“I can’t get my sandcastle to stay up," moans four-year-old Juan to his older friend Rokia. "I fill the bucket all the way to the top and I pat it down just like you did yesterday. But when I flip the bucket over, the sand just pours out! Can you help me make a sandcastle […]

"I found an empty nest! Can we keep it?" Owen's joyful discovery captures everyone's attention. Three-year-old Daniela comes running. "Are there eggs?" she asks her older and wiser five-year-old friend. "Can I see it?” "No eggs, just an old nest," Owen tells Daniela before looking up at me imploringly. "Can we please keep it?" He handles the […]

"Come and look, come and look!" screams four-year-old Maggie. She is waving frantically, summoning us over with such joy that we know it must be something special. Our gang of early learners rushes over to see Maggie's discovery. Almost in unison, as they behold her "found treasure," they come to a complete standstill—literally frozen in […]

"Fatima, look how many numbers big I am!" Harry exclaims. "How many? How many?" asks Fatima. "I don't know," Harry counters, "but it's a lot!" "A lot more than me," admits Fatima. "You are bigger than me!" There's nothing like a tool in the hands of young friends to get the juices flowing and the […]

“I’ve got some acorns and some water!" announces five-year-old Gabriela, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "Who wants to make potions with me?” “What’s a potion?” asks Amara as she jumps off of her swing and heads over to see what Gabriela has in mind. “You mix things up, like a recipe,” Gabriela explains. “Sometimes the […]

"Wow! How did you make that whole family?" Maura asks her friend, Maya, as she joins her at the clay table. Maya giggles. "I started off with one person in a boat, but then I just kept adding to it. Sometimes the heads were too heavy and I had to make the bodies thicker, so […]

“Will you read this first?” Rowan pleads as she moves The Most Magnificent Maker's A to Z to the top of the pile of books that the children have chosen for their morning story time session. "It's my favorite." I love that book," agrees Josephine. "Her dog always helps her." “She reminds me of us,” […]

At the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) conference in November 2024, our own David Banzer, PhD—a postdoctoral fellow at the UIC College of Education—presented Connecting the E and M in STEM: Supporting Early Mathematics through Engineering Design. This hands-on breakout session highlighted the importance of incorporating engineering concepts and activities into […]

“What are you doing?” asks four-year-old Declan, who has been watching me with growing curiosity as I measure out a distance of eight feet in our outdoor play space and mark the distance with two rocks from our rain garden. “Well, you know how we have been watching that Eagle-Cam?” I answer. “I did some […]

"Can I slide to the bottom of the hill instead of walking down the steps?" asks four-year-old Micah, who is bundled up in winter gear from head to toe. It’s a late Thursday afternoon, and I'm already feeling the weight of the day. My body and brain are on autopilot. There’s no good reason for […]