STEM Activities for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

September 10, 2024 / Heather Reyes

A young girl with a high ponytail, wearing a white and navy top, smiles brightly as she receives a small gift related to STEM activities EYFS. An adult's hands, visible on the left side of the gif, hold the gift, a small round box, as the girl reaches out to take it.

STEM activities during EYFS are crucial for cultivating students' scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematical literacy from a young age. As STEM education has gained increasing attention from parents, there has been a noticeable trend towards introducing these concepts in early childhood education.

EYFS, as the UK's early childhood education framework, provides comprehensive learning, development, and care standards for children aged 0-5. It focuses on seven key areas that affect children's growth and development, including mathematics, expressive arts and design, and understanding the world. By incorporating STEM activities into these areas, educators can lay a strong foundation for children's lifelong learning, behavior, and health, while also cultivating STEM literacy.

Integrating STEM activities and EYFS into early childhood education not only engages children in achieving EYFS growth goals in an exciting way but also fosters their enthusiasm for learning. This sets the stage for improved development and prepares them for a future that values STEM skills in society.

STEM Activities and EYFS

A young girl in a sunny park runs towards the camera with a joyful expression. She wears a bright yellow dress and her dark hair is pulled back in a high ponytail. The girl carries a plush toy with her, swinging it playfully as she moves.

The key to integrating STEM activities into early childhood education is to stimulate their interest in STEM, rather than requiring them to acquire a lot of knowledge. Cultivating children's curiosity and preliminary exploration ability in STEM can lay a solid foundation for their future development in these fields.

In the early stages of early childhood education, STEM is not as serious and sophisticated as you might think, for example:

Science extends far beyond the lab! The changing seasons, light and shadow, and the transformation of water and ice all reveal the endless wonders of scientific principles at work.
Technology isn't limited to computers, programming, and AI! Everyday items like wheels, hammers, buttons, and magnets are all forms of technology.
Engineering isn't limited to building airplanes and machines; even the building blocks children play with involve fundamental engineering concepts.
Mathematics is not just addition, subtraction, multiplication and division! Space and shape are mathematical concepts too.

Cultivating children's interest in STEM from fun game activities is far more effective than learning boring book knowledge from the very beginning. Especially for EYFS children.

Two young children are playfully interacting while wearing adorable animal costumes. One child, dressed as a blue bird with a yellow cape and matching mask, looks at their friend who is dressed in a green dinosaur costume with white spikes and large eyes. The dinosaur costume partially obscures the second child's face, adding to the playful and imaginative nature of the scene.

Benefits of STEM Activities for Early Years Children

In the article 'Building the 21st Century Scientist,' published by Nature in collaboration with Scientific American, it emphasizes that cultivating 21st-century scientists requires education to focus on developing students' creative problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and essential soft skills like collaboration. These competencies can be effectively nurtured through well-designed STEM activities.

For children in the early stages of education, STEM activities have many benefits, it can:

Cultivate children's curiosity, spirit of exploration and love of learning
Develop problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity skills
Promote fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness
Cultivate young learners' self-confidence and growth mindset
Encourage cooperative play and communication skills

A young girl with long, dark hair wears a dinosaur mask made of cardboard and felt. She is looking down, her expression thoughtful and slightly shy. The scene is simple but full of charm, capturing the innocent joy of childhood and the power of imagination.

Integrating STEM into the EYFS Curriculum

Integrating STEM activities into a child's Early Years Foundation Stage is not difficult, as the EYFS growth goals themselves incorporate many STEM requirements. Here are some tips on integrating STEM activities into your EYFS curriculum:

1. Age-appropriate design, aligned with EYFS learning objectives

STEM activities for EYFS children should be designed according to the child's age and stage of development and aligned with EYFS learning objectives. For example, in terms of teaching aid design, the production time of STEM projects for 3-year-old children is not recommended to exceed 20 minutes, because the child's attention span is still relatively short at this time. The STEM project for 5-year-old children needs to include simple mechanisms and more interactive designs.

This ensures that children can participate in STEM confidently and successfully, and on the other hand, it helps children explore STEM purposefully and achieve personal ability growth.

A child's hand gently strikes the keys of a wooden xylophone, creating a soft, melodious sound. The xylophone is shaped like a whimsical animal, and the child is wearing a simple, blue dress. The scene is peaceful and joyful, capturing the innocence and wonder of childhood.

2. Play-based learning methods, providing a multi-sensory experience

A young boy, dressed in a white shirt and black pants, is holding a toy bow and arrow. He is wearing a colorful feathered headdress and has a serious expression on his face as he aims. The scene is playful and imaginative, capturing the joy of childhood and the power of pretend play.

Compared with pure STEM, for EYFS children, STEAM activities that incorporate the concept of Arts are more recommended. Gamified STEAM activities that incorporate a multi-sensory experience are more receptive to young learners and can help children develop creative thinking and design skills. For preschoolers, this not only enhances learning outcomes, but also keeps children engaged in STEM activities.

3. Balance structured learning and independent exploration

Teacher- or parent-led sessions provide structured learning opportunities, while child-led experiences allow children to direct their own work at their own pace. This flexibility fosters creativity and problem-solving skills. STEM activities need to ensure that children have the space to discover and innovate freely while receiving guidance.

4. Make full use of materials from everyday life

The materials for STEM activities should be sourced from everyday life—easy to find and budget-friendly. Traditional building block toys are excellent tools for facilitating STEM learning in young children. Additionally, items such as plastic bottles, cardboard, and foam make great materials for engaging STEM activities.

5. Harness the power of STEAM Box

You might be wondering how great it would be to have a STEAM Box designed around the EYFS framework. Like EYFS, it emphasizes the seven areas of development while sparking children's interest and expanding their STEM knowledge. With the STEAM Box, parents and educators can effortlessly implement STEM activities without the hassle of meticulously aligning with EYFS requirements.

The seven key areas of EYFS include mathematics, expressive arts and design, understanding the world, communication and language, literacy, physical development, personal, social and emotional development. Take the Pizza Maths STEAM Box as an example to show you what EYFS-based STEAM activities should look like.

Mathematics

A colourful and engaging children's book about pizza and math. The book features bright illustrations and simple activities that teach children about numbers, counting, addition, subtraction, and tally marks. The book is designed to make learning fun and interactive, with a focus on real-world examples that children can relate to.

In response to EYFS's requirements for numbers, shapes, space, and measurement, Pizza Maths helps children learn mathematical concepts and knowledge such as graphics, counting, and fractions in the fun process of making pizza. Moreover, learning about mathematics is integrated into all aspects of games, magazines, and picture books, helping children learn and memorize through interesting and diverse forms.

Communication and language expression

The Pizza Maths activity incorporates creative role-playing games that simulate restaurant ordering for pizza customization. Children need to listen to and understand the customer's ordering needs, learn to read the menu, and make pizzas that meet customer needs. Activities encourage children to communicate with family and friends, exercising social and language development. And the content of the game is not limited, giving children unlimited imagination and space to play.

Understanding the world

A young girl is rolling out a yellow piece of playdough on a white surface. She is using a white rolling pin and her hands are covered in flour. The scene is playful and fun, capturing the joy of childhood and the creativity of play.

Through the process of making pizza, children will engage in food preparation, learn to use different tools, and gain insights into how a restaurant operates.

Art and Design

Develop imagination and artistic design skills by designing pizza hats and making pizzas using a variety of different materials.

Literacy

The supporting English phonetic picture book helps children learn vocabulary related to pizza making. The picture book also incorporates numbers, counting, pen control training and other content.

Physical development

Exercise fine motor development such as stirring, kneading, rolling, and cutting during the multi-sensory experience of making pizza.

Personal, social and emotional development

Age-appropriate design, coupled with clear, simple step-by-step instructions, all aim to help children complete tasks independently. In the process, children will gain a sense of accomplishment and gradually build self-confidence.

Early exposure to STEM activities is very important for children's future development. For children aged 3-5, Tinkerer STEAM Box has set up a number of fun and educational STEAM activities, and these activities all meet the EYFS development goals.

Children can play the role of Birds, Native Americans or dinosaurs to stimulate imagination and creativity in play; they can go to the magical world of science to explore a Farm, Sink or Float or Lights in Nature; and they can even launch fun business activities and experience the joy of mathematics, communication and business through Mini-Market and Pizza Maths!

While you may not see dramatic changes in a child from a single STEM activity, integrating STEM into everyday life can lead to surprising progress over the course of a year. Subscribe to Tinkerer STEAM Box and embark on an exciting journey with your little scientist to explore the enchanting world of STEM!