A child’s imagination is a wonderful thing. One of my favorite children’s books explains how a box can be used to create twenty different things. When I am sitting down with my class and I ask someone to pick a book and they bring me this book, I know we are about to have some fun! The book itself is fun and imaginative, but it is the children’s imagination that creates an unforgettable experience. One simple question turns a book into an activity, and every activity can be made into a learning activity. My favorite question to ask with this book is, “what would you do with the box”? All the sudden a box is a dinosaur habitat, an airplane, Mount Everest, or a submarine! Engage your child where they already want to be! If they want to be in a submarine, spend the day at the beach! That is the beauty of this STEAM lesson.
Now, I can’t go to the beach today. However, I can bring the beach to my child. All it will take, is some of stuff I have laying around my house and a little imagination.
Things you can gather for a beach STEAM lesson at home:
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- Beach Towel (great for containing the ‘sandy’ messy)
- Bucket and Shovel
- A cardboard box (something with walls at least an inch high)
- Sugar, Graham Crackers (anything with a sandy texture)
- Alphabet Cards, Shape Cards, Number Cards
The possibilities are endless! Our beach stuff is packed away…don’t ask me which of the thousand boxes it is in…I have absolutely no idea! However, I used what we had available to us, which was a bucket, a play spoon from a kitchen set, some shape blocks, a towel, a box lid and some sugar! Boom! Beach Day at home! I encourage you to use what you have at home already! I do this for a couple of reason:
- I am not a financial expert, but my money can be better spent elsewhere. I suspect yours can too!
- You are showing your child that things around you can have multiple purposes!
When it comes down to it, the only things you really need to do this STEAM lesson is ‘sand’, something to hold the sand in, and shape/number/letter cards.
Sandy Shapes: At Home STEAM Lesson
For this activity, you need sand! Now, my sand is a taste-safe option. Evie is still putting EVERYTHING into her mouth. For taste-safe sand options I would have preferred to use Graham crackers, but they may have become a midnight snack. My secondary option is sugar! My only concern with this is that I really don’t want Evie to eat it, but it isn’t the end of the world if she has a little taste. If your child is past the taste everything stage, you can also use regular sand! I think it is a great lesson in how course or fine it can be and the different composure of it! I would not recommend kinetic sand for this activity, especially if you plan on writing with fingers. Kinetic sand is so much fun, but since it likes to stick together, it isn’t the easiest to write in. It is great for stamping into though! It will hold its form for stamping perfectly!
For something to hold the sand in, I used the lid of a box! I did reinforce the corners with some packing tape, as I didn’t want the sand to sneak out there. It worked great! The sides of the lid weren’t too tall to the point where Evie couldn’t play in the box comfortably, but they were also tall enough that it contained…most…of the sand. There are trays that you can use. We use them at school, and they are amazing for containing messes for my preschoolers. We use them for play-dough, kinetic sand, art projects, and containing glitter messes to name a few uses. However, for this activity a box works just fine!
Alphabet, Number, and Shape cards are amazing visuals for children. They can see each item individually and focus on creating that letter, number, or shape. We use similar ones in my preschool classroom. We have three letters that we focus on a month, a monthly color, and a monthly shape. We post them our Theme board for the week. Personally, I laminate all of my cards. They last longer and we can do more activities with them! Overall, they clean easier and are more durable. I love using these cards. I feel like they really do help my students with visualizing and every now and then they will play teacher and quiz their friends flashcard style.
Setting Up the Beach Day is Worth the Trouble!
I LOVE integrating multiple learning facets into my activities with my children in the classroom! First, they will engage with the activity if it new, different, or fun. Second, when you engage children with a dramatic play activity where you are learning your shapes, letters, or numbers you are also prompting their math skills, science skills, or literacy skills. It is my belief that engaging a child through STEAM activities creates enriched learning experiences and children actual learn more effectively. STEAM activities do not need to be difficult. Anyone can do them at home!
STEAM Lesson Integration
Art (with a sprinkling of science)
Setting up Beach Day is a dramatic play opportunity. Children are using their imagination to visualize being at the beach. You can promote this by asking them questions like the weather on the beach, fresh water or salty water, or the animals that they might find on the beach (bonus if you have play animals that belong on the beach, have your child point to the beach animals). This dramatic play is a form of art integration into the lesson. You are strengthening your child’s creative side, but also engaging a science aspect by questioning and playing with them and their environment!
Math
Math skills can be developed in this activity as well! For my preschool class, 3 and 4 years old, we work on counting, number identification, shapes, and patterns. Later in the year, we will start incorporating word problems with math operations. These are all skills you can practice in this activity! Improve writing skills by writing numbers. Practice number identification skills by writing a number in the sand and asking which number it is. Draw shapes in the sand and identify the shapes by counting the sides.
Age Adjustment
I adjusted this activity for my 18-month-old! I had shape blocks at my disposal, so Evie and I practiced shape recognition by using our shape blocks to stamp the sand. I would tell her the shape and encourage her to say the shape back to me. Even if your child is still developing language skills, they will process your words and make the connections between ‘Square’ and the shape they are playing with!
Takeaway
STEAM activities at home do not need to be difficult! They do not need a ton of prep work. They do not need to be complicated. You can absolutely do them at home! One of my favorite things about STEAM activities is how it integrates multiple subjects into one lesson and children can soak up all this different information with one activity. These activities can show children how connected everything is and how different ways of thinking can create different opportunities!
How was your beach day at home!?! Please leave me a comment and tell me how it went for you! What did you use? How did your child respond? Together we can create a STEAM community and support the intellectual growth of our children!