James bounces into our early childhood center on a gloomy March morning and asks, “Can we make muffins today?” 

“Yes! Muffins!” the other children shout, jumping up and down in what just moments before had been a calm, quiet and sleepy classroom.

We cook a lot, and over the years I have learned to stretch this activity into a “curriculum” that gives each child plenty of hands-on time with the ingredients.

There is something magical about cooking that levels the playing field and makes the activity developmentally appropriate for children of every age and skill level.

Before calling the preschoolers into our kitchen area, I prefer to prep the workspace. But on days like this—when the cooking is a spontaneous, child-led idea—I send the children to the bathroom to wash their hands and quickly get to work.

In an ideal world, I would gather all of the ingredients and take care of any prep work that might be too difficult for little hands in advance. For example, I might chop an ingredient or pour a teaspoon of vanilla into a measuring cup and then set those items out in the order that we will need them for the recipe.

“Can I crack an egg?” begs Saaliha. 

“Me, too!” shouts Marcus. The children are bouncing with energy and joy.

“I don’t like to crack eggs,” says Hudson. “Can I stir the flour and sugar?”

When I have more ingredients than children (or more children than ingredients), I get creative. If I’m working with a younger group, I’ll crack the eggs for the children and put them into measuring cups. You may need to let each child add one egg or one child add three eggs, depending on how many cooks there are and how much time you have in the kitchen.

I try to stretch out this part of the cooking sequence because every child needs a turn, and each turn is a learning opportunity. Cooking is one of those rare times when everyone is working as a team, the children are happy and helpful and the conversations are rich and engaging.

Years ago, we had a visual learner who described pouring the dirt (brown sugar) on top of the snow (flour) and then stirring in the sunshine (eggs). For years, children have repeated that same story over and over to the new children in the classroom. I have no idea how many years this has gone on or how much joy that silly little narrative has brought to the children who have walked through our door!

Count the ingredients. Count the eggs. Count the number of times each child gets to stir the mixture.

Meanwhile, expand the vocabulary of your young chefs. Ask the children to describe what they see, taste and smell. Talk about the colors and the textures.

Then ask the children to predict what will happen to the muffins or cookies when they are placed in the oven. Will they rise? Will they get bigger? Why?

Cooking gives preschoolers a strong foundation in math, science,  language, art and reading. When we invite children to create in the kitchen, we provide learning opportunities in many academic subjects.

Think of your ingredients as subsets that will introduce opportunities for counting, observing, predicting, adding, measuring, dividing and estimating.

As children see how certain ingredients combine, react and change during the cooking process, they are learning basic chemistry.

Baking also brings children together at the table to share food, conversation, observations, ideas and camaraderie. What more could you ask for in an early childhood setting?

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Waiting for muffins to bake can seem like an eternity when you are three. Don’t torture yourself or your students! Pick a recipe with minimal ingredients and shorter baking times. Instead of a 30-minute banana bread recipe, make a smoothie, muffins or cookies.

We use our baking time to take bathroom breaks, sweep the floor, wash the dishes, wash our hands and set the table so that we can feast on our masterpiece as soon as it comes out of the oven and cools. If there’s still time left on the timer, then we wash our hands again! 

Remember to keep it light and keep it fun. Sit down and enjoy the conversations and the joy of being with your young learners. Breathe in the tantalizing smell of muffins rising in the oven and give yourself the time and space to engage in these extended activities. Feast on some comfort food and engage in some delicious early science and math learning!

If you’ve got pancake fans in your classroom (and who doesn’t), we’ve got a great lesson plan for you here. Don’t forget to click on the Connect With Families button in the upper left corner of the lesson page to download a letter that gives families all of the information they need to continue the learning at home.

“Can you read it again? PLEASE?” 

Frigid temps and gray days lead to lots of reading as we weather the winter season.

As February unfolds, I am thrilled to present a series of STEM books guaranteed to educate, enrich and entertain early learners while the snow flies.

It’s difficult to find books that balance exceptional educational content with engaging storylines, but these books deliver on both fronts.

Each book on this list is so good that you won’t mind when your young STEM explorers beg you over and over to “read it again“!

The Storytelling Math series features children using math during their daily adventures as they play, build and explore the world around them.

These delightful stories go beyond common early math topics such as counting and shapes to explore topics such as patterns, categorizing and spatial reasoning—topics that lay the foundation for later math success but are rarely included in early math books and learning materials.

This series focuses on math concepts that young children encounter in their daily lives. Packed with content that will introduce your early learners to patterns, spatial relationships and everyday math vocabulary words, these little gems also reflect the diversity of our world with characters, authors and illustrators from a wide range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

Each book concludes with suggestions for further math exploration.

I love the whole series but the books featured here are our favorites!

Our most requested book in this series is Bracelets for Bina’s Brothers. This book has inspired discussions about siblings, educated us about the holiday traditions of our friends and neighbors, introduced us to patterns and engaged us in problem-solving activities. In this celebration of Raksha Bandhan (a Hindu festival honoring the sibling relationship), the youngest sibling, Bina, is determined to make bracelets for each of her three brothers. Vijay loves blue but doesn’t like green. Siddharth is fond of green but can’t stand orange. Arjun likes orange but is sick of blue. With three colors to work with, Bina works hard to get the bracelets just right. This book often leads to requests for beads as we work on our own bracelet patterns, which adds Art to our endeavors for a full STEAM experience.

As much as my gang loves bracelets, I love Usha and the Big Digger—a beautifully illustrated tale about a girl who loves trucks. This book addresses rotation, geometry and spatial relationships, along with looking at things from different perspectives. Cousins survey the same part of the night sky and see different constellations on a starry night. After they switch vantage points, they each see what the other has seen. As the cousins rotate, they see the Big Dipper rotate too. This book features Indian-American characters, as well as insights into different cultures, their interpretations of constellations and their stories about the stars. When storytime is over, you’ll find some fun STEM activities to extend the learning—as well as a great tutorial on how to do a cartwheel.

We are big fans of Sara Levine and her many science books, so I knew that we were in for a treat when I saw that she was one of the authors in the Storytelling Math series. In her book, The Animals Would Not Sleep!, it’s bedtime for Marco and his stuffed animals, but the animals will have none of it. When Marco tries to put them away, they fly, swim and slither right out of their bins. Marco tries sorting the animals in different ways, but nothing works and the animals start getting cranky. How can Marco make everyone happy and put an end to the mayhem? He thinks like a scientist to come up with a solution. This is another favorite that will stimulate plenty of discussion and help build problem-solving skills. It will also pave the way for some fun stuffed-animal play in your classroom!

Having a cloudy week and need a little bit of inspiration? Reach out to your library for any of these wonderful titles. They are guaranteed to enliven your learning and lift children and adults alike out of the February doldrums. Enjoy your winter reading adventures!

Storytelling Math was developed in collaboration with the math experts at the STEM education nonprofit, TERC, with support from the Heising-Simons Foundation.

Looking for a great resource for multicultural picture books? Check out Diverse Book Finder, the go-to resource for librarians, educators, parents and others interested in creating picture-book collections that reflect the diverse cultures and lifestyles of the children who read them.

“AAAAUUUUGHHHHHHH! Worms! Look, look! They are everywhere!” Eleanor is jumping up and down hysterically. Nothing will bring our crew running faster than a good worm sighting!

Let the earthworm exploration begin. We love worms!

Last spring, we witnessed an unusual natural phenomenon as a mass of earthworms wiggled out of their subterranean homes in the soil and squirmed onto our sidewalk.

This weird worm event elicited great joy and excitement from our early learners as they raced over to investigate.

There are a number of names for a large group of earthworms, including a bed, a bunch, a clat or a clew. So if you casually refer to a squirming mass of earthworms as a bunch, you are technically correct!

Why are there so many?  Why are they tangled?  Will they bite me? Where is the worm’s mouth?

The curiosity is flowing faster than the answers. When you see excitement at this level, embrace the moment! Grab a camera and start documenting the Illinois Early Learning Standards that you’ll be meeting today!

Worms can be used to teach length—and we sometimes measure them with tape measures. But this is just one of the ways that worms spark investigation, inquiry and analysis in our outdoor curriculum.

Our love of worms has afforded us days and days of study. In the photo above, you can see collaboration, hypothesizing, theorizing and prediction in action.

This is a group of three-year-old scientific investigators—and their brains are on fire! This is STEM exploration at its most engaging as we measure, count, estimate and subtilize while learning about earth science and life science.

Our students are learning that living things grow and change. They are drawing conclusions from their investigations as they scrutinize the worms’ anatomy and behavior.

This fact-finding mission also fosters a respect for life in all its forms. We try really hard not to hurt our worms. When a two-year-old child engages in hands-on investigations with an earthworm, it doesn’t always end so well for the worm. To protect the worms from overzealous handling, we’ve taught the older children to monitor the well-being of the worms in the hands of their younger peers. This is hands-on learning, coupled with collaboration!

As your early learners explore the world of earthworms, encourage them to ask questions that will guide their investigations. By encouraging them to engage in deeper scientific inquiry, you’ll be setting them up for academic success in the years to come.

“Can I hold it? ” asks two-year-old Alex.

As an older friend passes a worm to Alex, she pulls her hand back a few times before she is ready to receive it.

We offer Alex a glove, but she wants to be like the “big kids” and go gloveless. After we reassure her that the worm has no teeth or pincers, she tries again. This is a good example of the importance of time and patience as we guide children through the investigative process.

People often ask how we “get” our kids to hold a worm. We read a lot of books about worms and I make sure that there are worm books on our shelves from March through October. We also observe worms for long periods of time. If our early learners have one brave friend who is willing to pick up a worm, that’s all it takes to persuade the others to persevere, despite their initial trepidation.

As the children engage in their hands-on worm investigations, we throw out facts, often in whispered voices: “Did you know that worms do not have teeth? Worms also do not have pincers or stingers. They have no eyes, legs or arms. They will never hurt us.”

These are the facts that I share with young learners who are anxious or experiencing worms for the first time. A child who investigated worms as a two-year-old last fall may not have retained that memory as a three-year-old—and we may need to reintroduce worms this spring.

Retention and problem-solving skills continue to evolve as students seek answers to their questions through active investigation. Last fall’s observer may be this spring’s hands-on investigator. Our students need long periods of time to observe and learn as this curriculum unfolds in front of their eyes.

By creating an environment that leads to discovery, you are setting your curriculum in motion. Add large rocks, tree cookies or even soil-filled planters that can serve as worm habitats. Some teachers add soil and worms to their sand and water tables to create worm farms in their classrooms. Our goal is to foster the development of inquisitive minds.

We extend our learning with songs and finger-play. We enjoy “Eat Like a Worm Day” as we snack on vegetables such as carrots, cucumbers, lettuce and apples. We make “worms” out of clay—some thick, some thin, some short and some very, very long.

Mr. Nicky (pictured above) has a wonderfully funny song titled “Earthworm,” that has taught our children so much about the vital role that worms play in keeping our soil healthy. There are many silly worm songs, but this has a great hook and gets our children moving as they learn new facts about worms while having fun. It’s one of our favorites.

We always try to return worms to their natural habitat when our observations are over. We thank the worms for doing their part to make our lawn healthy and beautiful as we release them back into the place where we found them. We send them home to their families, which resonates with our young learners.

We wish you many happy STEM adventures as you and your early learners study these champions of the soil.

Happy worm hunting!

After months of sequestering and social distancing to stop the spread of COVID-19, we could all use some fresh winter air! Nature is just what the doctor ordered to stimulate our senses while we meet our early learning standards.

The winter months offer an abundance of STEM learning opportunities, so don’t let the falling temperatures and snow chase you inside. The changing seasons lead to so many discoveries that incorporate STEM language and learning. Let’s take a quick look at just a few of the STEM learning adventures that we can provide for our early learners as we explore the winter landscape.

SNOW MOLDS

When the forecast predicts the first snow of the season, be sure to grab the toys out of the sandbox before they freeze in the sand. Then repurpose your sand molds as snow molds. It’s a great way to introduce shape and dimension into winter play.

This cold-weather activity introduces early learners to engineering design and the scientific practice of modeling as they work through their ideas in this new medium. By actively investigating, exploring and communicating with their friends, our young snow sculptors are laying the foundation for a future understanding of core scientific concepts.

When children have access to simple sandbox tools, they can explore and reimagine activities that work with sand, but may or may not work with wet or powdery snow. This leads to more investigation and more opportunities for learning. Muffin and cake pans of all shapes and sizes will also work—and open doors to endless hours of creative outdoor play. 

ICE AND ICICLES

There’s a lot of science and math in those icicles! Every winter, I grab the longest icicle that I can find and let it melt into an empty glass. This enables the children to observe the melting process while we discuss the difference between indoor and outdoor temperatures. We can also discuss why our body temperature is warmer than the outdoor temperature and why we can see our breath in the cold winter air. When the icicle has completely melted, I point out the dirt and gunk that was frozen into this seemingly pristine piece of ice. But that won’t deter our experiential learners from sucking on “nature’s popsicles.” Children learn through their senses—and I gave up the battle of trying to stop them from sucking on icicles and eating snow years ago. It’s all part of the magic of winter STEM learning.

IGLOOS

Building an igloo is easy—and there are so many learning opportunities in engineering and physics that come into play. We use large plastic bins to mold the snow into big blocks, and the igloo-building process proceeds more quickly than you might imagine.

If you’re lucky enough to get packable snow early in the season, there is a good chance that your igloo could last for a month or more. One word of caution: This lovely source of wind protection also takes a while to melt, so build it in a location where it won’t interfere with other activities. Because igloos become softer in the afternoon sun, we often redesign our igloo during the day, adding colors and water before leaving it to refreeze overnight. An igloo is well worth the investment of time and energy.

HIKING

Take a hike! Even in familiar places like your neighborhood or a local schoolyard, life looks different during the winter months. When we head out for these winter walking adventures, I introduce new vocabulary words such as “hike” or “adventure” or “excursion.”

Research shows that vocabulary building at an early age fosters future success in reading and narrows the achievement gap. As you hike with your early learners, your efforts to introduce concepts such as patterns, reflections, black ice, hibernation and wind-chill factors will lead to later learning opportunities back in the classroom.

  

SLEDDING

Oh boy! What a bonanza of science vocabulary we have here, with “speed” and “force” and “distance“! For younger children, we introduce simple vocabulary words such as “up” and “down” the hill.  Who went the “farthest“? Who wiped out the “fastest“?  We gather and analyze data as they try new routes, techniques and combinations of sled buddies. We don’t always have access to real hills—and there have been years when my class just couldn’t handle a walk to the park and sledding!  But don’t rule out that large pile of snow that the plow has pushed up at the end of the school parking lot.  It may be man-made and it may be small, but it’s a hill nonetheless! Kids just love taking small risks such as climbing up and sliding down. Last winter, I watched a three-year-old and a four-year-old spend 20 minutes trying to stay upright while sliding on their boots down an 18-inch “hill.” It doesn’t take much of an incline to open doors to STEM learning!

ANIMAL-TRACK INVESTIGATIONS

We often discover animal tracks in the snow during our outdoor investigations. We occasionally find paw prints from a raccoon or hoof prints from a deer, but most of the tracks that we find are made by neighborhood cats and dogs, as well as squirrels and birds. This tracking activity never gets old. We can try to follow their routes while making observations and forming theories. Curiosity, persistence, questioning and problem-solving are the traits of a true scientist. These real-life adventures that put science in context represent age-appropriate learning at its finest.

SNOW SCULPTURES

I’d love to tell you that we were the designers of the impressive Snow Dino below, but the truth is that we found this expressive fellow while sledding at the neighborhood park. We have some very creative college students in our neighborhood and we often observe their winter snow sculptures to get our own creative juices flowing and learn new sculpting techniques. The smiles on the faces of the children below show that they didn’t need to build the Snow Dino to enjoy the end result! If you missed our own STEM Snowman adventures earlier in the month, you can find the blog post here.

After the cold-weather fun, finish up with a comforting cup of hot cocoa, apple cider or mint tea. When the weather is warm enough to stay outside for long periods, a hearty cup of soup after you head indoors will chase away the winter chill and refuel your STEM explorers.

Thank you for sharing a year of STEM learning adventures with me and stay tuned for more in 2021!

Earlier this month, we talked about the math explosion that took place during our block play. I shared the delight of capturing a play buzz to knock out early learning standards through play. To my astonishment, our play buzz continued all the way through our pickup activities and, let me just say, that never happens! We usually have one older “organizer” who likes to put the unit blocks in their specific spaces, but the younger children struggle just to find any shelf in the room that will work. So, when I saw the empty shelves actually being organized in order, I took note.

“Here’s a circle!” calls out two-year-old Eleanor. “That goes here. My mom calls this a cylinder,” says four-year-old Noah. “A silly-der?” asks a confused two-year-old. “No, a cylinder!” A burst of giggles is followed by the two-year-old trying again and again and again—to the hysterical delight of her friends. Finally, the play moment is over and the two-year-old impresses the group by naming the block correctly: “Your mom calls this a cylinder!” Applause and dancing ensue. During this rare but engaging pick-up period, we have all the elements needed to build the brain. We have movement. We have physical touch. We have mentoring and experimenting. When we fail, there is not a meltdown in sight, because there is always a friend nearby to show us the correct solution. We have conversations, rationalizing, cooperation, observation, design and data collection, as well as sorting, grouping and problem-solving. We have hit the nirvana of meeting learning standards with hands-on learning and communicating!

By turning a block in a different direction, it completely changes how it fits on the shelf. I watch the little wheels turning in Saaliha’s head. It’s deep thinking, she is silent, she tries different ways, she puts the block down only to pick it back up to try again. She sees another friend place a block in effortlessly. She turns her block in the same direction and tries again. Success! There is no celebration. There is a search for another matching block to cement this learning in her brain.

Early Learning Standard 9.A.ECe gets checked off the list! I am not convinced that Saaliha’s brain was ready for this on paper. The brain may not have been able to see it on a worksheet. When we put the objects in their hands and the vocabulary in their world, the pieces of the puzzle can make their way into the brain. Make the learning real!

As educators, we are so often running around putting out fires, that the documentation is a struggle. Play buzzes give us that time to stand back and actually observe the learning that is happening in front of us. This is a great time to just put your phone or camera on video. Target the group or the individual child you need data on. When we are indoors, the majority of our play buzz moments will come in that block room. Blocks are always developmentally correct for the child who is interacting with them. If your program doesn’t have a block area, try to make it happen. It will enrich the lives of everyone in the room. If you have a block area, carve out a nice LONG period of time to get down on the floor and start the play buzz. I promise you, your assessment will be met.

One extremely cold morning, PLUS one extremely curious three-year-old EQUALED an unexpected explosion of mathematical concepts being explored in our classroom. Jamison started the movement with a small ramp and a single car. The fever caught on and soon we had ramps and obstacles being set up all over the room by Jamison and his fellow early math explorers. We had ourselves a PLAY BUZZ going on! 

What exactly is a play buzz? It was first explained to me as “a moment during free play when all is good, all is right, all needs are being met and all children are learning.” I would love to give credit to the genius teacher who coined the phrase “play buzz.”  It’s a teacher’s dream and, when it happens, you recognize it immediately. These are the moments of movement and learning and exploring and brain-building experiments. These are the moments when you grab your camera and your clipboard and you begin checking off all of the learning standards that those pesky assessments demand.

On this given day, we were exploring the concepts of spatial relationships and geometry. We made predictions, gathered data, studied cause and effect and organized our information to try something new. We were knocking out those Illinois Early Learning Standards by the minute. Math vocabulary was being tossed about in typical preschool language, including the words “up, down, fast, faster, speed, tall, short, in front of, behind, balance, circle, line, flat and corner.” Children need to learn the language of math to think through and solve their math challenges—and then communicate their thought processes to others. When children play and experiment with ramps and cars with their friends, they learn how to problem solve and communicate their thoughts. Problem-solving play helps children develop foundational skills that will be used in math learning in the years to come. When we introduce children to the vocabulary of math, we are building a foundation for future math success. This early math website has a fabulous vocabulary glossary if you’d like to fire up your brain to “hear” the math that is happening in your own classroom during free play.

When these play buzzes happen, the energy in the room will feel calm and focused. This is the perfect time to observe the learning that is underway and document it through photos and/or notes. This is the good, deep learning that connects the synapses in the brain. This is the hands-on learning that builds a strong early math foundation. This is when you start matching up learning standards on assessments with ease and joy! What turns your students on? Observe your students to determine the types of activities that spark a play buzz and then let the learning standards take care of themselves!   

It is really interesting to look at how they’ve changed.  Can you imagine the conversations that were required to get this all down on paper?  I can’t.

Over the next several weeks, we are going to look at the Standards and Benchmarks for each of the areas in mathematics.  This week, simply because we have spent so much time on “Attributes” I am going to review the exact Standards and Benchmarks for this one mathematical concept.

Goal 8 states that children will “Identify and describe common attributes, patterns and relationships in objects.” Learning Standard A under Goal 8 says that children will, “Explore Objects and Patterns.”

The benchmarks for this Goal and Standard are:

8.A.ECa – Sort, order, compare and describe objects according to characteristics or attributes.

8.A.ECb. – Recognize, duplicate, extend, and create simple patterns in various formats.

So, how do we know that children are meeting their benchmarks?  We look at the next section called “Example Performance Descriptors.”

Compare and describe various objects (e.g., describe different rocks by referring to their size, shape, weight, etc.).

 

Create a simple repeating pattern using classroom objects (e.g., build a tower of alternating blue and red cubes).

 

Replicate patterns in music (e.g., repeat a sound pattern by clapping or tapping foot lightly; sing a repetitive song such as B-I-N-G-O; play finger game such as Open, Shut Them).

 

Sort objects according to different characteristics (e.g., sort crayons by color and size; sort small blocks by shape and color).

 

Order objects in a series by a single attribute (e.g., order fire trucks from shortest to longest; order rocks from smooth to rough).

 

Is your head spinning?  Mine sure is.

For me, the most helpful way to sift through this information is to consider the smallest and most specific details and begin there.  You will see that until a child can recognize a simple attribute (one characteristic) they will not be able to do the rest or meet these benchmarks via these example descriptors.  Begin with what children know- and work up.  Don’t start at the highest or widest point and work down.  Children don’t learn that way.

The Illinois Early Learning Standards are pretty straightforward and easy to follow.  According to their website,

The Illinois Early Learning Standards, developed by the Illinois State Board of Education with the assistance of hundreds of educators, were first introduced in draft form in June 2000. Since publication of the draft, hundreds of educators and parents, and a wide array of national, state and local experts, have commented on the standards. This final draft of the standards is a synthesis of their many views.

The standards are organized to parallel in content the Illinois Learning Standards for K-12 education. Included are benchmarks for learning in Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Science, Physical Development and Health, Fine Arts, Foreign Language, and Social/Emotional Development.

The goal of the standards is to provide teachers and caregivers useful information that is directly needed as part of their daily classroom work.

The Standards are divided into State Goals (6-10 are the Goals associated with math).  They then provide benchmarks for children which describe in detail, expected learning outcomes.  In addition, for each benchmark, there is a video of children demonstrating the benchmark with description of the action and a written narrative.  These are a great resource and could be very helpful in making sense of the standards.  Click here to see the Illinois Early Learning Standards for Math.