Fairy Tale Inspired STEAM Invitations in the Kindergarten Classroom

"I can help the goats escape that silly, old troll. All I need to do is just make a bridge that is so low to the water there is no room for the troll to hide below. That's the problem with the one in the story. There was enough room for the troll to hide. My bridge won't do that."

 

Young children are naturally curious about the world around them as they marvel and wonder about what they experience in their daily lives. According to Let's Talk Science this means that every moment has the potential for learning because children desire a deeper understanding of the world around them. STEAM learning in the early years is especially important because it helps prepare children with skills and knowledge for an unknown future. Let's Talk Science explains that STEAM activities can:

• Foster natural curiosity and creativity 
• Encourage independent and collaborative learning 
• Improve work habits and grades 
• Promote confidence in learning and ‘science identity’ 
• Promote language learning 
• Improve social-emotional skills 
• Build decision-making, problem-solving and critical thinking skills 
• Support inclusion and reduces gender disparity

In our classroom I have found that children are usually very motivated to help solve problems that appear in books we have read aloud and explored together as a class. In particular fairy tales that have likeable characters that need help evading a villain seem to elicit the most excitement and enthusiasm from kids. Sometimes STEAM invitations that are inspired by fairy tales naturally occur as a result of the children reading and discussing the text together in large or small groups. Other times I will invite children to engage in helping solve a problem by asking a question in our whole group meetings and inviting their ideas, or setting up an invitation for learning based upon the text.

One of the most popular invitations was based on the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. After reading the book I asked children to think about whether they could help the goats by building them a new bridge. On a table I created a quick playscape replicating the river by using green place mats for grass and blue paper for water. I offered baskets of different wooden loose parts for them to explore. I also added three toy goats and a troll that could be used as character props to help inspire children to retell the story after building the bridge.

    

During play time children worked collaboratively to build a number of interesting bridges. It was fascinating to discuss the attributes of each, and listen to the children's rationale for how the goats could evade the troll by using the bridge's features (e.g., close to the water, troll traps, fencing). 

      

  

  

Looking for some STEAM inspired invitations for other fairy tales? Here are some easy ideas to get you started:

The Gingerbread Man:

• build the Gingerbread Man a boat to use when crossing the river to avoid the fox
• design a fox-proof water suit the Gingerbread Man can wear when swimming across the river
• create a trap the bakers and animals can use to trick and capture the Gingerbread Man
  

Goldilocks and the Three Bears:

• build Baby Bear a new chair that will not break no matter how much weight is placed upon it
• design and draw a security system that will alert the three bears next time someone enters their house
• sketch a disguise for Goldilocks so the three bears will not recognize her
  

The Three Little Pigs:

• draw three new wolf-proof houses for the Little Pigs
• build a wind machine for the wolf that will work on a brick house
• build the setting of the story using various materials (e.g., wooden sticks, tape, play dough) that can be used to retell the story when toy pigs are added
  

Little Red Riding Hood:

• design an invisibility cloak for Little Red
• build a strong basket for Little Red that can hold many small objects without breaking (e.g., pennies, cubes, marbles)
  
• create a transportation system to move the basket of food from Little Red's to Grandmother's house
  

Jack and the Beanstalk: 

• build a beanstalk using tubes and card stock as tall as you can without it collapsing
• design, create and test a parachute that Jack can use to escape from the castle in the sky
• create a structure that the hen's golden egg can be dropped into that will keep it safe
  

Empowering Children to ask the Questions

An amazing thing happens when children are empowered to think mathematically in an emergent, inquiry-based classroom - they become the teachers! Our children have been incredibly motivated to explore growing geometric patterns, sparked by their interest in creating intricate structures from wooden blocks. Today some of the children decided to revisit the mini blocks and we challenged them to create their own growing patterns. We discussed what made the previous patterns successful and how others would recognize that their idea was also a pattern.

According to Jo Boaler mathematical mindset is a huge indicator of whether or not a child will be successful in math and that when children are provided opportunities to explore with rich learning materials in supportive situations, there is no limit to the math learning that will take place. Boaler suggests providing children with low floor high ceiling tasks that have multiple entry points and an endless number of ways to differentiate in order to challenge the most ambitious learners.

We were impressed with the growing pattern of one child in particular. He thought slowly and deeply as he manipulated the blocks, and then created a unique pattern that we have not yet explored together in our classroom. We were amazed at the complex nature of the pattern, how carefully planned and built it was, and how well this child could articulate his thinking.

He used the iPad to take a photo of his growing pattern and then set to work to transcribe it onto grid paper. "I want to remember what it looks like so I can show others!" he explained as he worked. He carefully referred back to the photo as he counted the squares and ensured that the pattern was as he wanted it.

When he was finished we took a photo of his work. "I made a mistake on the fifth tower," he shared. "I added an extra block but it wasn't a big deal because I crossed it out!" Accepting one's mistake as a learning opportunity and fixing the math to make it better is a major milestone in cultivating a mathematical mindset.

 

After sharing the pattern we asked if he would like to have it tweeted so that others could see what he had created. He was very excited about the possibilities of this and wanted us to ask other classes to see if they could explain what they noticed about his pattern. We showed him the previous experience of using padlet on the blog to gather math ideas virtually from many places and he excitedly asked us to do this. "It's like I'm the teacher now, " he grinned. "I'm helping other kids learn how to do math too!" For us, this was an incredibly proud moment. This child, so eager to engage in an open-ended math experience, had now shared his learning beyond the 'walls of the school' and was hoping to engage other children in rich, mathematical thinking. 

Please consider the growing pattern, either as a reader of this blog or as a teacher together with your students. If you have an idea about what you observe, please click directly on the padlet below and type your answers (or insert a photo or video) right on the screen! We will check it daily and then respond to your ideas! Thank you for helping us consolidate and share our math thinking beyond our classroom and help children see that math is a deep thinking, slow, collaborative process that can be fun and exciting!

Created with Padlet

Community Building

The boys were so eager to cooperatively build a community on our new train table.  We were fascinated by their deep concentration, intricate plans, kind conversation and rich storytelling. It was interesting to observe their creativity as they used materials from all over our classroom in their construction. 

New Garage

The children worked cooperatively to build a garage for some new vehicles. 

Shaving Cream Building

Adding shaving cream to foam blocks is a great sensory experience that encourages children to explore. Children notice that the cream can be used as a mortar to hold the blocks together in interesting ways. 

Building with Mac Tac

We taped a large piece of sticky Mac Tac on one of our easels, placed a bin of pattern blocks close by, and were amazed by the creations of our children. 

Can you spot the owl?

A Jet!

Look at this amazing jet made from big blocks!

Coolest Outdoor Block House Ever!

Check out this amazing outdoor structure made from big blocks!

Pattern Block Pictures

The children created 2-D pictures using pattern blocks at our math centre. Many chose to make spring flowers 

Geometric Snowflakes

We set up a pattern block provocation that encouraged children to consider whether they could create snowflakes. 

This activity was inspired by much discussion about snowflakes as a result of the recent snowfall we've had locally. 

After some research we were able to find microscopic photos of snowflakes depicting their six points and beautiful patterns. 

We examined the photos and encouraged the children to consider this information when working at the centre. We were amazed by what the children created!

Hopefully the predicted snow for this upcoming week will give us more inspiration for creation!