What is preschool engineering?
How can you encourage engineering every day?
- Wood Blocks
- LEGO Bricks
- K’NEX
- Lincoln Logs
- Goldie Blox
- Tinkertoys
- Gears! Gears! Gears!
- Picasso Tiles
- Construction Fort
Build WITH your children
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
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….
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….
Preschool engineering books for parents, teachers, and children.
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.
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STEAM Preschool Activities for STEM Enrichment E-Course Schedule:
Science at The Educators’ Spin On It and Science at Hand Made Kid Art
Technology at The Educators’ Spin On It and Technology at Hand Make Kid Art
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!
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/