Our STEAM Toys

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Play.
Build.
Experiment.
Don't be afraid of failure.
Try again, the next attempt may be FABULOUS.

STEAM is not a "part" of my program. It is the core principal. If they come out of here with a love of learning, a love of art, and the ability to think logically and expansively, then I'm very happy with those results. Everything else is tag-on.

FAIL means:

First Attempt In Learning

Art is not crafts that I spend my free time doing 90% of the work and they do a bit of glue and construction. Art is seeing pictures in the clouds, tracing the veining on leaves, observing shadow and light differences, immersing in the materials around them and in the art process. Art is finding the wonder in the world and within themselves and developing the ability to express that through different mediums.

While I would love to have all natural materials, it simply isn't financially and logistically feasible for me to do so. The items I bring in, at this stage of my teaching career, however, must have a very specific purpose to them. I don't just grab a "deal." Most of the items I am currently curating have to do with STEAM relevance for the big boys. I have 5-year-olds redshirting with me for the next year, and I want them off devices and making the most of their time with STEAM materials. 

What do I consider a STEAM materials?

• Open ended, it has no defined outcome or limited-use play 
• Can be used for a small-scale structure or more elaborate one, so it builds with a child's development
• Can be played with from the get-go by a child, no instructions needed
• Can be played with independently when developmentally appropriate

Many of these materials are only available to the big boys during nap time in the front room, gated off from the under 3's and those putting items in their mouth, no matter what the age. While some of these materials have small parts, since I do have toddlers in the room at the end of the day, I do shy completely away from things that are comprised mainly of small or unsafe parts, like small piece Erector sets, marble magnet sets, tinker toys, Kinex, small Legos, etc. I want all pieces to be easily visible if they stray.

GEARS

We have a TON! Two large bins and two large baskets full. These are used by everyone, but the big boys have access to some of the small pieces for building more complex structures.

While I've collected sets over many years, this one is a great start set.

Gears! Gears! Gears! Super Building Toy Set, 150 Pieces-Amazon

MAGNETIC BLOCKS

Everyone loves the magnetic blocks. It is very interesting how they start out with them two dimensional, go to three dimensional and then get very complex in their structures very quickly.

WEDGITS

I consider this one of the absolute BEST toys everrrr! Infants can use them and even adults enjoy them. I rarely give them the cards to make matching structures, I just want them to build and create.

We have two sets of Wedgits and one building board. While this is enough for one child to play for a long time and not get bored, it is not enough for more than one child at a time. I would like to have double the amount.

Building Blocks Toys Set - Amazon

WEDGiTS Building Board, Dual Sided-Amazon

BUILD A ROBOT

The robot can get a little wonky, but that is the joy of the process. It never looks like the original package image. It shouldn't. It is their individual creation every time. 

I can't find one exactly like this, but this one is very similar and still great for the preschool crowd, unlike most robot kits which are geared to older children.

Educational Insights Design & Drill Robot-Amazon

LARGE SIZE ERECTOR SET

We have the tools, but the are usually somewhere in the dramatic play or block area. Mostly they just use their hands to work these. They make some pretty interesting construction.  

Mine is an old set. As much as they like it, I may be getting a new one to add to it this year.

Multifunctional Wood Building Blocks - Amazon

https://amzn.to/2SicNOY

STAR LINKS

I've heard them called other things as well, but I believe the package when I first bought these AGES ago was labeled Star Links. The big pieces are out for all children at all times. The small connectors and the small 2-ball pieces are only for the preschoolers. The large 6-ball stars are great for infant sensory as well.

STEM Flowers Interlocking - Amazon

https://amzn.to/2XXMajA

BRISTLE BLOCKS

They frankly like these a lot more than I thought they would and do a lot more with them than I thought they could. There are a couple of sets in there and it is enough for up to all 3 of them to be playing. It is one of those toys were they can see almost instant results, so it is good for the early preschoolers as well. 

Robot and train made by Mr. R

The infants can use the largest pieces for sensory, too, so it is another one of those 3month-12 years+ toys. This one is nice that it has play surface on top of the bucket.

The Official Bristle Blocks - Amazon

https://amzn.to/2XRvla8

SMALL LINKS

Not just for making chains, although that's mostly what they do, which is great for fine motor. These are also used for patterning, shape making, color sorting, counting, etc.

TUBE BLOCKS [FREE!]
I get these heavy tubes from interior design firms, carpet stores and engineering firms. They are used in fabrics, carpet, and drafting paper. I cut them in one inch increments and large segments, some at slants to increase their possibilities. They are used throughout the day in many ways, and the children learn new ways to use them often. For instance, Mr. H last week realized that he could use a narrow tube as a base to stack wider diameter rings onto it to form a totem-like stack.

Ways they use them:

stacking

fort/fencing

wearing for robot play

armor

sorting rings

mega phones

chases for balls, cars, blocks, etc. 

container
log rolling

LOOSE PARTS
lids

shower curtain rings

napkin rings

yogurt cups

Really, basically anything and everything.

Above all remember: OPEN ENDED PLAY. They should be able to make something new every time they engage with the activity.

No Yellow Walls in Childcare Settings!

"I love my daycare space! It's bright and happy with a sunny yellow color on the walls."

My response to my provider friend: an internal, "NOOOOOooooooo!"

There’s a reason you never see yellow in an airplane.

Take a good long look at the above block of yellow. Does it make you feel dizzy after a moment? Maybe even a little nauseated? If so, you’re in good company. A number of studies have shown that the color yellow can cause dizziness and nausea. For this reason, it’s often used sparingly (or very strategically) by those in advertising, and is almost never used in the interiors of various forms of transportation — most notably, airplanes.

https://www.onlinepsychologydegree.info/psychology-color/

Also hospitals, nursing homes, and....childcare settings.

I happen to be one of those people. The color yellow makes me physically ill. There's conjecture that something harmful that was the color yellow caused anxiety in my ancestors to the point that it altered our DNA to see the CAUTION sign of yellow. Possibly hornets or nightshade flowers. When we see it, we are thinking of danger, flight/fight, self-preservation, and our nervous systems go into panic mode. 

Since it is a genetic thing, there's no turning it off. 

The last thing you want is to have children in an internal panic the moment they walk into a room. You may not understand their reaction, they definitely don't. If you don't know that yellow can be a triggering color, you may never consider that a child had that genetic component, and instead chock the accompanying behavior to separation anxiety, non-compliance, just an ornery child, or other non-related contribution.

After talking to my friend about this phenomenon, she agreed that in looking back, there were definitely some children who showed signs of this trait. She just hadn't known. Her walls are no longer a "sunny yellow." She keeps that color for her personal space, since she loves it. 

Why Gifted Kids Sometimes Seem Behind

Most children have a desire to communicate and get themselves heard and understood. Most children have a need and desire for adult approval that leads them to do what is expected when expected. 

Gifted kids, often not so much.

However, all children perform better and with more enthusiasm when they see a REASON for their efforts, especially if that reason is personally gratifying through some enlightenment, intrigue or purpose. For gifted children, who often have so much going on in their heads, taking the time to focus and perform must have purpose, otherwise, they have better things to do.

It's not that they CAN'T do it.

I have a little girl, Miss A, who is going on 4. If she was an average child, I'd be looking at why she has not followed the normal developmental progression of drawing figures around the age of 3, and detailed figures by the age of 4. She makes little scribbles for people still, not even the "drawing" figures of a 2 year old, just random dark scribbles. 

But she's not average. She has a nearly photographic memory and at 3 3/4 can read nearly anything we place before her. She is artistic, creative, and music and has been dance inclined since birth. But drawing isn't her thing. Movement based expression and verbal expression are her strengths.

So I know why she doesn't draw figures. She doesn't see a purpose. 

The other two preschoolers have a need to put down on paper their story. They want to show it and tell it to their parents and others at some future time, and they want to make sure it is RIGHT. They put a lot of time and effort into getting their pictures the way they want them to be, and insist I journal their drawings in precise detail. 

Miss A, however, knows that she will be able to accurately tell her story to anyone at anytime. The picture in her head, which will always be there just the same, is so much grander than anything she could ever get down on a two dimensional piece of paper, that it just doesn't seem worth the time or effort to draw it. It will never be RIGHT. It will never be enough. She can draw her picture with words so much better. 

She'd rather write words. They have purpose. They can be perfect.

As her teacher, I know that her developmental level and intelligence level make it very apparent that she CAN draw figures. So I challenged her last week on Monday journal. She drew a circle for a dog. 

This week I challenged her again. I told her to look at her friends and draw them with shapes, starting with circles for their head and body. She drew a fairly detailed figure, exceeding the 10 identifiable features we look for in Kindergarten. 

It was perfect. In my estimation. 

She didn't really care, just shrugged when I complimented it, then started in telling me the story about her picture in extravagant detail. 

My oldest is gifted. He was nearly held back every year. When I took him out to homeschool, he was failing every class. Yet, he had an average test score in the high 90s in every subject. They wanted him to do worksheets, and games, and homework, projects and busy work. He found it painful to waste his time when he had better things to do. So he would go into his own head and spend his time there. He did great in college, though, because every class had a purpose towards his life goals.

My youngest is not gifted.. However, he has known from a very early age what he wants to be when he grows up. School work falls into three categories. 

1. I need to know this. I must master it. [Java]
2. I don't need to know this, but it is interesting, so I will find out everything I possibly can about it. [Mythology]
3. I will never use this in my life and it is a complete waste of time. [Diagramming sentences] 

As his teacher, it is my responsibility to ensure that he makes these determinations accurately, and with an understanding that he may change his life direction at some point in the future. But yeah, some of what is taught in the school years is simply a complete waste of time. Probably not as much as most high school students believe, but some.

Gifted children are still CHILDREN, with limited life experience and incomplete data. They need guidance, but most of all, they need understanding, challenge, and PURPOSE. 

This is why project based education is such a better fit for gifted students. When they have a topic that interests them, the surrounding educational component has an intense purpose to their learning. A gifted child may not know their times tables, yet be able to instantly spout accurate, detailed statistics about a subject that interests them. Using their interest as a pathway, it can be very easy to slide educational components, of high complexity, along that path they are ready to run, and it can lead to such amazing learning opportunities and extraordinary retention.

Always look at the whole child. Never focus on one small skill and miss the much bigger picture of the child's abilities.

Circle Time Circus

 

I was observing this morning, and once again am concerned about the desire to sit small children in a circle for circle time. It's done all over the world on the daily. That does not mean it is good ECE practice. 

Why does this concern me?

I've mentioned in the past that this type of circle time usually has a lot of classroom management entanglement. One teacher does the activity and another teacher, or two, are constantly correcting children into sitting properly and staying quiet. It often looks like a 3 Stooges skit, Whack-a-Mole, or herding cats.

The goal, is supposedly the learning activity. 

However, the actual lessons are the skills of:

• Staying in place
• Staying in crisscross applesauce
• Staying quiet unless appropriate
• Paying attention to the teacher
• Not looking around
• Not interacting with your friends

These are all REALLY hard skills to master for small children, let alone comply with all of them at once for an extended period of time. 

When you consider attention span to be 1 minute per age under 5, the expectation of a child under 5 to sit still, in position, and quiet, for much longer than that minute per age, is not developmentally appropriate practice.

Having to work so hard at the basic physical skills, means that most of the children do not have the extra attention to send towards the learning activity. It may catch their interest every so often, but they do not have the attention to focus. Retention is nearly non-existent. 

And as I've tried to reinforce, if they aren't moving, their brains aren't working optimally. So if a child is focused and paying attention, with all the wiggles distraction around her, coupled with minimal engagement, her retention of information, ability to analyze and compare the new information to old, is as nearly nonexistent as the child doing everything BUT paying attention.

The constant correction to sit in the right place, in the right manner, saying only the right things at the right times to the right people, for much longer than is developmentally appropriate, means the child feels frustration and failure. If kept far longer at the task than is comfortable, it can lead to anger, defiance, stress, anxiety, and physically acting out such as hitting a friend. Then, the child is really reprimanded and admonished for behavior that the child was pushed into by the adults.

So, the activity is pure frustration to both teachers and children, and of almost no value. And yet, centers and providers keep doing it.

When does circle time and other large group activities usually occur? As one of the first activities of the morning. This does not set up the day well. Circle time is actually a detriment to the rest of the day in many ways. Classroom management is already in play, tensions are high on all sides, the attempted "fun" was not had, the attempted learning was not accomplished. The bright potential of the day has been dimmed early. 

If it isn't working, why does it keep being done? Habit. Boxed curriculum. Expectation. Often it's the only "teaching" time provided. Easy routine. Sorry to say it, but lazy or in-experienced teaching. 

What to do differently

• Keep it short. Break up something like circle time into small bite-size segments and sprinkle them throughout the day.
• Don't expect young children to sit still, it's not natural for them.
• Don't expect young children to sit quietly and wait a turn for more than a couple of minutes. 
• Make sure as many children as possible can participate at once.
• Differentiate instruction for different attention spans, interests, or capabilities. Not all children have to participate in all activities at all times. 
• Teach the same lessons through play or day. Count the blocks, ask for the red car, spell their name out together as you get something from their cubby. That individualized instruction will stick much better in a receptive mind.
• Make it free-choice to join or leave. 

Children learn so much by just being in the presence of information. They pick up what interests them when they are in the right mind-set to pick it up. Through repetition and exposure, they will pick it up even without direct formal instruction. I've taught a lot of skills from just singing a little ditty about it throughout the day. Children are drawn to music and you'd be surprised what giving them an ear worm can accomplish.

We need to set children, and teachers, up for success. Traditional instruction often puts children and teachers as adversaries rather than a team. That needs to change. No child should ever feel less-than because teachers are asking him to perform at a developmentally IN-appropriate level.