Hi Everyone! This program is called Playing with STEM. It is a STEM program for 2-5 year olds. It is primarily play, because at that age, I just want to make science, technology, engineering and math fun!
In this program we learned about light. There were stations all around the room that the kids visit with their parents. Each station had a sign to give some instructions and a fun fact. Here are the light stations:
New 2026: Plasma Light
The children learned about how light is transferred between crystals using this plasma disc. The light responds to touch or sound. I was lucky enough to find one resale, but they can be purchased here.
New 2026: White Light/ Colored Light
The children learned about color mixing in light. There were three colored light bulbs. When a pencil is held next to a white board, the colors are visible again.
New 2026: Laser Maze
The children learned about laser light using this game. The game makes a laser light and the mirror pieces are moved to reflect the light to a goal. Laser Maze Jr can be purchased here.
New 2026: Color Collage
The children made a craft to learn about colors. The craft was made with a frame covered in clear contact paper. They added pieces of colored tissue paper to the contact paper. Overlapping the paper also taught the kids color mixing.
New 2026: Glow Rocks
The children learned about rocks using a UV flashlight and several different glowing rocks.
New 2026: Mirror Mirror
The children learned about mirrors in this station. Two unbreakable mirrors were taped together. The mirrors were placed on their end and placed on top of a print of shapes. The were encourage to observe how the shapes reflect to make new shapes.
New 2026: Mirrors
The children learned mirrors. They used flashlights on mirrors to look where the light reflected.
New 2024: Shadow Puppets
The children used light and shadow puppets to tell stories. The shadow puppets came from Teachers Pay Teachers. I used the shapes to cut the puppets on the Silhouette machine. I also added eyes.
New 2024: Dancing Flowers
To learn about how light can be used as an energy source, we bought some dancing solar flowers. The children shined flashlights to make the flowers move.
New 2024: Math Lights
For math, the children did addition with light bulbs.
New 2024: Laser Maze
Lasers are a special type of light. Laser Maze Jr. is a fun game to do puzzles to reflect the light to the end. This version is the best because the laser is stationary and there are walls to block the light.
https://www.thinkfun.com/products/laser-maze-jr/
New 2024: Rainbows
The children learned about rainbows with coloring pages.
New 2024: Sphero indi
Sphero indi are new robot cars that are programmed by driving over colored squares. The children as young as two were fascinated by the cars and the 5 year olds were able to set up the squares and program the cars.
Color Mixing
The children investigated light color mixing using flashlights and lenses of different colors.
Balloon Lights
We like to have one active station. This time the kids could play with balloons with small LED lights inside. The room also had lots of strings of lights and the children could get a glow in the dark bracelet. We kept the lights low so the kids could enjoy the lights without being scared.
Goofy Christmas Light Craft
The craft for this session is from Oriental Trading (found here). It was just a foam ornament.
LED Lights
This station had LED lights that the children could touch to change colors. It was to show the kids that there are programable (with a computer inside).
Lite Brite
The children made pictures using a few different types of Lite Brite.
Rainbows
We had some refractive lenses so the children could look through and see the different colors of lights. The glasses were similar to these on Amazon.
Color Trees
Children love stickers, so they used multi colored light stickers to decorate the trees. They matched the color light to the tree.
We had a great turnout for this program!
If you have any questions or want to use some of my resources, leave a comment.
Fun for Children at the Library 
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