Toddler STEAM - Be My Valentine!

Our first Toddler STEAM of the year was all about the pink and red!

Fizzing Hearts

Miss Cheryl cut out 80 million white paper hearts for us. Kids were instructed to sprinkle some baking soda on the with the spoon, then add a drop of colored vinegar with a pipette. What kid doesn't enjoy that combination?! 

What happens if you add another color and let it mix? I had another newspaper-covered table available for drying, so kids could take their creations home.

Sweet Sorting

In which Miss Ami gets to show off her chopsticks skills! 

I really need to start video taping. Right after I snapped this, she got it! She picked one up with the chopsticks and dropped it in the right bowl!

We do this program twice in a week, so I used a different bag for each day. Kids will inevitable eat a few, and this way I knew they had at least not been handled prior to that session. In a couple weeks they will be used by the teens and tweens for a craft project, so no waste!

Patterns in Pink

And purple, red, and white. 

Heart Homes

Engineering, talking about what types of homes animals need, and of course fine motor skills. 

The kangaroo looks confused.

Crowns are cool, too!

I like how we are all pretending we don't see that lion staring at us.

Again, a new bag of marshmallows for each session.

Cup Stacking

I love these tiny cups I grabbed at Walmart - perfect for portioning out craft materials as well as STEAM projects!

The grown-ups liked this one, too!

Bubbles!

This was a last-minute addition, after I found the sets of cookie cutters for just 98 cents at Walmart. At first I thought about clay, but this was much faster to throw together. Centered on a couple big rugs to hopefully eliminate slippery floors. You can use the straws to blow bubbles inside the hearts, or pick the hearts up and blow bubbles through them (why doesn't the bubble come out in a heart shape? Hmm...)

Pink Pool

Sliced up pool noodles to string or stack

or sit in!

Red, White and Pink Rice Bin

In the pool to keep it from scattering (who am I kidding?!). We were using it for a craft project last week, and all my buddy Ian wanted to do was sift through it, so I promised him we would play with it this week! Somehow I did not get any pictures of kids playing with this center, but believe me, everyone hit it at least once. Of course some scattered, but a quick pass with the vacuum got it up.

Thanks for coming and playing with us, everyone!