As the children were immersed in playing with wooden cylinders, exploring balance and building tall towers, the educator took their interest in construction with wooden blocks as a starting point to research bridges together with the aim of constructing a bridge as a group.
I loved the simplicity and the sound the spirals made in the wind. View detailed instructions on how to make wind spirals from recycled bottles.
Our first featured STEM leader, Rajaa Halabi shares why early-years STEM education is important to her, how she integrates STEM learning in her service and the role she plays as an educator in STEM learning.
What better place to run a child-led project on germs than a service attached to a hospital? Involving the parents working at the hospital gave the children great insights into their day and their work at the hospital. Find out how the children conducted a germ study by wiping slices of bread on door knobs and pets.
This lovely story offers a great opportunity to explore relationships, family, love and being different alongside an abundance of STEM topics, such as shapes and sizes, engineering, design and sustainability. We don’t usually think of engineering as an expression of love, do we? What if everything in the world was built to make others happy? Can you love…
Play a little guessing game as you’re shown just the tails of a number of insects alongside descriptions of their attributes, behaviours, habitats and movements. How many insects can the children recognise…
This lovely story about finding the balance of trying to fit in while accepting your differences is a great starting point for discussing animal and human behaviours. Do cats and dogs like being in the water? Which animals like being in water? Which animals climb trees? Do you like being in the water? Do you sometimes feel different from…
Describing things is a good way to increase vocabulary and improve observational skills. Sometimes it’s hard to get those conversations going though. Ask a five-year-old what she sees and the reaction may be disbelief. Are you having me on? Is this a trick question? You do have eyes, don’t you? Or even…
Little Scientists Australia delivers a national STEM professional development program for early childhood educators and teachers working with children aged 3-6 years and has done great work as a previous grant recipient. Using Toyota funding, Little Scientists Australia will deliver workshops on STEM for educators working with young children in Wyndham and in a regional area…
This story is a great starting point for exploring the concept of sizes and numbers. Encourage the children to build a queue with the tallest at the front and the littlest at the end all facing one direction. Let the children count their position, starting from front to back.