As the demand grows for science and technology minded students, so does the demand for the resources and tools used to teach STEM. These resources, classes, and activities can help children develop a lifelong appreciation of STEM.
When we think of teaching kids about STEM related topics and exposing them to resources that might spark an interest, we tend to think of older elementary, middle, and high school students. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics just seems too complicated for younger children, right?
Wrong!
No age is too young for STEM, given that the exposure is age appropriate. Younger children tend to learn a lot through play. So, why not give them toys and play-based educational materials that teach them about STEM?
Here are a few top pick STEM toys geared toward children 5-8 years old. They will have so much fun playing they won’t even know they are learning.
1. Snap Circuits Jr.: An affordable first set that is perfect to get kids excited about electrical circuits. Kids have the chance to build a photo sensor, flashing light, and an adjustable volume siren. Your child will still have the chance to build hundreds of more projects with this 30 component set.
2. My First Mind Blowing Science Kit: It isn’t science if it isn’t mind blowing. This science kit comes with everything you need to engage your young chemist without you having to be a science expert. The kit has full instructions and comes with red cabbage juice powder, citric acid, baking soda, color tablets, cross-linked polyacrylamide crystals, vegetable oil, corn starch, paper, cotton swabs, test tubes and caps, plastic cups, pipette, stir sticks, small and medium, and plastic scoops.
3. Magna Tiles: This clear colored, 100-piece set will keep your child busy for hours discovering all the different things he can make. From cubes to pyramids to a city scape, these tiles can be combined with solid Magna Tiles or used alone. Magna Tiles encourages spatial and fine motor skills along with imagination and fun.
4. Castle Logix: A game that helps your child with reasoning skills. The object is to use the wooden blocks to build castles in the booklet provided. There are four levels which get progressively more difficult. There are 48 challenges to keep your child playing while sharpening logic skills.
5. Code & Go Robot Mouse Activity Set: The set lets you build a maze, and then use the coding cards to program the mouse to go through the maze to find the cheese. This teaches sequential reasoning skills needed to code.
Looking for more STEM toys and educational gift ideas?
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[…] Circuits are among our favorite hands-on STEM resources. They are, also, in my top STEM gifts picks for kids. They teach kids about electrical circuits in a safe, fun way. You can enter to win the Snap […]