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Preschool Engineering Challenge and Tips: Week 3 of STEAM E-Course for Parents and Teachers #STEM

STEM is the “buzz word” in education right now and rightfully so.  Our young children need even more opportunities to play, explore, and learn about science, technology, engineering and math. It is my belief that starting early exposure and getting kids excited about STEM, will help prepare them for future life challenges.  Co-author Jamie Hand and I believe that art is integral to all of the STEM areas and so STEM + Art = STEAM.  This week, we are sharing tips on what preschool engineering looks like, how to get your children building every day, and our engineering activity challenge for all parents, teachers, and care-givers of preschoolers. Join In!
Preschool Engineering Challenge and Tips: Week 3 of STEAM E-Course for Parents and Teachers #STEM

 

Check in Question for Week 3: What building material did your child select?
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What is preschool engineering?

Preschool engineering takes form though play and material exploration. It is designing, problem solving, and building.

How can you encourage engineering every day?

Give them building challenges

Encourage them to help you solve problems around the house

Challenge them to come up with multiple solutions to the problem.

Click here for even more tips on Raising Engineers

Engineering stem activity for preschoolers: STEAM enrichment

Preschool Engineering Challenge: Build a Rain Shelter

This activity is re-printed with permission from STEAM: Preschool Activities for STEM Enrichment

We encourage you to try this activity with the preschoolers in your lives. Then let us know by posting in the comment section how it went. This activity is very open ended. Some children may build for 10 minutes, others 1 hour. Follow your children’s lead. My own preschooler ended up trying the experiment several times….

Learning Objective
Build a shelter for a toy that can withstand water.
Materials Needed
Building Materials (foam blocks, cardboard, craft sticks, straws, tape)
Squirt Bottle
Directions for Activity
1. Layout different building materials creating choices to build for the child.
2. Discuss different ways he can keep the toy dry from the water. Ask open ended questions that require him  to solve the problem such as, “What can hold a roof up?” or “What makes for a strong wall?” Provide assistance as needed, but let him create the idea.
3. Let him chose the materials they wish to build with for their shelter. It may take patience as they discover which materials work better than others. My preschooler decided to use Goldieblox to build his structure because they are made of plastic. “Water doesn’t go through plastic,” he said.

Using Goldieblox for preschool engineering challenges

 

4. Once the shelter is complete, test it out by squirting with water simulating rain.
5. Check to see if the shelter kept the toy dry. If not, redesign and rebuild the shelter.
And….
If you have a younger sibling and don’t trust that the toy may be damp after you have sprayed the shelter. Ask them if they would be willing to “hide” under the shelter to test it out.
Testing out Preschool Engineering Rain shelter

When the toddler screams “WET WET I WET” as the water drips through the holes, the preschooler gets a great feedback that his first design idea “MAY” not have been as solid as he hoped it was. And so, he skips right from sheltering the toy, to testing out his new shelter on little brother….

Testing out second attempt at building a rain shelter
Hey – I guess there is always more than one solution to every problem.

Preschool engineering books for parents, teachers, and children.

Preschool Engineering Books for parents and children

 

30+ STEM + ART Hands On, Minds On activities to compliment and enrich preschool learning.
Engineering in Our Everyday Lives (Engineering Close-Up) Children explore the connections between engineering and their daily lives in this non-fiction picture book.
Read the full book description here

Engineering the ABC’s: How Engineers Shape Our World Geared for preschool and up, this book introduces children to engineering terminology in a fun and engaging way.
Read the full book description here

How a House Is Built A delightful tale showing children how a house is built: from architect to carpenter.
Read the full book description here

How Engineers Find Solutions (Engineering Close-Up) Engineers often test solutions to come up with the best one. This book introduces children to the idea of finding solutions and comparing them.
Read the full book description here

Rosie Revere, Engineer Rosie is determined to create something wonderful – but it fails.  Find out why a contraption fail, was truely a success.
Read the full book description here

Check out many of these books and more through Kindle’s new Fire HD Kids Edition #AD

 

Purchase our latest E-book STEAM: Preschool Activities for STEM Enrichment for even more preschool activities.

Here are the direct links to purchasing my Preschool STEM E-books.
Happy Learning!

Don’t forget join us!

Join us this SUNDAY for the second week of our e-course with a Google Hangout on October 5th @ 8:00pm  to hear tips and tricks for incorporating Science activities for your preschooler. We will be discussing, along with Jamie from Hand Made Kid Art, our own personal experiences and tips for using technology with preschoolers.
No registration is required, but we would love for you to share in the blog comments how your child did, any observations you made, or other tips on how you are improving that area of academics with your preschooler.
 
STEAM E-Course Class Schedule
 

STEAM Preschool Activities for STEM Enrichment E-Course Schedule:

Classes are every FRIDAY on the blog and every SUNDAY on Google +
Stay tuned for the other challenges in the free STEAM E-course for Preschool Parents and Teachers.

No time to gather your own STEM materials???

CHECK out this NEW line from KIWI CRATE – A ready to go tinker project delivered to your door each month.  Geared for children 9-12, but I think we may try it with my 8 year old!  (If you purchase by clicking on this picture, the price is the same for you, but I receive a portion of the sales.  THANK YOU for your continuous support!)
Tinker Crate >>
Don’t forget to write in the comments what building materials your child used for this challenge.

Like this idea? Pin for later or share now with a friend!

About Amanda Boyarshinov

K - 12 masters reading teacher, author and mom to 3. Amanda is a National Board Certified teacher with oodles of experience in early childhood education.

Comments

  1. Theresa A says

    I love the idea of having preschoolers design and build a structure, then test it to see if leaks when sprayed with water. We look forward to trying it out with our little builders!

    Reply

  2. bellevuetoddlers says

    I loved this post. I'd shared it with my husband the engineer thinking he could do the experiment with our three year old. But today, we had a moment of searching for a new activity, and I got inspired to have him try something like the build-a-shelter experiment (though a little more spontaneous spur-of-the-moment with materials that were sitting next to the sink… so we built a roof, but nothing to hold it up with!) I posted about it here: http://gooddayswithkids.com/2014/10/18/engineering-and-preschoolers/

    Reply

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