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!

Spring STEAM

This was originally billed as Peeps Science, but it turned into Spring in general - because you can only do so much with Peeps and babies!

And, because I had a special request for rainbow spaghetti, which I was all too happy to fulfill: 

I just use plain old food coloring after cooking the noodles al dente. I toss it with a couple forks to mix, but once it has 'set' the colors don't bleed much.

So squishy! (Both the baby and the 'sghetti!)

Spring here in southern NM means wind, and lots of it!

The fan was set up on the floor.

It was hard to get pictures that weren't blurry!

Art!

Science!

Mostly things from my yard the morning of, with activity cards created by Explora Albuquerque. I love things that give parents a few simple questions to help them guide the exploration!

Engineering!

There were a couple different sizes of eggs - and a bit of dirt, because I forgot I had just tossed them into the box right after Easter.

And, yes, we did use those Peeps:

I melted the Peeps and mixed the corn starch in partway, then left them in the bowls for the kids to finish kneading. FYI, yellow does not melt as easily as purple, but pink just goes straight to goo. I made this up an hour beforehand, and it was hard when we got started! Fortunately, ten seconds in the microwave softened it back up perfectly.

I'm impressed, L. here used to refuse to touch anything sticky. As you can see, he's still not thrilled about it!

More engineering!

No glue or tape, but I did provide scissors to cut they yarn. Don't worry, the eggs are hard-boiled! There were some fabulous creations:

Lots of fun for our final STEAM of the school year!

Toddler STEAM - Patterns and Sorting

Recognizing patterns and sorting are a basic foundation for SO many other things - math and science, obviously, but also music, spelling, grammar, foreign languages, writing...plus they are a lot of fun to play with! We even worked some colors and shapes in this week. This was probably the cheapest STEAM program ever, since almost everything was already on hand or left over from previous projects.

The sorting table was easy, I just grabbed the first three containers I saw of sortable objects.

We had to have at least ONE messy table! Playing with your food is always a sure hit, and I had leftovers from our scouting snack.

Of course some did patterns, some just painted.

That's totally okay! STEAM explorations mean letting the kids find their own way. Sometimes it will go the direction you want it to, sometimes not. The important thing is that they are learning and absorbing something.

Some less messy art (shapes left over from an earlier craft):

Okay, not a pattern, but we learned LOTS about colors and shapes!

My big expense - a $2 bag of pipe cleaners and a $3 bag of cereal. 

I like pipe cleaners for stringing with littler kids, because the end doesn't flop around.

 Not to mention, if they decide to eat it later, they aren't likely to suck a string down and choke!

Rubber bands, on the other hand, are a definite choking hazard, so you probably don't want to do this one with the babies. The bigger kids love it, though! (We have the Geo Boards available for circulation).

Ah, symmetry. Child after my own heart.

Cheap reinforcement stickers - or you can use colored dots or the star stickers that come a million to a package. 

Anything with stickers is good.

Most of these I grabbed from my front yard or kitchen:

The books are part of a great series, and I had those scattered around the room.

These linking chains are also available for check-out:

Oops - can you spot the break in the pattern?

And the blocks stay here for our monthly Builder's Club:

As expected, the kids mostly just built towers, but that's all good! Thanks for everyone who came (and let me take their pictures!)

Mother's Day Story Time

Mother's Day doesn't happen for a couple more weeks (so don't panic!) but we don't run preschool programs in May. Besides, any day is a good day to celebrate our grown-ups!

Some of the books I chose are specific to moms, others will work for any caregiver. This is where it helps to know your parents, and where there might be a sensitive topic, so you can switch things around if needed. We read:

9780060088606

My monster mama loves me so! Let me tell you how I know: When I wake up, she tweaks my nose, tickles all my pointy toes,combs the cobwebs from my bangs,and makes sure that I brush my fangs....At once tender and funny, this monster bedtime story is guaranteed to generate giggles, tickles, and plenty of monster hugs.

Did your mama make you cookies with bugs this morning? She didn't??? Well, then tell her you want some for supper!

9780399167638

In this sweet, rhyming book, toddler and (Mother? Grandmother? Aunt? Nanny? It's open!) go through a fun day together, ending with the narrator saying how lucky she is to spend it with her. 

9781416954026

Seven bitty baby birds are hungry, hungry, hungry—and they’re letting Mama know. “Feed us! Feed us!” the little ones chant, and Mama calms them as only a mother can—before she frantically flies away to gather more delectable worms. Readers can count with Mama Bird as she zooms back and forth across the pages, going from seven hungry babies to none…until one by one the babies wake up again…hungry!

Mamas and Papas can both identify with the feeling of, "I just FED you, how can you be hungry again?", while the kids enjoyed yelling "FEED US! FEED US!" along with the babies. At the end, Mama bird tells Daddy it's his turn, so we talked about how grown-ups share the work, rather than let it be a Dad-bashing moment.

Our craft this year was a lot of fun, thanks to someone else's trash! A local businessman found himself in possession of a stack of old machine parts trays he didn't need, and graciously donated them (probably wondering why on earth I wanted the old things!) I gave each a coat or two of spray paint, and set out t-shirts and acrylics:

I love when an art project is aesthetically pleasing before you even start. Look at all the pretty colors:

Those became pretty flowers,

and people

and...other things.

I'm not sure what it was, exactly, but she was VERY serious about it!

And the only person who got paint on the tables was Miss Ami. Now everybody has trays to make Mom breakfast in bed!