- Innovation
- Creativity
- Experimentation
- Imagination
- Theory development
STEAM Ahead® Curriculum
Engaging curriculum thoughtfully engineered to encourage innovation, collaboration and imagination
Designed for children ages 3 to 5
Kids ‘R’ Kids STEAM Ahead® Curriculum is an integrated project-based method of learning that is connected to our preschool curriculum for children ages three to five years old. It is designed to supplement the First Class Curriculum® by incorporating science, technology, engineering, art, and math into learning through inquiry, exploration, and play.
The STEAM Ahead® approach addresses key components of learning that parents, educators, and employers have deemed crucial for children to thrive once they enter the 21st century workforce.
STEAM Ahead® Learning Objectives
Everything you need to know about STEAM Ahead®
What?
STEAM Ahead® is a cross-curricular method of posing concepts as challenges. This allows your child to discover innovative approaches to solving problems while being creative and having fun.
Because children are innately curious and open to learning, the STEAM Ahead® approach is a natural way for using science to figure out how the world works. Engaging activities such as engineering a play-sized treehouse or constructing a rain gauge to measure and observe water levels will promote the type of learning that invites persistent problem-solving abilities.
The word technology implies computers and the internet, but it simply means any man-made object. Your child will use simple tools such as pulleys and ramps to discover the relationships of cause and effect as they learn about how we use tools to accomplish tasks.
Engineering is the creative application of math, science and technology to solve a problem. With STEAM Ahead®, each child can use fun and engaging materials to design, build, and test solutions for understanding how things work.
Art is an important component of STEAM for developing a creative mindset in your child. Opportunities to innovate, observe, and pretend will instill confidence and promote the sense of healthy risk-taking needed for higher levels of learning.
Everyday math experiences that involve numbers, operations, patterns, measurement and shapes are important for developing your child into an abstract thinker. Playing with math concepts and using the language of mathematics lays a solid foundation for more complex math and science skills needed later in life.
Why?
With Kids ‘R’ Kids learning station activities that are platforms for hands-on experiences, STEAM Ahead® appeals to your child’s natural desire to learn by doing.
STEAM Ahead® project-based learning encourages your child to think like a scientist, engineer, and designer – fostering in them a lifelong love of learning.
How?
Students and teachers explore STEAM Ahead® projects together. With the teacher acting as facilitator, children will be guided through opportunities to observe, question, predict, try, build, and share what they learn. Open-ended questions build critical thinking and communication skills as teachers encourage children to question the “why” of activities and then use descriptive language to explain what they learned.
By celebrating individual interests and strengths, the STEAM Ahead® way of engaging students will unite the classroom community and make your child’s development something that is easily seen. All STEAM activities are posted in the classroom each week, further helping you see how learning comes alive each day at Kids ‘R’ Kids.