Stem or Steam activities, morning tubs, brain bins, no matter what you call them, these bins/tubs are becoming more and more popular in early childhood classrooms as well as in older classes. What are stem activities for early childhood classrooms anyway? Stem or Steam activities are activities that fall in the “Science”, Technology”, “Engineering”, “Arts”, and “Mathematics” area. These types of activities encourage planning, creating, problem solving, reflecting, persisting, team work or collaboration and as the old saying goes, “If you try and don’t succeed, try try again”.
What Does the Research Say about Stem Activities?
According to the website Stempedia, “STEM involves introducing children to new concepts through activities and games. It essentially helps them live the concepts rather than only reading about them. These concepts can also sometimes be real-life problems where they need to find out the best possible solution to overcome it”. The naeyc.org also offers numerous articles about using stem for early childhood education.
Why I Chose To Use STEM/STEAM Activities
A few years ago, I attended a summer conference that included a few classes specifically for Early Childhood Education. One of those classes was put on by Idaho STEM Action Center. It was an amazing hands-on class. It was engaging even for adults! I took pictures of the different projects and started collecting them. We made a make-it table at our preschool that we had available for students a few days a week. I purchased more blocks and building toys. My students love the maker table. We have had building challenges with groups of students using different sets of blocks. Using STEM/STEAM activities meets all of the early learning objectives for approaches to learning: Attends & engages, Persists, Solves problems, Shows curiosity and motivation, Shows flexibility & inventiveness in thinking, recognizes & recalls, Makes connections, and Uses classification skills.
How to Make STEM/STEAM Activity Bins With What You Have
I wanted to start using STEM/STEAM bins when my students first come into class. Some people call them morning bins/tubs. My Prek-4 class comes in the afternoon, so I don’t really want to call them “morning” bins. I’ve also heard them called “Brain Bins”. I like this more because it can include other learning activities that may not be completely STEM/STEAM related. I went through all of the activities that I had in small containers and decided which could be used for these “Brain Bins”. It is working great! Many of these manipulatives that I have had have been rarely played with, so it was like we suddenly had several new toys. It also made more space on my regular toy shelves, because I removed those smaller activities and save them just for “Brain Bins” time.
1) Decide On Containers For Your STEM/STEAM Activities
First, you need to decide if you want individual bins or boxes for each child, or if you want larger bins or tubs for each table to share. I am doing both. I have some larger tubes that I put out for sharing especially in my Prek-3 class. But I have also come up with enough smaller containers for individual students. I used what I had. I have several different styles of shoebox size containers. Eventually my need for organization and I suppose “cuteness” will get the best of me and I will get some good sturdy containers that are all the same. Dollar tree and Family dollar both have shoebox size containers. However, they do crack easily. I have varying sizes and colors of small containers that were purchased over the years. They are all sturdy. These will do to get started.
2) Go Through What You Already Have
Look through things that you already have and are ready to go. Just get started. See what works in your class. Every single one of my children were engaged with whatever was in the box in front of them. Many students were using the items in ways that I had not even thought about.
3) See What You Can Make With What You Already Have
I have different sizes of popsicle sticks, rubber bands, straws, toothpicks, clay, tape, clothes pins, cups etc. My goal is to make a new stem activities or other learning activity to rotate in. Some activities may need some explanation or simple directions to get them started. I have some “OLD” clay. I put together a “Brain Bin” by putting in a package of toothpicks and small cubes of the cut up clay. it is soft enough to poke a toothpick into, but too hard for little hands to roll and shape. Another “Brain Bin” I made with a stack of red solo cups and nothing else. I have plans for a box with popsicle sticks, cardstock, cups and bear counters called “The floor is lava”. Kids need to build something to keep the bears off the floor/desk.
4) Plan Your Future Purchases
See what types of activities your kiddos enjoy. Do your research and plan your future purchases. Here are three products that I use in my classroom and my kids love them. There is a link for the pattern block cards to go with the pattern blocks. My set has some triangle and hexagon trays that go with mine, However I could not find them on Amazon.
(I have an Amazon Affiliate link and receive a small commission if you purchase these items. It does not cost you any more to purchase through my link, than to purchase directly. I guarantee that I will not give a link to any product that I do not personally use, or that is on my wish list after doing my research on products for my own classroom. I will always tell you which products I have used, and which ones are on my wish list.)
Here are three links to resources that are on my wish list. I have seen all of these products in my research on making my “Brain Bins”. I can’t wait to try them out.
