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Toddlers and STEM Skills: How Starting Early Benefits All Students 

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You might think of math science, engineering, and math as skills that are introduced in kindergarten or perhaps even later in their school career.

However, research shows that even toddlers can benefit significantly from early exposure to math and science concepts and language.

In fact, early math skills are a predictor of future school achievement in both math and literacy.   

It’s well known that family income-based gaps in math already exist at the point of kindergarten entry. Even at a very young age, children can internalize stereotypes about who math is “for” based on gender, race, or socioeconomic biases. By the early elementary years, many children have already developed a positive STEM identity—or not—based in large part on the messages they receive from the educators and other adults in their lives.   

Preschool is a critical early education environment that contributes to the development of a positive STEM identity as well. Early, age-appropriate, and joyful STEM activities for toddlers and preschoolers can shift the narrative, increasing the likelihood they enter kindergarten with both a strong foundation in STEM skills as well as the positive attributes of STEM identity.

Virtual Event: Spark STEM Discovery with Toddlers and Preschoolers
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What do STEM activities for toddlers and preschoolers look like?

Math in early childhood is not just counting — it includes a wide variety of sub-domains and entry points for meaningful instruction.

Most importantly, math instruction for  young children is not a paper-and-pencil experience. Best instructional practices in early STEM instruction features ten key practices but when done well looks a lot like play and exploration: Children are moving, doing, testing, and discovering. They’re laughing, talking, and connecting.   

Like math, science/engineering comprises a variety of sub-domains. Early science and engineering topics appropriate for young children include: 

  • Physical sciences—such as exploring ice melting 
  • Life sciences—such as planting seeds and observing growth
  • Earth and space science—such as learning about weather and how it impacts humans and animals 
  • Engineering design—essentially, how math and science can be used to solve problems, such as building a noisemaker to “wake” a sleeping puppet 

In addition to math and science/engineering content domains, learning experiences for young children should also provide rich opportunities to master a number of cross-cutting practices such as asking questions; making predictions; observing cause/effect; noticing patterns; and more. 

Early Math Subdomains

Most importantly, math instruction for  young children is not a paper-and-pencil experience.

Rebecca Parlakian
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STEM learning is a whole-curriculum experience

STEM learning can take place throughout the day and across disciplines, and can be meaningfully integrated into art, music, and literacy activities.

Read-alouds can nurture a deeper mastery of STEM vocabulary and concepts, while songs (especially those specially composed for our Problem Solvers curriculum) offer a set of diverse listening experiences that prompt children to move and sing. 

A few everyday STEM activities for toddlers can include: 

  • Transitions — putting on boots or sunscreen in preparation for outdoor play — can generate rich discussions about changing weather and the ways in which humans prepare for sun or snow.  
  • “Lining up” time can be an opportunity to use precise spatial vocabulary (next to, behind, in front, etc.). 
  • Walking down the hall to another activity might create an organic—but meaningful opportunity—to notice patterns in the floor tiles.
  • Mealtimes can be an opportunity to discuss human senses (taste, vision, touch, etc.) as children eat. Meal preparation can promote math concepts like volume (full/empty), counting (2 eggs, 3 teaspoons), and comparisons (more/less).
  • Naptime invites the experience of counting cots or doing simple calculations (how many more cots do we need to bring out of the closet?) 
Educator and child

When planning STEM activities for toddlers and preschoolers, educators can consider the ways in which art, literacy, music/movement, and daily routines might be used to reinforce key vocabulary and concepts. To help with this process, check out ZERO TO THREE’s reflective planning tool for questions to guide STEM activity planning and assessment. When we begin with intentionality, our instruction has the potential to contribute to children’s foundational knowledge in important and lasting ways. 

Explore equity-based instructional practices in an early math curriculum for toddlers and preschoolers.

Early educators spark joy in young children by creating learning activities that build on the rich lived experiences they bring to education settings, by designing explorations that ignite their curiosity and build from their strengths, and by honoring the unique ways in which they think about the challenges they encounter. 

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Encourage school-home connections

Children grow and learn within the supportive circle of loving relationships — and the most important and central relationship in their lives is the one they share with parents and primary caregivers in the home.

Sharing the STEM activities being implemented in the classroom engages families as partners and creates an opportunity to tap into their strengths and funds of knowledge in math, science, and engineering. This sharing can also spark rich conversations with parents about what children are learning and discovering about STEM in the early years.  

The Problem Solvers curriculum offers age-appropriate ideas for at-home STEM play and math activities for preschoolers (none of which require purchased materials). Teachers can easily share parent-child activities to any science or math activity they develop as a way to strengthen the home-school connection. Data from parents, elicited through a ZERO TO THREE-sponsored study of preschool settings in South Carolina, showed strong satisfaction with early STEM activity ideas shared with parents. Families reported they enjoyed these activities, used them more than once, and were excited to see their child learn new concepts. 

If you feel unsure about how to begin planning early STEM learning experiences, you’re not alone.

That’s why ZERO TO THREE has created Problem Solvers, a free early STEM curriculum for children aged 2 ½ to 4 years of age.

This curriculum includes 44 learning STEM activities for toddlers and preschoolers, songs that align to each activity, children’s book suggestions, and a send-home family resource for each activity (available in English/Spanish).

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ResourceParentsProfessionals24-36 Months

Playful exploration is a natural way of learning.

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