“We have more pigs than sheep,” Jacoby tells his friends. Preschoolers are naturally curious, noticing little things in their everyday play. It might be, “How many red cars do we have?” or “Who has the biggest apple today?” This is actually the start of data recording—and it happens long before they can write numbers or fill out […]

Crash! The Magna-Tiles the children had carefully arranged along the window sill slid down in a colorful clatter.  “Fast fail!” Mallory shouts.  “I think that was a fast fall,” Noah adds, grinning.  The children laugh and scoop up the tiles again, but not before inspecting what went wrong. “Maybe the big squares should go on […]

When people hear the word engineering, they usually picture middle schoolers building robots or teens deep into coding projects. It’s easy to imagine big science labs or intense STEM competitions. But honestly, engineering starts much earlier than that. It actually begins in the small everyday moments of play. When we see Marion sitting on the floor with […]

“How can we make it bigger?” Rowan asks with a grin, her eyes shining as she looks up at the tower of blocks she and Linnea have built. “Let’s stand on this table! We can make it taller!” Linnea suggests eagerly, her voice buzzing with possibility. The girls turn to me with pleading eyes, and […]

“Look! My leaf looks like a person—just like in the book!” Five-year-old Talia beams, pointing proudly to her leafy creation. Around her, small hands sort, stack, and arrange leaves, acorns, and twigs. The outdoor classroom hums with excitement as children transform their collections into people, animals, and mini leaf worlds. This spark came from Lois […]

“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 […]