Preparing your Montessori kindergarten student for future success means helping them learn about the worlds of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — or STEM — from an early age.
STEM is where many fruitful future careers lie, and it’s also an integral part of the modern world. To get your child interested in these disciplines, you’re going to want to introduce them in a fun and engaging way. To help you do that, here are four easy Montessori-inspired activities that highlight all of the great things about STEM.
1. Plant a Flower
Perhaps the simplest and most engaging way to foster an interest in science in your private kindergarten student is to grow a flower with them. In the process of germinating a seed and helping it blossom, your child will learn some basic tenets of science.
With this easy activity, you can teach your child a bit about chemistry, biological processes, observation, prediction, cause and effect, and more. And in the end, you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor by appreciating the wonder of life with them.
Planting flowers is a common activity in Montessori kindergarten. It’s a hands-on process that focuses on observation and allows them to take some agency over their own education.
2. Create a Stop-Motion Movie
It’s pretty easy to get your private kindergarten student engaged with technology today. In fact, it’s sort of unavoidable. However, if you want to tap into that technology in a way that garners interest in STEM at a private kindergarten, you’ll need to take their use of it a bit deeper.
One way to do that is to use a video editing app to create a stop-motion video using your child’s toys and any other props they choose to tell their story. There are even apps designed specifically for creating stop-motion videos.
Help your child along to begin, but make sure you allow them to engage with the technology on their own. This will foster a sense of curiosity about how it works and excitement about all of the possibilities it has to offer.
3. Build a Rube Goldberg Machine
Rube Goldberg machines are engaging to people of all ages, but for children, they can be particularly fascinating. Even if you’re unfamiliar with the name, you’ll likely still recognize these chain reaction contraptions from the popular board game Mouse Trap.
Using whatever you can find around the house, you and your child can craft your own simple (or complex) Rube Goldberg machine and then have fun watching it in action.
If the machine doesn’t work at first — and odds are it won’t — that’s even better. The critical thinking, problem-solving, and design skills that can be acquired through the ensuing trial and error are exactly what your child needs to develop a fascination with engineering.
4. Draw the Numbers
Fostering an interest in mathematics in kindergarten-aged children is best done through fun games rather than simple memorization.
If you want your little one to engage with numbers, gather some paper, crayons or colored pencils, and dice. Simply roll a die and have your child draw a set of whatever they want that matches the number you roll.
This multisensory approach to learning is a basic tenet of the Montessori Method, and it can help to cement information in children’s minds. Not only that, but it can add an extra element of fun and creativity to their engagement with the world of numbers.
Interested in Montessori Kindergarten?
If you’d like to know more about all that Montessori Kindergarten has to offer, reach out to Montessori Schools of Fremont today.
