STEAM Stations from Experience Curriculum are an integral part of our Experience Preschool curriculum. They are designed to invite children to investigate, problem-solve, and create. These stations offer STEAM activities for preschoolers that are aligned with educational themes, encouraging hands-on exploration and learning.

Experience Curriculum’s STEAM Stations are specific areas or setups in your classroom designed to encourage exploration and learning across the five STEAM areas. These stations allow children to engage in hands-on, open-ended play where they can experiment, create, and discover.

What Are STEAM Activities for Preschoolers?

If you’ve been exploring science experiments and learning about nature with your preschoolers, you might wonder, “What exactly is STEAM, and how is it different?” STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math.

What sets STEAM apart is its focus on integrating these subjects into free play. This approach allows learning to happen naturally as children explore, experiment, and try new things. STEAM is a type of inquiry-based instruction that supports building understanding and vocabulary, critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and reflection.

Bridge STEAM activity for preschoolers from Experience Preschool Curriculum

Why STEAM and Not Just STEM?

You might already be familiar with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). The difference between STEM and STEAM is the inclusion of the Arts. Art plays a crucial role in early childhood learning, fostering creativity, innovation, and design thinking—essential components for developing problem-solving skills. Integrating art into STEAM activities enhances children’s imagination, engagement, language development, and spatial thinking.

Facilitating Inquiry Through STEAM

Inquiry-based learning provides children with opportunities to approach problems in new and authentic ways. By creating opportunities for children to learn about the world through STEAM lenses and asking high-quality, open-ended questions, educators can facilitate meaningful inquiry experiences. STEAM Stations encourage children to investigate, experiment, and discover both indoors and outdoors.

Defining STEAM in Early Childhood Education

Let’s break down the components of STEAM:

• Math: Involves numbers, patterns, shapes, organization, graphing, and sorting.
• Science: Encourages children to investigate, ask questions, and experiment to find answers.
• Technology: Involves using tools, from crayons and rulers to microscopes and computers. Any man-made object can be considered technology.
• Engineering: Focuses on identifying problems and testing solutions, such as designing and building structures.
• Arts: Encourages creativity and allows children to illustrate concepts they are learning, including music, drama, dance, and movement.

Why Is STEAM Important for Preschoolers?

STEAM may seem advanced for preschoolers, but it aligns perfectly with their natural curiosity. Young children are naturally inclined to ask questions, explore, and figure out how things work—core components of STEAM learning. By incorporating STEAM activities, you’re not just teaching academic skills; you’re nurturing curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking, laying a foundation for future learning and success.

How Does STEAM Education Benefit Children?

STEAM play is a hands-on, free-play approach to learning, which we know children respond to best. It’s about asking questions, experimenting, and figuring out how things work. The main goal of STEAM education is to provide children with authentic learning experiences that relate to real-world contexts.

By incorporating STEAM Stations into your classroom, you’re nurturing curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking skills that will benefit your children for years to come.

Featured STEAM Stations and resources are available with the Weather & Seasons preschool theme from Experience Curriculum.

Setting Up STEAM Stations in Your Classroom

Setting up STEAM Stations from Experience Curriculum is simple. See the examples below about how to set up STEAM activities. Each activity requires just a few materials you already have in your classroom, home or outdoors. Feel free to add tools, related materials or manipulatives, books, and sensory components. Make each STEAM Station your own unique experience!

Easily set up STEAM activities with these resources:

• Hang the Big Question and Inspiration Photos on the wall next to the place you set up the investigation.
• Gather every day materials from your program, home or storage along with nature items to implement the STEAM activities.
• Use the labels to identify and organize materials children will use (and clean up) as they explore STEAM stations.

Introduce one new STEAM station daily. Leave that station set up all week. By the end of the week, children will have five stations to explore.

Tips for STEAM Activities for Preschoolers

When setting up your STEAM Stations, consider the space and resources you have. You can set them up indoors or outdoors, depending on what works best for your program. Here are some tips to help you get started:

Rotate Your Stations: Introduce one new STEAM Station each day and leave it set up for the week. Children will have multiple stations to explore by the end of the week.

Start Small: Begin with just a few supplies at each station and gradually add more as the children become accustomed to STEAM play.

Use STEAM Language: Incorporate words like “observe,” “predict,” “experiment,” and “record” into your classroom vocabulary. This helps children understand and use these concepts in their play and learning.

Encourage Collaboration: STEAM activities often work best when children collaborate. It promotes skills like teamwork, listening, and sharing.

Explore Nature: Take advantage of the outdoors. Nature provides endless creative and active exploration opportunities that align with STEAM principles.

Engage the Senses: To enhance the learning experience, use materials that stimulate touch, smell, taste, sound, or sight.

Build a Butterfly STEAM activity for preschoolers from Experience Preschool Curriculum.

How Can We Add STEAM Education in Early Childhood?

At Experience Curriculum, we understand the importance of making STEAM accessible and engaging for young children. That’s why we offer monthly theme-based STEAM Station packs as part of our preschool curriculum. Each pack includes 20 new ideas with descriptions, printables, and guiding questions to facilitate exploration.

Our pre-printed packs, available on our website, are beautifully printed on cardstock and come with a handy brochure full of ideas to get you started. Bring STEAM immediately to your children with easy-to-set-up activities from Experience Curriculum.

Below is an example of an Experience Preschool Teacher Guide. Each lesson features a STEAM Station that coordinates with the daily topic in the circle on top of the second page.

The coordinating STEAM Station for this lesson is Constellation Design. Reference the STEAM Stations in the front of the Experience Preschool Teacher Guides.

Download and print the STEAM Station pack from Member Resources and set up your STEAM Station.

How to Include STEAM in Preschool Lesson Plans

We recommend incorporating STEAM activities into your preschool lesson plans daily or weekly. It’s not as hard as it sounds when the activities are connected to themes and quickly set up.

Engaging thematic play stations are easy to pull together with toys and materials you already have. Add clipboards and pencils, cameras, and old phones for experimentation and recording work. Build plenty of free play time into your schedule for children to explore these stations. Add a section to your lesson plan for STEAM.

STEAM Station Ideas You Can Try Now

Explore these STEAM Station activities from Experience Curriculum and some fun STEAM activities for preschoolers.

• 4 STEAM Activities to Teach Children About Health & Fitness
• Safari STEAM Play Ideas
• Bird Nest Building STEAM Station
• Bird Tracks Sensory STEAM Station
• Winter STEAM Ideas

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