STEM4EC Blog

I have lived in the United States for almost eight years, and I am always proud of my cultural heritage. Throughout these eight years, whenever I see my culture being reflected positively in the community, in my workplace, or through mass media, I feel a sense of belonging.

We all need to feel a sense of belonging and positive affirmation. As a researcher and practitioner in the field of early intervention and early childhood special education, I have always been aware of the importance of building a sense of belonging for children and their families . Certainly, creating a sense of belonging is not only displaying photos of children and families from various cultural backgrounds but also embedding children’s experiences and family traditions into the teaching practices.

Food is a great way to provide connections to different cultures and family traditions. For example, I grew up eating congee (粥) or rice porridge and Dan Bing (i.e., Taiwanese egg pancake roll; 蛋餅) for breakfast. My family and I love having hot pot every holiday and special occasion.

In this blog post, I will describe an activity that could use food and pretend play as a means to support children’s STEM learning. At the end of the blog post, I will also introduce a couple of STEM storybooks about AAPI culture and food.

Making play dough dumplings

Dumplings are something I often make and eat with my family. Our dumplings use a flour-based dough and we use cabbage, ground meat, and chives that are lightly seasoned with soy sauce as the filling. We then either steam or pan fry our dumplings. There are many other types of dumplings of different shapes and sizes within Taiwanese and Chinese cultures as well as in other cultures around the world. As an occupational therapist, I love using this activity to improve children’s fine motor skills, practice bilateral coordination, and engage in STEM concepts (e.g., sequencing, counting, shape).

Materials:

• Play dough
• A play dough rolling pin or a wooden stick
• A Circle shape cookie cutter or the bottom of a drinking cup.
• Ingredients (e.g., marbles, beads, small blocks)

Directions:

• Take a small amount of the dough, roll it into a sphere
• Use the palm to press the dough down
• Use the rolling pin to flatten the dough and make it into a circular shape (or use the cookie cutter)
• Place the ingredients in the middle of the rolled out dough or “dumpling skin”
• Fold the “dumpling skin” into half
• Seal the dumpling by making creases on the top using your thumb and pointer finger

Visual pictures

Use questions and conversation to engage children in STEM learning and talk about children’s culture and family tradition

• What food does your family like to make and eat together on special days?
• First, we roll the dough into a ball, then we roll it to flatten it. What should we do next?
• We have 10 friends in class and everyone would like one dumpling. How many dumplings have you made? How many more do we need?
• What shape are you making?
• How many beads can you put in your dumpling? How can we put more ingredients in the dumpling?
• What else would you like to fill dumplings with?

STEM storybooks about AAPI food culture that you could consider including on your bookshelves

Luna's Yum Yum Dim Sum (Storytelling Math) 

Natasha Yim 

Math 

Luna is having Dim Sum on her birthday. She and her brothers are talking about how to share buns fairly. 

Too Many Mangoes

Tammy Paikai

Science & Math 

Kama and Nani help their grandpa pick mangos from his giant mango tree.  After the picking, Kama and Nani share some mangoes with neighbors. 

Ohana Means Family 

 Ilima Loomis 

 A family prepares a tasty root called Kalo for a traditional luau celebration.  

One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale 

 Demi 

 Math

 A young girl tricks a greedy king to double one grain of rice every day for three years.  

Ten Blocks to the Big Wok 

 Ying-Hwa Hu 

 Math 

 Mia and her uncle Eddie travel from their apartment to a restaurant in Chinatown. They see many things in Chinatown. 

The Ugly Vegetables

Grace Lin 

Science 

A little girl and her mother grow vegetables in their gardens while their neighbors grow colorful flowers.  

Kai Goes to the Farmers Market in Hawaii 

Catherine Toth Fox 

Kai ad his mother buy food grown in Hawaii from the farmers.

About the author: 

Katherine Mansfield is a second-year speech-language pathology student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has been a part of the STEMIE Storybook Team since October 2021. Her professional experience includes graduate internships where she works with children of all abilities to diagnose and treat communication and feeding disorders. Katherine is always eager to learn more about how to make a child’s therapy goals functional for them at home, given their family and home situation, preferences, skills, and current areas of need. She enjoys brainstorming ways to incorporate literacy into the speech therapy sessions she provides. She received her undergraduate degree in Interdisciplinary Studies at North Carolina State University in May 2020.

Reading books about a variety of topics not only stimulates a child’s language development, but it also exposes them to basic concepts that are useful and meaningful in their day-to-day lives and future. For example, when reading or listening to a book about the solar system, a child can learn new vocabulary (e.g., the name of planets, the sun) which is beneficial for their language development and for their emerging interest and knowledge about science. They may become curious when they see the Sun and share what they know about it when they see it in the sky. This combination of learning about different topics, like space, and developing language skills while reading is exciting for children and overall, manageable for you to implement as their parent, teacher, caregiver, or another person in the child’s life. While exploring this variety of books, you will likely discover a new book to read at either a library, bookstore, or online resource. Here, you and your child have the opportunity to take typical book-reading to the next level. How? By engaging the child in a “storybook walk” before reading the new book together.

First, what is a storybook walk? A storybook walk is a strategy used to introduce new concepts, make creative associations and inferences, and increase interest in a new book that a child is preparing to read (Briggs & Forbes, 2011). During this storybook walk, you would “walk” the child through the book by reading the title, looking and flipping through the pages, introducing characters, making inferences about what might happen in the book, reviewing or teaching new vocabulary words, and assessing which concepts are already familiar to the child. The key to the storybook walk is increasing exposure and interest without reading the book cover to cover! appropriate adaptations, these pre-reading opportunities can be useful for children of all ages, skill levels, and who might benefit from additional support.

Using objects and visual pictures to introduce new vocabulary

Introducing vocabulary words before reading can be modified to meet the child’s current skill level and needs. For example, a child with blindness or visual impairment may require alternative means to access the information presented in a book. As part of your storybook walk for this book, you can provide a story box, a box of physical objects that are related to the story at hand. This offers a multisensory experience for the child as they learn about the book. For example, for the book  , you might include fur in the storybox to represent the fox character, so the child is able to engage with the materials using their sense of touch rather than sight. You can also pair the book with other visual adaptations such as enlarged symbols that represent the pictures, characters, and concepts presented in the book. The STEMIE Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill offers visual adaptations and storybox ideas for a variety of STEM books for your reference as you begin thinking about how to adapt different books to meet your child’s needs.

Offering these physical objects or picture symbols, when appropriate for the child increases not only the child’s exposure to new vocabulary words, but it increases their interest in the content at hand and their ability to engage with the book. As you do so, reinforce the new concepts and important vocabulary words. You can always revisit, revise, and verify the inferences you all made together as you pre-read the book.

Provide seating choices

If a child requires additional support to access the information presented in a storybook walk, consider strategies like flexible seating options, giving the child hands-on access to the book and materials to independently explore the content during the storybook walk, and simplifying your language to increase their motivation and confidence when learning newer concepts. Each child has a unique set of needs. The good news is that you can help meet these needs during storybook walks by using your creativity and individual expertise; you are one of the people in the child’s life that knows them best!

As you and the child(ren) in your life begin incorporating storybook walks into your reading routines, enjoy the process! It may feel awkward, at first, to talk about the book without reading it first, but it becomes more natural the more you all engage in these reading preparation exercises. An overarching strategy to remember when leading these storybook walks is flexibility. Be flexible with how you meet your child’s needs (i.e., when choosing picture symbols or physical objects to engage a child with a visual impairment) and when your plan may not go as you expected it to. Your child will see you model creativity and open-mindedness, which can encourage them to be open-minded and curious during these pre-reading and reading activities as well.

You can find a video example here. (This video was developed in collaboration with the Kansas Deaf-Blind Project and Kansas State School for the Blind.

 References:

Briggs, C., & Forbes, S. (2009). Orientation to a new book: More than a picture walk. The Reading Teacher, 62(8), 706-709.

Do you know that the traffic lights were invented by a Black inventor, Garrett Morgan? I learned this and about many more Black scientists and inventors from a children’s book by Patrice McLaurin, Have you thanked an inventor today? 

Reading and discussing books that include diverse and positive representations of characters could help children find resemblances to the characters with similar backgrounds and see them as role models (Golos & Moses, 2011). Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, a professor and author coined the phrase “Windows, Mirrors and Sliding Glass Doors” to explain how critical it is for children to see themselves in the books that they read, and how they can also learn about or step into the lives of others through books. This is important for all children, especially Black or Brown children with and without disabilities, who frequently do not see themselves in children’s literature.  

Storybooks can be a powerful tool in supporting children’s STEM learning and building their STEM identity and providing a more equitable access to STEM learning opportunities. Equity in STEM education is an ongoing challenge. Based on data from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights Data Collection (2018), we know that Black high schoolers are underrepresented in more advanced science and math courses, and similarly in science and engineering degree programs, and within the STEM workforce (National Science Board, 2022).  

But we as an early childhood field can change this trajectory right from the start by supporting Black children to build a positive STEM identity and a strong sense of belonging in STEM (Master et al., 2017). We have curated a list of books focused on Black pioneers and innovators in STEM or have Black characters that can offer the mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors for the children we work with: https://stemie.fpg.unc.edu/storybook-conversations-celebrating-black-stem. We have also created storybook conversation tip sheets for a few of the books from the list: Astro Girl (https://stemie.fpg.unc.edu/storybook-conversations-astro-girl), The Snowy Day (https://stemie.fpg.unc.edu/storybook-conversations-snowy-day). 

Later this month, we have a guest blogger who is an early childhood faculty and a proud mama of a 5-year old. She will share her personal experiences on how representation is so critical for her child when it comes to engaging him in books and STEM. 

If you are interested in Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop’s essay, it is available here: https://www.readingrockets.org/sites/default/files/Mirrors-Windows-and-Sliding-Glass-Doors.pdf  

About the authors:

Dr. Michele Stites is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). She received her Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction/Special Education from the George Washington University and her M.Ed. in special education from the University of Maryland College Park. Prior to her appointment at UMBC, she was the early childhood intervention specialist for a large school system in Maryland. Dr. Stites was an early childhood classroom teacher for 10 years working in both general and special education settings. Dr. Stites’ research interests focus on inclusive mathematics teaching practices and young children’s mathematics learning. As an assistant professor at UMBC she also works closely with teacher candidates. Dr. Stites has been widely published in both scholarly and practitioner-focused journals.

Dr. Susan Sonnenschein is a Professor in the Psychology Department at UMBC and the Graduate Program Director of the Applied Developmental Psychology Doctoral program. She received an M.S. degree from Penn State University in Educational Psychology, a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Stony Brook University, and is a certified (state of Maryland) school psychologist. Her research interests focus on factors that promote children’s educational success. She conducts research on family and school-based factors and how they affect children from different demographic backgrounds. In addition to having several hundred scholarly publications and presentations, she has written blogs and summaries of her research for nonprofessional audiences. One focusing on math activities to do with young children was published in the Conversation in 2018, http://theconversation.com/5-math-skills-your-child-needs-to-get-ready-for-kindergarten-103194

The learning activities young children engage in at home lead to better academic skills. We know that children who read different types of books at home are more likely to develop foundational literacy skills (Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002; Serpell et al., 2005). And, many parents are confident that they know how to help their children learn to read (Sonnenschein, et.al., 2021). But what about math? How comfortable are parents with fostering their children’s math skills at home?

We recently asked 236 parents of preschoolers how confident they were assisting their children with reading and math skills at home. And, what we found was not surprising. Most parents thought it was very important for their children to read (86%) and do math activities at home (68%). However, they viewed reading as more important than math. Why do they view reading as more important? It may have to do with confidence. Only 32% of parents in our study reported that they were very confident in their ability to support their child’s math learning.

Given what we know about the importance of reading to children, and the need for more math exposure in the home, we should  link the two together! Making learning fun for young children and engaging their interest in such learning is positively associated with better academic skills (Sonnenschein et al., 2016).  Drilling children on skills is not (Serpell et al., 2005).

Many parents are confident engaging in dialogic reading experiences with their children and with minimal effort we can easily add math into the experience. Many parents also shared with us that they want fun, play-based ways to foster math skills at home (e.g. NO worksheets!). Here are some practical ideas:

Linking Storybook Reading to Math

1. Expose their children to a variety of reading genres (e.g., storybooks, informational text) and find the math in the story. You do not need math themed books to do this! Count the number of bunnies, talk about shapes, find patterns, etc. Be sure to use mathematical language (e.g. “more”, “equal”, etc.) when talking about a math topic because it increases skill development (Akinci-Coşgun, et.al., 2020; Stites & Brown, 2019).
2. Use a math themed book. Books like Anno’s Counting book and Ten Magic Butterflies are mathematically themed. Take the time to explore the math content. Questions like, “How many in all?” and “what comes next?” are great with counting books. If the book focuses on a skill like addition work on additional equations. “Wow, we just answered 2 + 1=3. Do you know what 2+2 equals?”
3. Make use of digital and adapted books. If a child has a disability, adapted books are a great way to remove some of the barriers in traditional print books. In fact, all children, not just those with disabilities, often respond to the  different formats provided in these books.

Play-Based Math Learning

1. Play board games. Games have been shown to be an effective way to engage with numbers and patterns. Take the time to question the child about numbers, shapes, and patterns.
2. Take a nature walk. Notice the shapes in the leave. Count the clouds. The world is your oyster here!
3. Build with blocks or Legos. Count the items and make patterns. Ask the child what comes next and how many there are altogether. Take some away and ask how many are left. Make shapes!
4. Draw and create art. As the child is drawing ask her to make three more flowers. Use playdough and make shapes and patterns. And talk about the shapes the child and you create. The language used matters!

References

1. Akinci-Coşgun, A, Stites, M.L., & Sonnenschein, S. (2020). Using storybooks to support young children’s mathematics learning at school and home. In Bekir, H., Bayraktar, V., & Karaçelik, S.N. (Eds.), Development in Education. Istanbul, Turkey: Hiperlink.
2. Sénéchal, M., & LeFevre, J. A. (2002). Parental involvement in the development of children’s reading skill: A five-year longitudinal study. Child Development, 73 , 445–461.
3. Serpell, R., Baker, L. & Sonnenschein, S. (2005). Becoming literate in the city: The Baltimore Early Childhood Project. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
4. Sonnenschein, S., Metzger, S. R., & Thompson, J. A. (2016). Low-income parents’ socialization of their preschoolers’ early reading and math skills. Research in Human Development, 13, 207-224. doi: 10.1080/15427609.2016.1194707
5. Sonnenschein, S., Stites, M.L., & Dowling, R. (2021).  Learning at home: What preschool parents do and what they want to learn from their children’s teachers? Journal of Early Childhood Research. doi:10.1177/1476718X20971321
6. Stites, M.L. & Brown, E.T. (2019). Observing mathematical learning experiences in preschool.  Early Child Development and Care. doi:10.1080/03004430.2019.1601089.

Are you spending more time at home reading with your young children? 

Are you interested in helping them gain language skills and learn about STEM? 

Do you need some ideas for adapting the reading process for your child with disabilities?

We will like to introduce you to something called dialogic reading 1, a systematic approach to storybook reading, which has been shown to help children with and without disabilities develop comprehension and language skills.

With some careful planning of what questions to ask children throughout the book, reading time can becomes a rich opportunity for building concepts through conversation! Plus your child can become a full participant and help you tell part of the story instead of passively listening to the story! You can use digital books on a screen or regular paper or board books. It’s easy and we will show you how! With this blog, we have provided:

• a general overview tipsheet and an example of prompts you can use for Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• examples of adaptation and modification families can make to support children with disabilities participate in dialogic reading

For example, here’s a video of a mom using dialogic reading with her preschooler who uses an augmentative communication device:

1 What Works Clearinghouse Intervention: DialogicReading https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/InterventionReports/WWC_Dialogic_Reading_020807.pdf