With our book recommendations, we want to help you spark a conversation that leads children to discover STEM in their everyday lives. Have the courage to go beyond the obvious STEM connections and embrace all questions that may come out of your discussion with the children.
STEM literacy links can also be viewed using the Visual book browser.
Celebrating difference and reminding us that we are happiest in our own skin, this story can help strengthen children’s confidence and acceptance of differences and is also a great starting point to discuss the role of colour and camouflage in the animal world.
This quick and simple story will help you get the attention of all children and works well with the younger ones. Encourage them to map a course for Rosie through the centre, with traps and hurdles for the fox. This is a great opportunity to expand on the language…
Join this unlikely pair of animals in their search for the monkey’s mum. Starting with size, the monkey declares that his mum is bigger than him and the butterfly takes him to an elephant. The story itself is one of inquiry-based learning. As the educator, you can take a step back and observe the children learning to work together through trial and error.
Belonging, Being and Becoming are such important aspects of children’s lives and are beautifully conveyed by the children featured in this book, who are inspired by Aboriginal legends past and present: “My history is my strength, my future is my own.”
Isaac’s brain works a bit differently, which gives him “superpowers”, such as being able to remember lots of things, having lots of energy and hearing noises that other people can’t hear.
When a thirsty crow can’t get its beak inside a pitcher to drink the water, it collects pebbles and drops them into the pitcher. Once the water level has risen to the top, the clever crow finally manages to quench its thirst, proving that necessity is indeed the mother of invention…
Mr Archimedes’ bath overflows when he and his friends hop in, so he starts taking measurements and doing experiments to try and understand why. When Mr Archimedes and the animals finally work out that they all together cause the overflow, instead of fixing the problem, they revel in their power and keep hopping in and out to make the water levels rise and fall again and again.
Use this book as a starting point for your next compost project in your service. If you don’t have the possibility to make a compost in your service let the children draw their own compost stew. What ingredients can and can’t they put into a compost? Why? What do they think happens…
‘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?
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…
