An Easy Way to Set Up Engineering Challenges

Whether you want to offer some STEM related playful learning at home or you’re setting up a center at school for kids to use, there are a lot of simple materials that can be used in a variety of engineering challenges. (I’ve written on my blog about how just gathering up the recycling can make a STEM challenge, for example.)

Sarah at Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls offers four great engineering challenges your kids can do with just three kinds of materials: plastic cups, craft sticks and little wooden blocks.

You can challenge them to do these particular tasks, or just give them the materials and see what they come up with. Or both! I love seeing how my daughter uses different materials and learns about how to balance a structure or make it taller as she goes. It’s so fun to watch kids’ minds work.

Do you keep materials on hand for engineering challenges? I’d love to hear what’s in your building box.

[Photo via Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls.]

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St. Patrick's Day STEM Project Ideas

One way to help teach kids about Thanksgiving and why it’s important to be grateful is by reading books, and Little Mole Gives Thanks by Glenys Nellist, illustrated by Sally Garland, is a sweet story about the value of friendship and sharing.

Little Mole has made a feast and invited some very important guests, but when they all cancel at the last minute, Mole is reminded that the most important people in his life are his friends and family. All the animals in the forest join together and have a feast, raising a glass to the creatures who are always there for them.

It’s a quick little story but it’s sweet, and the book also includes a little information about how you can plan your own fancy forest feast.

This would be a really fun thing to do with a preschool group. You could read the book and plan your own fancy forest feast, which could be a regular lunch made fancy by eating outside and making some fun decorations for the table or picnic area. Families could bring food or kids can help prepare a treat in the classroom, depending on how you’re set up.

I also love the idea of using a book like this to talk about the people who are important in our lives. Mole’s special guests — the school principal, a firefighter and the mayor — are all important people and worth being thankful for, but in our day-to-day lives, the people who are closest to us are really the ones who are most important and who we should be thankful for. But it’s easy to forget showing gratitude to people we see all the time.

And that’s really what Thanksgiving is all about! Giving thanks for those people who are important to us on special days, but on every other day, too. Little Mole Gives Thanks is an easy way to start those conversations with little kids.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover, published 2023 by Beaming Books, suggested retail price $17.99.

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