‘The day the crayons quit’ is a wonderful starting point to talk about colours and what they mean to the children. Take out a box of crayons and ask the children about their favourite colour. Are there any rules about which colour should be used for certain things? Which colour would they use for something hot? Which for something cold? Can animals see colours, too?
There is a world of sounds out there to discover. A nice way to start any of these experiments is to lie on the floor (or on the grass outside) with your children and just listen. What can you hear? Where do the noises come from? How does the noise travel to our ears? Which parts of our body do we use to hear noise? If we put our fingers in our ears does that stop the sound?
Tanya Steers has loved science and maths her whole life and has a degree in molecular genetics. She’s excited that she now has the opportunity to share her love of STEM with the children of the next generation.
Maurits Cornelis (MC) Escher was an amazing Dutch graphic artist and mathematician who created some magical, mathematical artworks. We encourage you to research him a little more if you and your children are interested!…
A gentle story about friendship and how differences and abilities enrich our lives. The author Aura Parker, takes young readers to a busy bug school where we meet Heidi, a stick insect who is long and tall and camouflages very well with the trees, almost too well, as no one else notices her at first…
When people think of mathematics they tend to think of numbers and numeracy but actually there are some wonderful mathematics activities for children that doesn’t involve ‘doing sums’. Spotting patterns is an important part of mathematical abstraction and the following activities are fun, and a wonderful artistic introduction to patterns…
Bubbles are a serious business. Different recipes for bubble mix can be a closely guarded secret. And bubbles contain so many STEM opportunities that you probably don’t even realise. This little gem is a maths activity, creating bubble mix is also a good introduction to chemistry. And the rainbow shine on the bubble is a great way to start an optics discussion about rainbows and, of course, bubbles are great fun!
In the face of the stresses and uncertainties of the current world, educators and carers can help children to learn about techniques and strategies to release stress and to calm the body and mind.
While most children playing in the mud kitchen just pretended to drink their ‘cups of tea’, one child did drink the dirty water, which started a discussion on why we should not do that. When one of the educators showed the children a video about parts of the world without access to clean drinking water, the children decided to invent a water filtration system.
Mr Bear Branches is a thinker, Lintfrey Longfellow is a dreamer and they are the very best of friends. Mr Bear Branches explains Lintfrey all about condensation and evaporation. But then he realises that exploring the wonders of the natural world can be magical, too…