Science

The Loose Parts set of books serve as inspiration with hundreds of beautiful full color photographs illustrating ways children enjoy using everyday items in their play, encouraging their curiosity, giving free reign to their play, and encouraging creativity. Books are available individually.

This expanded second edition offers a rich collection of 35 design challenges for children ages 3 - 8, featuring both updated favorites and brand new activities. It also includes a curated list of 140 picture books that inspire STEM-focused exploration while reflecting the diverse experiences, interests, and identities of young learners.  Educators will find enhanced foundational content, including clearer connections among tinkering, making, and engineering; updated terminology aligned with current research on how children learn; and practical guidance on observing, documenting, and assessing learning. A customizable planning template for creating your own design challenges is also available online.  With this hands-on resource, you can harness children's natural curiosity and creativity to spark meaningful STEM discovery and learning through play.

Young children need a strong foundation in understanding water's role in our world, especially as climate change impacts ecosystems, weather, and daily life. Gadzikowski provides educators with hands-on, inquiry-based activities that align with the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework and Next Generation Science Standards. This resource builds vocabulary, supports scientific exploration, and fosters children's curiosity about the importance of water in natural and human-made systems. With engaging ideas for play-based engineering investigations, the book helps children develop critical thinking skills while nurturing a lifelong appreciation for water and its impact on our planet.

100 easy-to-do activities give children a peek into the lives of their creepy-crawler friends. Each activity features learning objectives, vocabulary, related children's books, materials, preparation (if necessary), directions, and an assessment component.

What can you add to your early childhood classroom that will immerse children in rich learning, reduce challenging behaviors, and develop confidence as well as critical thinking and problem-solving skills? A makerspace! Filled with colorful photographs taken in real early childhood settings, this book will guide you step-by-step in making a makerspace that invites young children to boldly explore materials and create something only they can imagine. Discover how to: draft a plan and gather materials, set up your makerspace, garner administrator and parent buy-in, focus on goals and support specific skill development, and facilitate children's learning to deepen understanding. Paperback. 152 pages.

Dig In: Outdoor STEM Learning with Young Children provides strategies, ideas, real-life examples, and information to help you get children outside and learning, all while meeting required early learning standards and objectives. Explore the Learning Life Cycle and discover fresh ideas for engaging children in deeper explorations and experiences outdoors that will stick with them into kindergarten and beyond. Have more aha moments, seize learning opportunities, invite questions, and investigate answers while supporting rich STEM learning. Paperback. 140 pages.

Young children are born scientists with an innate desire to analyze and investigate the world around them. Creative Investigations in Early Science helps educators expand and encourage young learners' inquisitive nature as they explore the physical, life, and earth sciences. Paperback. 100 pages.

Early childhood teachers continue to seek activities that promote STEM-based learning. But most STEM books focus on science and math, excluding technology and engineering. Creative Investigations in Early Engineering® & Technology helps teachers create a more well-rounded STEM learning program. Encourage children to think, make, tinker and innovate. Introduce engineering skills such as coding in a developmentally appropriate way. Leverage children's use of digital technologies to help them learn new skills. Promote active engagement and participation in classroom learning. Paperback. 112 pages.

Taking care of our planet has never been more important, and this book will teach children about environmental responsibility. Learn Every Day™ About Our Green Earth makes it easy for teachers to incorporate discussions about caring for the Earth with activities that promote responsible behaviors and are fun and enjoyable. Activities like "Recycling Adds Up" teach children the importance of reusing and recycling, while "Thank a Tree" teaches them to respect and love nature. Global awareness is everyone's responsibility, and the activities help teachers pass along important knowledge to the next generation. Each activity features: Learning objectives, Vocabulary, Related children's books, Materials, Preparation (if necessary), What to do, and an assessment component. Each of the books in the Learn Every Day™ series offers teachers 100 classroom-tested activities that make learning fun and engaging for young children! Paperback.

From 'Baby Bumblebee' to 'The Ants Go Marching', children will sing and learn about the insects they encounter in their own backyards. The enclosed CD features 21 fun songs, old favorites and originals. The book offers more than 250 activities that help children appreciate the wonderful world of bugs. All children love to sing and learn, so the book includes both English language learner strategies and special needs adaptations.

From 'Ten Little Monkeys' to 'The Bear Went Over the Mountain', children will sing and learn about the animals they love. The enclosed CD features 27 songs, old favorites and originals, the book offers more than 300 activities that teach children about zoo animals, farm animals, and pets. All children love to sing and learn, so the book includes both English language learner strategies and special needs adaptations.

Most early childhood teachers are using learning centers in the classroom, but do not approach them in ways that fully support a variety of learning opportunities. This book approaches learning centers through the STEM lens, and shares how themes can be integrated into centers to promote creativity and higher-level thinking. "STEM Play" provides varied activities for the most common centers: art, blocks, dramatic play, literacy, math, science, music and movement. Full of beautiful, full-color photos that show the activities in real early childhood classrooms, teachers can easily use the book's ideas immediately in their curriculum. Also includes a "How To" section for teachers who wish to expand on the STEM focus and use themed activities in their learning centers. Paperback. 174 pages.

Children are natural scientists, drawn to wonder, exploration, discovery, and analysis. This book gives you simple ideas to open up the world of discovery to young children. Through open-ended explorations, you will discover how to cultivate children's natural curiosity by asking simple questions: How? When? Where? And the most famous of all children's questions: Why? The hands-on activities will empower children to question, experiment, and develop abstract reasoning skills. Children will explore patterns, cause and effect, size and scale, change and growth, energy, and how things work. Easy to follow, step-by-step activities lead children and their caregivers through a new world of discovery. Paperback. 96 pages.

Packed with more than 70 ways to invigorate play with sand and water tables while encouraging problem solving skills, fine and gross motor creativity, and imagination. Children will learn creative ways to explore and discover on their own!

Encourage young investigators to feel, listen, smell, taste, and see their way to discovery by seamlessly infusing math and science throughout the school day! As you incorporate all five senses into learning experiences, you will give little innovators the opportunity to observe and explore the world around them. The activities in this book will help you plan engaging science, and math (STEM) lessons that will excite children and foster their critical thinking. Children can experience the thrill of scientific inquiry through simple experiments such as: launching recycled rockets, shake and freeze homemade ice cream, volcano eruption, mystery of suspensions, and simple machines and inclined planes. Paperback. 152 pages.

Parents are eager to help their children learn, but teaching young children complicated scientific and mathematical concepts can be intimidating. Simple STEAM helps parents realize they don't need to be engineers or scientists to support STEAM learning. Help children explore STEAM concepts with fun and engaging activities. Discover STEAM learning opportunities in everyday activities and experiences. Prepare children for kindergarten and build crucial 21st century learning skills, including collaboration, communication, creativity and problem solving, curiosity, and critical thinking. 152 pages.

3 years & up. Leave your fears of science behind! Respond to children's natural curiosity with over 600 teacher-created, classroom-tested activities guaranteed to teach your children all about science while they are having fun. The result of a nationwide contest, the GIANT Encyclopedia of Science joins our bestselling GIANT Encyclopedia series. 575 pages.

"Jump into Science" is the perfect way to turn children's love of active games into learning opportunities! The activities in each chapter are organized by level of difficulty and each one incorporates fun, exciting science experiences with movement. Most activities require few or no materials and include related children's books or music to extend the learning. The science skills index is an invaluable reference tool giving teachers flexibility to plan around children's interests. Paperback. 132 pages.

3 years & up. Introduce STEM concepts to your class with this exciting Science Is Simple Engaging STEM Activities Book for Preschoolers. Like learning to count or read, understanding the fascinating world of science is an essential skill. This innovative book encourages young children to predict outcomes, ask questions, and investigate answers. Watch preschoolers develop essential observational and analytical skills as they eagerly jump into the hands-on, interactive process that is science.

Develop the natural scientist in every child with 260 hands-on science activities and ideas. Build science skills such as classification, measurement, time and space relationships, prediction, inference and numbers. 205 pages.

3 years & up. "Why did that happen?" "How does that work?" "What will happen if . . . ?" Young children ask questions about the world around them all day long. They are filled with curiosity and the desire to learn. Bubbles, Rainbows and Worms teaches children about the world, using hands-on experiments about plants, the environment, air and water, and the senses. 111 pages.

224 hands-on science experiments and ideas with step-by-step instructions delight and amaze children as they experience nature, the human body, electricity, floating and sinking, and more. Children participate in projects such as making a tornado in a jar, creating constellations and growing crystals. Categorized by curriculum areas, each activity includes a list of vocabulary words and easily accessible materials.

With more than 125 activities, Science Adventures opens up a world of exploration through nature activities in urban, suburban, or rural settings. From Big Step Measuring and Rocks That Write to The Ant Restaurant and How Far Can You Squeeze a Squirt?, the engaging activities in Science Adventures make exploring the environment fun and easy! The authors have adapted the kindergarten science standards set by the National Academy of Sciences to make them developmentally appropriate for preschool children. Each chapter focuses on one of these standards, and the activities within each chapter progress from simple to more complex. Many of the activities feature suggestions for including families, adaptations for English language learners, modifications for children with special needs, or appropriate ways to use technology with young children. The activities also incorporate assessment components and ways to relate topics across curriculum areas.

PreK & up. Self-directed, open-ended activities incorporating daily events and ordinary materials help children easily learn science and math. 246 pages.