In the lead up to International Day of Play (11 June), we’re encouraging early years educators to reflect upon your own experiences with play. What were your favourite materials to play with as a child? Did you have a favourite place or person to play with? How do you engage in play now as an adult?
Preferred ways of playing are unique to each person, allowing them to express their curiosity, creativity, and thinking. Identifying these unique ways of playing can support educators to engage children in STEM learning that is meaningful to them. Read on to explore practical play-based experiences to support you to identify children’s individual play and learning styles.
Share your play-based STEM explorations with us! Join Little Scientists’ Facebook group “Early STEM Educators Network” to exchange STEM ideas and questions with educators all over Australia.
Why choose play everyday?
Play gives children the freedom to follow their curiosity, try out new ideas, and solve problems in ways that are meaningful to them. Whether it’s banging spoons to discover sound or building a marble ramp to explore speed, every child reveals something important about how they think and learn through play.
When educators observe how different children choose to play, they uncover the children’s natural questions and interests. In turn, you can identify what motivates each child’s engagement and what they’re trying to explore, test, or understand, and support children’s inquiry in meaningful, personalised ways.
When educators slow down to observe what children are doing (and why), they uncover rich possibilities to connect children’s play with learning, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Infants & toddlers
🧺 Treasure basket exploration:
Create a variety of treasure baskets, each containing safe, everyday materials such as:
- Wooden spoons and spatulas.
- Wooden rings.
- Metal cups.
- Natural materials like pine cones.
- You can visit this site for information about treasure baskets and inspiration for materials to include.
Then, invite the children to freely explore these baskets.
🔎 Observe:
- Which materials does each child gravitate towards as they play?
- Do they shake, bang, mouth, or stack the objects?
- Are there similarities or differences in how they explore the basket?
🧪 Spot the STEM:
Even at this age, children are experimenting with cause and effect, texture, weight, and sound, which are all STEM concepts.
For example: One child may be exploring gravity by dropping objects, while another may be fascinated by the different sounds that materials make when tapped together.
Preschoolers & school-aged children
🧠 Open-ended STEM challenge:
Set up a table or space with a range of open-ended materials, such as:
- Corks.
- Paddle pop sticks or tongue depressors.
- Milk bottle caps.
- Cardboard offcuts, rolls, or small boxes (such as from toothpaste tubes).
- Berry or tomato punnet containers.
- Plastic bottles.
- Paper cups.
- Pipe cleaners.
- Twine or string.
- Masking or duct tape.
Then, present a challenge to the children, such as:
- “Can you make something that rolls?”
- “Can you build something as tall as a chair?”
- “Can you create something that spins?”
🔎 Observe:
- How does each child interpret this challenge?
- What materials do they use and why?
- How do they test, modify, or explain their ideas?
🧪 Spot the STEM:
Children may explore concepts such as gravity, force, balance, and size, as well as STEM skills such as trial and error, and cause and effect. Children may also test out their hypotheses and use their prior knowledge to guide their thinking. All useful STEM skills to develop from a young age!
Develop your STEM skills with pedagogy-based STEM PD:
- Browse our in-person STEM workshops.
- Browse our online STEM workshops.
- Browse our online STEM Hours.
- Book an in-service workshop for your team.
- Book a STEM Family Workshop for your families.
