“Creativity is the secret sauce to science, technology, engineering and math”
— Ainissa Ramirez
Introduce STEAM into the early years this British Science Week and engage children in STEAM learning through our range of hands-on and fun spring tuff tray activities & ideas. Tuff trays are a fantastic open-ended resource which provides an array of exciting learning opportunities. By creating exciting spring STEAM-based setups in your tuff tray, children will be able to observe and explore different concepts, ask questions about the world around them and engage with STEAM through play.
What is STEAM?
STEAM is an important part of our everyday lives, which enhances children’s creative thinking and problem-solving skills. Simply, STEAM is the abbreviation of ‘science, technology, engineering, arts and maths’. Instead of looking at each topic as an individual and separate subject, STEAM is a way of thinking which integrates them into a model based on real-world concepts. It encourages children to experiment and explore new concepts, whilst fostering their natural curiosity about the world around them.
How to use a Tuff Tray for Spring STEAM Activities
Spring into STEAM! Place the Spring Tuff Tray Mat into your tuff tray to create a beautiful spring backdrop and add Honey Bee Number Stones, Bug Counters and Bug Pebbles to set the wonderful spring scene. The possibilities are endless with the Spring Tuff Tray Mat and you can incorporate STEAM through many different tuff tray play activities using our mat.
Spark discussion!
Ask the children questions such as:
- “How many flowers can you see?”
- “Can you name the different parts of the flower?” (i.e. stem, petal)
- “Can you name the different bugs?”
- “How many legs does the ladybird have?”
Get hands-on!
- How many bug counters can you fit on the leaf?
- Can you replicate the flowers on the spring tuff tray mat using the sensory play stones?
- Can you make different flowers using the pattern blocks?
- Use jumbo magnifiers to inspect the bugs up close
- Place your tuff tray on an angle to explore gravity as insect figures race down the mat
- Explore the life cycle of a butterfly in your tuff tray garden with our butterfly life cycle figure set
Get snappy!
- Use a digital camera to take a picture of your tuff spot, then head outside to try and find the real life insects and flowers from the tuff tray scene using our minibeast spotter
Now it’s time to spring into STEAM and try some fun spring-themed tuff tray activities to develop the children’s critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Don’t forget to let us know how you get on – send us your spring STEAM pictures on social media. Looking for more spring activity ideas? Read our blog which covers spring activities for EYFS.
Need more STEM inspiration?
For even more STEM and STEAM inspiration, explore our extensive range of STEM Resources on our website – including a range of resources for number recognition, sorting, shape, space, seasons, weather, force, motion, life cycles, ICT, coding and much more.
