“Look!” squeals three-year-old Eleanor.  “I can pick up these two balls! It’s magic!”

Have you ever seen young children playing with magnets? The “magical” properties of magnets never fail to captivate early learners and spark a play buzz!

Children learn by investigating, observing and figuring out how things work. Magnets fuel that curiosity in a way that is simple and accessible.

As they explore the properties of magnets through play, children develop a deeper understanding of scientific principles by asking questions such as “why” magnets stick together and “how” magnets work.

Magnetic play helps lay the foundation for further investigations as we guide the children through activities such as developing hypotheses and theories, solving problems and making predictions. By observing and studying cause and effect, our young STEM explorers can begin to develop a basic understanding of concepts such as magnetic attraction, magnet strength and magnetic forces and fields.

Playing with magnets is a great way to introduce STEM into a child’s life. If you need to record observations, this is a great time to take a seat and watch as children incorporate predictions and conclusions into the learning experience.

To set the stage for magnetic exploration, I put out a wooden tray filled with magnetic wands and magnets in a variety of shapes and sizes. Then I give each of the children an aluminum tray to define their play space and keep the magnetic balls from rolling off of the table onto the floor.

When children add magnets or remove them from the tray, they are learning about math concepts such as more, less, off and on. They’re also learning about patterns, shapes and sizes.

I also fill simple sensory bins with colored rice or coffee beans. Then I add magnetic and non-magnetic objects, as well as a magnetic wand for finding the “treasures.” I set two baskets nearby to encourage the children to sort their objects.

“Is this magnetic?” asks one child. “This should work,” says another. “It’s silver!”

Making a prediction means focusing on what we think will happen next based on our prior knowledge. It’s considered a guess if we have no prior knowledge. We can help children develop their prediction skills when we are playing with magnets, reading a story or finding our way home on a walk.

When the children at our early learning center play with magnetic wands and balls, they love to “catch” the balls on the wand and count how many they have. Sometimes I will see them intentionally create patterns.

Playing with magnets is a powerful math and science activity in early childhood classrooms because it fosters conversation and exploration and provides a fun and engaging incentive for children to make predictions and observe outcomes.

If you can, give the children a long period of time to investigate the magic of magnets and work through their theories. This extended time to conduct STEM investigations and learn through focused play is a gift that they may not be given in their future academic lives.

It will amaze you when you see the amount of time that children will spend exploring the magnets on their tray. It’s a calm, quiet and very, very focused activity that slows down even our most frenetic friends.

As we continue to play, we engage in a discussion about the forces that pull magnets together. We keep it pretty basic. This young group hasn’t shown any interest yet in the whys and the hows of magnetic forces and fields. They are too enchanted by the magic of it all. I have been down this trail before. When the brain is ready, the questions will be asked and we will have the resources available to answer their questions and push the experiments and investigations a wee bit further out of their comfort zone. There will be many more experiments for extended learning. But, for now, exploring the magic of magnetism suits us all just fine! 

A few words of caution. Magnets are dangerous if ingested. We hope that our students no longer put everything in their mouths, but we can’t count on it. You know your students better than anyone. It is best to err on the side of caution and use large magnets that cannot possibly fit into a child’s mouth if you are at all concerned. It will make the day of magnetic play more enjoyable for YOU if you don’t have to worry.

Stay safe and take care!

Rock balancing or CAIRNS has found its way into our play again this week!

Stacking and balancing rocks encourages math and science investigations that are always developmentally appropriate. My adrenaline starts flowing and a smile grows on my face when a two-year-old child exhibits an innate sense of how to balance many more rocks than her much-older peers. Children have their own unique gifts; we just need to give them opportunities to discover their strengths and talents.

For the record, environmentalists strongly discourage this practice because it disrupts the natural order of nature. I get that. When we are hiking or playing in the woods, we follow that rule. Our outdoor classroom has a dry creek and wonderful rocks collected from parking lots and estate sales. These are our math and science rocks that are used for play.

Children who are math-and-science ready are great problem solvers. When our friends explore the concept of stacking, they make observations, collect data and investigate shapes and sizes and weight. We count, we estimate, we balance, we hypothesize. It’s science, math, language and play all wrapped up in the beauty of nature. Nothing makes me happier than finding hidden stacks of rocks somewhere in our play yard—stacks that have been left behind by inquisitive children who didn’t need to please anyone but themselves.

Two-year-old Lauren created the “ant house” above. I love that she decorated her house with flowers. I watched as she wandered over to the sandbox on the other side of the play yard to return with a handful of sand to sprinkle on the roof. I love that intentionality and vision. I love that she is barefoot with a toenail that is black and blue and may fall off, evidence of some already-forgotten adventure that didn’t go as planned. I love that she is laying the foundation for later learning in math, science and engineering through play.

You can call it STEM, STEAM or STREAM, but it’s basic childhood play. It’s long hours of uninterrupted exploration as a child works to bring an idea to fruition. It’s the brain on fire, building the synapses of learning. It’s the cement in the foundation of a lifelong learner—the evolution of a visionary, problem-solving, risk-taking master.

I often hear early educators worry out loud about meeting the benchmarks or standards required by their programs. My tip for this is to bring in natural materials, give your children TIME to play, take photos and sit down with your standards. You will be shocked at how easy this can be. Engaging young children in daily problem-solving activities will help them develop the processing skills that pave the way for future lessons in math and science. This rock-stacking experience is all about shapes and spatial reasoning. This is geometry! This is engineering! This is spatial orientation as our rock stackers exhibit an understanding of location and ordinal position. Our young stackers are often meeting standards and benchmarks before they have the vocabulary to tell us what they are doing. They gather data about their surroundings as they figure out how to balance a specific rock in the stack. And if that rock won’t balance, they’ll try another. This is organizing data and information. They are busy making predictions about outcomes by playing with rocks.

Always bear in mind, however, that brain development varies in children.

Some children may not yet be ready to meet certain standards. Some may be advanced in one area, while others may be advanced in another.

This is when you are smarter than the standards! You can’t teach a rock to balance if the rock can’t balance. You can’t teach a brain a concept if it isn’t developmentally ready to process that concept.

This is why it’s important to reassure parents that their children will be just fine in life, regardless of their child’s test scores on any given day. You can look parents in the eye on Parent Night and share all of the standards that their children have mastered through play. Then you can assure them that play is laying the foundation for the brain development and problem-solving skills that will serve their children well throughout their lives.

So bring in the math rocks. Your students will soon be sorting, comparing and working with attributes. This is an early educator’s dream.

Best of all, it’s fun! Fun for the child, a true delight for the teacher to behold and such wonderful food for the brain.

Stay safe and keep on rocking on!

If you’ve been fortunate enough to visit The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, or driven by the Arboretum on Interstate 88, you may have spotted Joe the Guardian, a 20-foot-tall, spear-wielding troll peering down at the passing cars from atop his grassy berm. Joe is just one of six towering troll statues created by Danish artist Thomas Dambo. Fashioned from repurposed wood and other natural materials foraged from the Arboretum’s vast acreage, these incredibly detailed trolls have been delighting and inspiring visitors of all ages since they were installed as a temporary exhibition in Spring 2018. 

I like to say that Dambo never lost his childhood love of playing with loose parts. If you’ve followed my blog, you know about my own passion for using loose parts in early childhood classrooms! Some of our students have been fortunate enough to visit the trolls on weekends—and they are always eager to share their tall troll tales with their friends on Monday mornings.

Here’s some rare good news in a year that has had more than its share of bad news: The pandemic that has interrupted life as we know it has also put a pause on the trolls moving on!  If you have a chance to visit the Morton Arboretum before the end of the year, it’s worth a trip. Turn off those screens, get out of the house and breathe in some fresh air. This is STEAM learning in action that will inspire your own loose-parts play!

The Troll Hunt features a collection of trolls constructed from reclaimed wood. But these woody behemoths are 15 to 30 feet tall—a bit more than our gang is capable of constructing. Creating more diminutive trolls is definitely more our speed.

After several weeks of Monday-morning reports of troll sightings at the Arboretum, I took advantage of the trend. First, I printed out photos of the trolls to inspire our early learners to create their own versions of these mythical woodland creatures. Next, we sorted all of our loose parts into baskets and small bowls. Then we created trolls of various shapes and sizes out of small sticks, tree cookies, leaves, buckeyes, corks, shells and fabric—using bits of clay to connect the loose parts.

Architect Simon Nicholson first introduced the concept of loose parts back in the 1970s. Nicholson believed that we are all creative and that loose parts inspire children to engage in experimental, creative play, which is beneficial for child development.

What exactly are loose parts? They are materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up and taken apart and put back together in multiple ways. They are materials with no specific set of directions that can be used alone or combined with other materials. (Kabel, 2010)

We like to think of loose parts as shells, rocks, sticks, acorns, feathers, pinecones, flowers, flower petals, fabric, water, sand, dirt, moss, leaves, bark, rocks, pebbles, pine needles, seeds and whatever else is native to your region. But we can also use blocks, people, animals and other manipulatives. Loose parts can range from dramatic play props to toy cars, pots, pans or pouring devices.

After studying the photos to determine the materials that were used to create the trolls at the Arboretum, the children noted that the hair on Dambo’s trolls was made from branches and observed the intricate detail on the troll faces and toenails.

Then they began to build their own trolls. At first, the children created two-dimensional trolls. But, as the troll workshop continued and they became more confident and creative in their use of loose parts, they began building in three dimensions.

“I need a leg that is the same size as his arms! See? These legs are too little!”

Jamie was not happy with his troll’s appearance. Digging through the bowl of small twigs, he discovered a longer “leg” and kept digging until he found another that satisfied him. Jamie was busy measuring, sorting and comparing his loose parts, employing nonstandard units of measurement. Sure enough, he was knocking out those early learning standards through play once more! This was a morning spent exploring concepts such as symmetry, geometric shapes and spatial awareness (how things fit in front, behind, next to or underneath something). Recognizing, predicting and building patterns are all important early math and science skills that lay the foundation for later STEM and STEAM learning.

As they engaged in these simple experiences, the children were becoming more proficient at problem-solving, reasoning, predicting and making connections in the world around them. By creating these opportunities for children to see the world through a different lens as they play with loose parts, we open up new avenues of exploration and discovery.

“Sally, you are using shells for your troll’s eyes,” Noa pointed out to her friend. “I used pine cones!”

By observing, asking questions and drawing conclusions, children develop scientific skills. Comparing and describing physical properties while creating their trolls allowed our young learners to think out loud and try out new ideas. When the children weren’t satisfied with how something looked, they would often rearrange the loose parts or start all over again. There was no anger or frustration—just calm exploration.

“Where did you find that grassy stuff for your hair?” Noa asked Sally. But Sally was deep in a state of creative flow. Sally often incorporates fabric into her creations and proceeds more slowly than her peers. But she is very deliberate about her choices. All of this takes time. We don’t need to look at the clock and decide when this activity should end. We can let the children decide. On this fall morning, the troll table sparked a play buzz that lasted for more than two hours as our troll makers followed their curiosity, becoming more confident as they took advantage of new opportunities to engage in art, math and science.

We rarely take walks without bringing home all kinds of loose parts—what the children refer to as “treasures.” If your child keeps small items in containers to create “things” with, your child is playing with loose parts! Take advantage of what you have around you. Those are your tools for setting up a math- and science-rich environment.

If you haven’t experienced the Troll Hunt at the Morton Arboretum, autumn is a great time to visit the Arboretum’s beautiful grounds and maybe find some loose parts along the way. Just be sure to call first to make an appointment, as the Arboretum is enforcing social-distancing measures to ensure visitors’ safety. Don’t forget to check into a membership when you pay for admission. That membership is your ticket to a full year of adventures at more than 300 gardens around the United States. It is a great investment or gift idea. Consider it a year of math and science curriculum as we hit the pause button on life to collect loose parts and scout out those magical, mythical trolls. Happy hunting!