This STEM invitation to play is all about exposing your kids to technology. Technology doesn’t just mean computers, it’s also all of the stationary items you have in your office. Use those tools to Make a Book with your children, and let them experiment with the different types of non-electric tools we have at home.
Do your kids love STEM activities? Grab your copy of the Free STEM eBook for Toddlers and Preschoolers. It’s filled with fun and easy STEM activities that will delight children in the early years.
Disclosure: Adult supervision is required for all activities at all times. Some of the links provided in this blog are affiliate links. I will be paid a commission if you use this link to make a purchase.
More STEM Activities to try
If your kids love this idea, then try some of these other hands-on STEM play ideas for young children.
- How to Make A Pom Pom Shooter
- Floating City – STEM Activity for Kids
- Coke and Mentos Experiment
- Strawberry STEM Challenge
- We’re Going on a Bear Hunt Coding Activity
For more ideas, take a look at these 34 STEM Experiments for Toddlers.
Materials Needed
- Paper, both white and colored
- Scissors
- Pens and pencils
- Sticky notes
- Stapler
- Ruler
- Hole punch
How to Make a Book Invitation to Play
Making the Book
1. Gather your materials.
The whole purpose of this activity is to explore how the different stationary tools we have work. Go through each of the tools you have and explain to your child what they can do, and how that can make our lives easier.
For example, staplers are used to join two or more sheets of paper together. This makes our lives easier, because if we can join pages together, we are less likely to lose one by accident.
2. Take your paper and cut it into quarters.
This step includes cutting both your white and your colored paper. Using colored paper isn’t an essential step of this activity. I just like to have a different color because this marks the outside pages of the book as the “cover”.
3. Line up the pages, with the colored paper on the outside.
Place your white paper in a neat pile, place one piece of colored paper on the top and one at the bottom.
4. Staple along one edge.
Use a stapler to join all of the pages together. If you like, you can draw a dotted line down the edge of the front paper. These dotted lines give the children something to aim for when they are stapling.
Writing the Story
5. Fill the pages inside with drawings, a story or instructions.
Now is the time to give your kids creative freedom to fill their pages however they like.
Think about how we use books today. They are usually structured as:
- Fiction (Made up stories)
- Non-fiction (Contains information – like textbooks or instructions)
- Visual (no or few words, mainly pictures. Such as photography books, or even family photo albums).
Talk to your kids about the different kinds of books, what the purpose of each kind is and then give your children the chance to make their own.
Experimenting with different technology
6. Use the pages to experiment with the different tools available.
I included a variety of things from my home office. My son enjoyed making holes with a hole punch, drawing lines with a ruler, and drawing words and pictures inside the pages.
He did not write an entire story. Rather he used each page to try a new technology and in doing so he figured out how it works and we talked about the different ways we can use that tool.
What You’re Learning
Technology
Technology doesn’t refer to just electronics. Many people hear the word “technology” and instantly think it means “screen time”. It does not.
Technology is any man made tool we create that has a purpose. Usually that purpose is to make our lives easier in some way. For example, we use scissors to cut paper and we use pens to write.
By experimenting with the different home office stationery items, children are learning how we use tools to achieve a goal. In this case, making a book.
Furthermore, books in themselves are a technology. They are used for storing and transferring vast amounts of information in a small space. Think of them as the original harddrive to a pre-computer era.
Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills refer to the small muscles in the hand and fingers. Developing these skills are important in being able to write when the kids go to school, as well as being able to complete tasks independently. (For example, dressing and feeding themselves).
Cutting with scissors, drawing with pens and playing with staplers and hole punches are all going to help young kids develop:
- Pincer grip and/or tripod grip
- Hand-eye coordination
- Dexterity
- Hand strength
Creativity
By encouraging your kids to fill the pages of their book as they like, you are helping them to express their creativity.
They can choose to draw pictures, write a story or a poem. Or maybe just experiment and see what happens when you use two different stationary items on the same page.
Literacy
Parts of a Book – By making your own book you are going to learn the different parts of a book. This include not just the words inside, but also the:
- Cover
- Title
- Spine
- Author
- As well as what order the pages and words are read in (e.g. left to right)
Are you going to try this Make a Book activity with your kids?
Don’t forget to pin the idea for later.
