Little Scientists: Winter Wonders

Once a month, we have a Preschool STEM program for ages 3-5.  Even though it's called Little Scientists, we cover a wide range of STEM topics, focusing on a particular theme each month.  We always start out with a story related to the theme, occasionally followed by a relevant song or brief group activity.  Usually this part of the program is fairly brief (less than 10 minutes), and the kids spend about 30 - 45 minutes exploring hands-on stations with their caregivers.  Occasionally caregivers want to stand in the back and just watch their child from afar, but I am always insistent that they explore the stations with their child; the idea is that this will help the child gain more from the activities as they explore and ask questions together. I usually try to post instruction sheets that include a few suggestions for possible questions to ask or things to discuss.

Sometimes we focus on specific concepts or topics preschoolers often learn about, such as weather or colors.  Other times I will use a broad theme to tie together a variety of STEM activities.  In January I took the the broad approach with a winter theme.

We started out by reading Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming.  After reading the book, we talked about animals that hibernate and stuck photos of hibernating animals onto a felt board. Then we split up into five stations, which everyone could explore at their own pace (four stations is probably better, but sometimes I get carried away):

Station 1:  Mitten Matching
For our mitten matching station, my co-worker made mittens with different patterns out of construction paper and the little ones tried to find matching pairs.  Since we knew several kids might be doing this station at once, we had several sets of each pair of mittens.

Match the Mittens!

Station 2:  Shape Snowmen 
For our shape snowmen station, we had lots of white circles in different sizes available, along with different shapes in a variety of colors. We set out glue sticks and encouraged the little ones to make "shape snowmen" and the grown-ups to talk to them about what shapes they were using.  This might seem like a "craft," but it had a specific intention behind it; I wanted the kids to recognize specific shapes but also to think about how they could put shapes together to create something unique.

Make a shape snowman!

Station 3:  "Snowball" Counting

This station promotes both fine motor skill development and counting skills.  We had the kids count out the "snowballs" (cotton balls) using miniature tongs.  This activity can really be adapted in endless ways; they can out pieces of cereal, beans, pasta, or just about anything else!

Count the Snowballs!

Station 4:   Frozen vs. Unfrozen
This idea comes from Julie over at Creekside Learning.  I filled several ice cube trays with a variety of food items from my own pantry: ketchup, cottage cheese, margarine, water, marshmallows, and brown sugar (many other foods could be used, as well). Then I froze half the trays and kept the rest at room temperature, waiting until the morning of the program to add items that might spoil. 

Frozen vs. Unfrozen!

We encouraged the kids to feel the "frozen" foods and compare with them with the "unfrozen" foods.  I made up a chart where the caregiver could write down words their child used to describe the different foods, but this activity could easily be done without the chart. I would recommend having paper towels on hand to clean messy fingers and keeping an extra tray in the freezer in case one starts to melt.  It was actually very interesting to see what happened to the different foods once I froze them, and I would love to try this with other foods as well! My co-workers, of course, saw these ice cube trays in the break room freezer and knew right away they were mine.

Station 5:  Animal Sorting

Sort the Animals!

For our final station, I provided photos of a variety of animals and asked our attendees to sort them into piles according to whether they lived in "cold places" or "warm places."  I created several sets so that more than one child could do this activity at a time  If I did this program again, this is probably the station I would skip. It proved a little bit confusing even for some of our caregivers since some of the animals live in places that are warm for at least part of the year. Hopefully the kids learned the name of a few new animals, at least! You could probably try this with hibernating animals and non-hibernating animals, as well.

Overall, I think the program went well, although a few children had to be reminded not to eat the items in our ice cube tray experiment!

Of course, when you do any sort or program in winter, you always run the risk that it might end up being canceled because of winter weather. For some of our programs like Little Scientists, we send the materials to another branch, and a staff member there does the program, too.   At my branch we were able to do this program without any problems, but my co-worker at the other branch was only able to do the program for 20 minutes before the library closed due to snowy weather. I'm sure all of the kids who attended, however, were delighted to enjoy winter-themed activities followed by actual snow.  The weather outside after all, doesn't always go along with theme of the program no matter what season it is.

Mix & Match Felt Boards

Felt board songs, stories, and games can make great additions to any storytime, but there is no reason kids can't enjoy the fun and excitement of a felt board all the time!  We set out a felt board in our Children's Room that kids can play with anytime they visit the library.  We keep our felt board in a small space near the entrance of the room, but really a felt board could be placed anywhere.

Make a Funny Face!

We have offered a variety of different interactive felt board activities, but the most popular activities allow children to create something unique of their own design.  Kids take a lot of pride in their creations and love to talk about them!  I've overheard many conversations between kids and caregivers about the monsters, snowmen, and other awesome things kids have created.  Kids will often come running into the Children's Room shouting, "I want to make a monster!" or "I want to build a snowman!"  Sometimes parents even have trouble getting their kids to leave; they just want to stay at the library and play with our felt board!

For libraries that don't have early literacy centers, a felt board can be an easy, inexpensive way to offer fun activities that encourage imaginative play.  We received a generous donation that has allowed us to offer early literacy centers at all of our branches, but before we had our early literacy centers, we were always on the lookout for activities to offer that would encourage families to stay and play.  We still are looking for those sorts of activities, of course!  At first we just dragged our felt board back and forth for storytime, but eventually we were able to get a second felt board which definitely made things easier. This also made it easier for kids to play with our felt board before and after storytime.

Make a Monster! Idea from And Next Comes L.

The great thing about a lot of mix & match activities is that you don't have to be a great artist or amazing at drawing to create them.  I've never been great at drawing, so I created most of these felt boards by printing and tracing clip art or simple shapes (tracing is also great for creating displays and is a good way to "trick" people into thinking you can draw). You can also trace the bottom of containers to get a perfect circle.

Typically our felt boards include things like eyes, mouths, hair, antennas, accessories,
buttons, etc. that come in a variety of different colors and sizes.  Inevitably some of the small pieces get lost, but they are fairly easy to replace.  Placing a container near the felt board to keep extra pieces in can make it easier to keep track of the small pieces.  Just be prepared for your container to occasionally be picked up and carried around the room by little hands!

Build a Robot!

I particularly like offering mix & match felt boards that consist mostly of simple shapes because it really encourages kids to think outside the box; I'm always amazed at how they use felt pieces in very creative ways that would never have occurred to me.  And of course it always brightens my day when a child gleefully tells me about what they have created!

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

   

You can also make special felt boards that you put out for a very limited time to celebrate a special day or that you create just for a big program.  We created a R2-D2 felt board for Star Wars Reads Day, and we will definitely bring it back out on May 4th for Star Wars Day!  The emphasis here is on the process; it doesn't need to look exactly like the real R2-D2.

Mix & Match and design your own R2-D2!

 Mix & match felt boards are awesome, but of course there are plenty of other felt board activities you can offer as well.  Activities focusing on letter knowledge, numbers, patterns, colors, shapes, etc. can be a great way to help kids learn about these concepts in a fun, hands-on way.  The most important thing is that your felt boards are interactive and encourage PLAY!