes, when in fact the student had read a page in our science book that had an ape on it but had nothing to do with evolution, and was telling his mom about it. Parents have very strong feelings about teaching this to young children.
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