and why do we include Discovery Cards in our School Readiness packs?
All children learn in different ways. Some learn through seeing, or listening, or experiencing a hands-on activity. Most children learn through a combination of these styles. Using a STEAM approach to learning means your child is experiencing Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics in the activities they are exploring. Introducing your child to this style of learning helps develop a mind of inquiry and critical thinking. STEAM supports a creative process of problem solving.
This approach to learning creates opportunities for children to practise what they already know, to build upon these skills, and to learn something new. Through the process of discovery they are exploring real world applications of their knowledge.
You can explore the STEAM approach with your child by thinking of a problem together and then exploring ways to create a solution. “We have these little figures and they don’t have a home, what kind of home/habitat/environment can we create for them to live in?” It could be a house, a field, a bridge, a planet. You could use play dough, clay, lego bricks, sticks, etc. Set the question or problem and the materials for exploration of an outcome, and then let your child find solutions through their inquisitive mind and adaptability.
We decided to include Discovery Cards in our School Readiness packs as an early introduction to the STEAM approach to learning. This is a simple platform using play dough in an equation to solve a problem. How do you use play dough and suggested objects to create the final example? Your child follows the equation to explore and create their own solution. This is an indirect preparation for independent learning in the classroom. Your child has a concrete example of using Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics to explore activities with play dough.
In the cookie cutter activities you allow your child to explore rolling out the play dough and cutting the shapes, letters, or numbers in their own way. You provide the tools and then allow your child to navigate the best way to follow the equation. They may not be successful at their first try, but through the process of inquiry they will figure out the way they want to cut out the shapes or roll out the dough. It is important you allow your child to work independently with you supporting the learning but not offering advice and solutions. The most successful STEAM learning is allowing your child to learn from their mistakes to find an answer or solve the problem. If they don’t place the cookie cutter firmly in the middle of the play dough they will get a different result, and that’s where the learning happens.
In the environments and structures activities your child uses engineering and creativity to explore different forms and places suitable for different characters. Their imagination and creativity has no bounds other than making a structure they are happy with. If it doesn’t work out as planned they can scrunch up the play dough and start again, allowing for problem solving, independence, and working through the frustrations of something not working out as expected. This is where they grow their resilience and adaptability needed for learning.
In the creatures activities your child explores different techniques of creating using pipe cleaners, googly eyes, buttons, straws, sticks. They can let their artistic and imaginative skills explore rolling, pinching, squeezing, flattening the play dough to make it into a weird and wonderful creature.
- Science - the changes in ingredients as they make the play dough with you. You can follow the recipe for a small batch, and then purchase commercial play dough in other colours to add to their collection of choices.
- Technology - connecting things together as they use the different tools, pipe cleaners, google eyes, sticks, and materials to create their own projects.
- Engineering - using objects to build as they use cookie cutters, rollers, sticks to cut, manipulate, and explore how each tool does a different job and has a different outcome.
- Art - creating from imagination as they explore different shapes, habitats, colours, creatures, and techniques.
- Mathematics - measuring and counting as they make the play dough, explore patterns, size, and shapes in their creations.
Take a look at our Readiness Packs in the Parents section of our site.
