As a preschool teacher, you have the opportunity to make every experience a learning experience for your students. By incorporating STEM-based language into the conversations you have with them you’re helping to stimulate their natural curiosity and helping them develop essential problem-solving skills. Check out these tips for adding more STEM Language into your conversations with your preschoolers:
1. Point Out Shapes in Objects
STEM is all about discovery. As your students are playing outside, point out different shapes in the objects around them. For example, point out the rectangular side of a truck or the triangle-shaped sign as you walk down the street. To take it one step further, you can also teach children about sorting and work together to group the objects you see according to size, color, shape or type.
2. Sing Songs with Repetitive Patterns
Singing is a great way for children to learn language and vocabulary concepts. Songs with repetitive patterns like “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” or “Wheels on the Bus,” can teach preschoolers about patterns and other STEM concepts.
3. Ask Students to Describe the World As They Observe It
Observing is an important science concept. Through out the day, talk to your students about what you see, feel, smell, taste or hear and ask your students to do the same. Try saying something like, “That is a tall tower! How many blocks did you use to make that structure? Let’s count them together.”