Toddler's Can Do STEM! Challenge While Playing:

Toddler’s can do STEM? Why, yes they can! STEM is an acronym which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.  In education there is a new  push to engage children at an early age with the idea that science, technology, engineering and mathematics are all around us and even toddler’s can do STEM too! We love this quote: “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” -Chinese Proverb  Children learn while doing and if they have positive emotions while doing, the learning is exponential! And guess what that’s called? PLAY!

“STEM topics naturally flow into toddler times, because literature and math are such natural companions,” notes Lisa Von Drasek, curator of the Children’s Literature Research Collections at the University of Minnesota Andersen Library. These titles are excellent introductions to math concepts in toddler and preschool storytimes:

Big, Bigger, Biggest by Nancy Coffelt (Holt, 2009)
Go, Dog, Go! By P.D. Eastman (Beginner Books, 1961)
Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert (Red Wagon Books, 2004)
Perfect Square by Michael Hall (Greenwillow, 2010)
Quack and Count by Keith Baker (Harcourt, 1999)
Rah, Rah, Radishes! By April Pulley Sayre (Beach Lane, 2011)
Round Is a Tortilla by Roseanne Greenfield Thong (Amicus Illustrated, 2015)
10 Hungry Rabbits by Anita Lobel (Knopf, 2012)
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox (Harcourt, 2008)
Who Sank the Boat? by Pamela Allen (Coward-McCann, 1983)