STEM!
To support STEM in the early years, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have partnered with Too Small to Fail to create a set of early STEM resources for families and educators. The “Let’s Talk, Read and Sing About STEM!” tip sheets build on the successful “Talk, Read, and Sing Together Every Day!” tip sheets and aim to transform small moments into big opportunities for our littlest innovators. These new tip sheets are filled with ideas for STEM conversations that can take place during everyday routines.
The “Let’s Talk, Read and Sing about STEM!” resources include:
- Tip sheet for families
- Tip sheets for infant/toddler teachers and preschool teachers
- “Let’s Talk About the World” poster
All tip sheets are also available in Spanish.
Children learn STEM skills through exploration, play, asking questions, about the world and the way things work, and interacting with adults and other children. Many of the tips include activities that parents and teachers already do with young children, but they help adults use the language of STEM to understand that even a simple game of peek-a-boo teaches spatial awareness! We hope the resources encourage parents and caregivers to keep engaging with their children, and find some new ways to integrate STEM into every day routines.
STEM learning is a critical part of child development and can happen anytime, anywhere. The real-life skills that children learn when exploring STEM help make them better problem-solvers and thinkers. Today’s block builder is tomorrow’s engineer.
Let’s talk, sing and read about STEM link – https://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ecd/learning-about-stem
Tip sheet for families link – https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ecd/stem_toolkit_families.pdf
Tip sheet for families in Spanish – https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ecd/stem_toolkit_families_spanish.pdf
Tip sheet for infant/toddler teachers link– https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ecd/stem_toolkit_infant_toddler_teachers.pdf
Tip sheet for infant/toddler teachers in Spanish –https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ecd/stem_toolkit_infant_toddler_teachers_spanish.pdf
Tip sheet for preschool teachers – https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ecd/stem_toolkit_preschool_teachers.pdf
Tip sheet for preschool teachers in Spanish –https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ecd/stem_toolkit_preschool_teachers_spanish.pdf
“Let’s Talk About the World” poster link –https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ecd/lets_talk_about_the_world.png
Resources for Early Learning
Have you checked out Resources for Early Learning? Developed by the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) and media partner WGBH, this site is filled with more than 2,500 FREE resources that support early childhood educators and families while they help children grow and learn.
Activities for children up to 33 months target children’s developmental, physical, and social emotional learning. They are easy and fun, using everyday routines as learning experiences.
For children 3-5 years, the site includes a 9-month comprehensive STEM/ELA curriculum that is fully aligned with the state’s curriculum frameworks and guidelines for children birth to age 5. The curriculum can be adapted for family-, center-, or school-based programs.
Video-based professional development units are content-rich, and can be facilitated or used as self-paced training.
Explore these samples of site resources, and share the site URL resourcesforearlylearning.org, with other educators and parents!
Electronic Books
The topics range from helping toddlers learn to read, helping preschool children succeed, helping children learn math, science, history, the arts, helping children with homework and a schedule of vaccines for birth through age 6 years. You may find these booklets useful in your program both for yourselves but also to forward on to the parents of the children in your program. They are only available in electronic format via the internet.
http://www2.ed.gov/parents/
http://www2.ed.gov/espanol/
http://lincs.ed.gov/
http://www2.ed.gov/parents/
http://www2.ed.gov/espanol/
http://www2.ed.gov/parents/
http://www2.ed.gov/espanol/
http://www2.ed.gov/parents/
http://www2.ed.gov/parents/
http://www2.ed.gov/espanol/
http://www2.ed.gov/parents/
http://www2.ed.gov/espanol/
http://arts.gov/sites/default/
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/