Held on Tuesday 27 May 2026, National Simultaneous Storytime is run by the Australian Library and Information Association and encourages children to read the same book simultaneously in libraries, early learning services, schools, and homes across Australia. This year’s book is “Luna Roo the Kangaroo Baller” written by Adam Jackson and Adrian Lloyd and illustrated by Jake A. Minton.
“Luna Roo the Kangaroo Baller” follows Luna Roo, the newly appointed captain of FC Outback, as she leads her team against the favourites, Bush United. With fans and critics questioning her ability to lead, Luna must draw on her resilience and strategic thinking to guide her team against the odds.
This beautifully illustrated book is an opportunity to explore STEM through an engrossing story inspired by the world’s most popular sport — just in time for the 2026 FIFA World Cup! Most of all, the story explores persistence, determination, and resilience, all foundational STEM learning dispositions.
Read on for STEM learning experiences and prompts that educators may choose to explore in response to the book.
Don’t forget to share your National Simultaneous Storytime explorations with us! Join Little Scientists’ Facebook group “Early STEM Educators Network” to exchange STEM ideas with educators all over Australia.
Patterns in language & thinking
As you read the story, invite children to listen for repeating rhyming word patterns. Is the pattern consistent throughout the book? Can children predict what might come next? For older children, you could pause to allow children the chance to predict the final rhyming word. For example:
“The temperature is dropping on a cold Red Centre night. Two teams will bring the heat and fire. Two teams will bring the [???]”
Pattern recognition and prediction supports early maths skills and computational thinking.
You can extend this by inviting children to create, copy, or complete visual patterns using counters, pebbles, blocks, or other loose parts. Then ask the children to explain their thinking and what they’ve observed.
Football and STEM exploration
Scoring a goal involves thinking about speed, force, angle, and position. You can provide children with an opportunity to explore these ideas by setting up goal posts using chairs, A‑frames, cones, or a real goal if available.
Invite children to investigate:
⚽ How can you aim for the corners?
⚽ Does kicking fast or slowly change the outcome?
⚽ What happens when you use different parts of your foot?
Encourage children to share their ideas, test them, and adjust based on what happens. Trial-and-error is a valuable part of STEM learning. You don’t need a goalie — the focus is on exploring how different variables affect the outcome!
To extend this thinking, explore scale and measurement:
- Does the size of the goal make it easier or harder to score?
- What happens when the posts are closer together or further apart?
- Construct small‑scale goals using recycled materials and experiment with “kicking” ping‑pong balls or foil balls with their fingers.
Scorekeeping: Introducing tallies
Scorekeeping is a great way to introduce tallies to children. Can your children draw a line for every goal scored during their football explorations?
The children at Spotted Frog Kindergarten (NSW) — a Little Scientists House and a 2024 Early STEM Education Awards Winner — co-developed a fantastic inquiry-based STEM project exploring early maths skills like “tallies” to keep track of their toys and the colours of passing cars.
Watch the clip below to learn more:
Zoology & animal characteristics
The story’s native Australian animal characters provide an opportunity to explore biology and classification with your children. Invite children to consider:
- What qualities and characteristics does each animal have?
- How might those characteristics help them move, balance, or react?
- How could this animal’s body help them in a football game?
- What challenges might they face?
Instead of focusing on the “right answers”, centre discussion around the children’s hypotheses and then engage in research together. Children can apply this thinking in movement games such as Duck, Duck, Goose or What’s the Time, Mr Wolf?, by moving in ways that reflect their chosen animal. Does it help them in the game?
STEM dispositions
The story provides a natural context for exploring STEM dispositions, including:
- Persistence
- Determination
- Trial-and-error
Invite children to reflect on times they kept going, changed their approach, or solved a problem through effort. Naming these dispositions during play helps children recognise them as part of learning — not just sport.
Gender stereotyping & bias
A strong theme in “Luna Roo” is a young girl succeeding in a context where others doubt her capability. This provides an important prompt for educators to reflect on unconscious gender bias in STEM learning environments.
Without intentional early STEM teaching, girls begin to internalise negative stereotypes about STEM as early as preschool.
By the age of six, many are already disengaging, with negative self-perceptions shaping their confidence, participation, and future pathways in STEM.¹ Once established, these dispositions are difficult to reverse, underscoring the critical importance of intentional STEM teaching in early childhood.2
Read our full resource on “Overcoming the Gender Bias in Early STEM Education”.
Strategies for gender-inclusive STEM practice
The following strategies to foster a gender inclusive STEM learning environment were shared by educators as part of their nomination for the 2024 Early STEM Awards:
- Identify materials, resources, and environments girls gravitate to and incorporate these into your STEM learning experiences. For example, incorporate dramatic play into engineering and construction explorations.
- Invite children to participate. For example, when one educator noticed girls standing back behind the boys during construction play, the educator handed the girls materials to quietly invite them into the space and get involved.
- Provide explicit skill-building. Demonstrate how to use unfamiliar tools or materials to build confidence and support participation.
- Focus on similarities, not differences. One STEM project entered in the Awards explored the similarity of movement between parkour and ballet.
- Use groupings, materials, and time intentionally. Thoughtful planning supports sustained engagement for all children.
In this free 40-minute webinar below, Little Scientists presents research that discusses:
▶️ Why early STEM education matters.
▶️ What gender bias looks like in ECEC.
▶️ Strategies to promote gender equality in early STEM learning, submitted by educators as part of the Early STEM Education Awards 2024.
References
[1] Gunderson, E. A., Ramirez, G., Levine, S. C., Beilock, S. L., The Role of parents and teachers in the development of gender related math attitudes, Sex Roles, 2012
[2] Master, A., Meltzoff, A. N., Cheryan, S., Gender stereotypes about interests start early and cause gender disparities in computer science and engineering, University of Houston, 22 November 2021
Evidence-based STEM professional development:
