Adventures for Little Inventors
Adventures for Little Inventors
Collection of 12 thematic booklets for ages 4-8 to engage in storytelling, play, inventing, and sharing.
Collection Overview
The thematic collection of 12 booklets covers 48 activities for students ages 4-8. The themes are topics that are commonly taught in a PreK-2nd grade classroom. The 12 themes do not need to be taught sequentially, and rather can be introduced naturally with the current topics and learning outcomes.
- Volume 1 – My Friends and I
- Volume 2 – Me and My Surroundings
- Volume 3 – My Town
- Volume 4 – Animals, Nature, and Plants
- Volume 5 – Health and Safety
- Volume 6 – Using Tools
- Volume 7 – Transportation
- Volume 8 – My Culture
- Volume 9 – Our World
- Volume 10 – Environment and Our Lives
- Volume 11 – Seasons
- Volume 12 – Shapes Around Us
Each booklet contains 4 activities consisting of step-by-step building instructions for little inventors, curious questions, space for sketching ideas, and prompts for exploring ways to create beyond the instructions. These fun activities promote social and emotional learning, formulate their language and sense of self. In part all thematic activities help build spatial reasoning and fine motor skills for young students.
While little inventors can work independently on their projects we encourage combining projects together to make even larger-scale projects like setting up a neighborhood of houses and the furniture within.
Develop Language and Encourage Children’s Natural Curiosity
Students ages 4-8 are still developing their first language, and some students may also be learning in their second language. The graphic illustrations such as these in Volume 11 – Seasons supports student comprehension and language development, no matter their level!
Learn about the winter season and make a snowflake learning that no snowflakes are alike.
Build an umbrella for the rainy spring season and the water cycle.
Building the Snowflakes from Volume 11 – Seasons students learn about symmetry, counting, and comparing sizes by making a beautiful design.
Spatial Reasoning and Fine Motor Skills
Adventures for Little Inventors provides a way for kinesthetic learners and all learners to engage with their sense of touch. Building with color-coded straws is calming for students who may struggle to sit and focus or even engage in the discussion. When students build with their hands, their minds are attentive to the task at hand, and they are able to learn without the difficulties accompanying abstract reading or math concepts.
Many students have varying levels of fine motor skills. Building with plastic is therapeutic for students whose hands may hurt from holding a pencil all day, and it develops fine motor skills and spatial reasoning.
The sun hat activity illustrates how students use spatial reasoning and fine motor skills to solve the real-world problem of sunburn!
While building the opening and closing mechanism of the umbrella students think about how the design helps protect them from the rain and how it’s easy to store.
Teacher Support
These booklets were created to support play-based learning in the classroom and we recognize every learning space is unique.
Audience
We strive to reach a large variety of learning ecosystems globally designed for a wide variety of audience members.
- Primary Teachers
- Preschool and Early Childhood Educators
- English as a Second Language (ESL) Teachers
Planning
Take a look into the Unit Planning listing booklet themes, titles, and short descriptions of all 48 activities. This entire collection of booklets are for ages 4-8 and in this document, the activities labeled yellow are great for beginning projects for the youngest inventors at ages 4-5.
Getting Started
These are the starting booklets recommended for all ages.
Volume 1 – My Friends and I, is an excellent one to start when classroom teachers are focused on sharing and acknowledging each other within the classroom.
Volume 3 – My Town is focused on what it takes to build a community and maintain a neighborhood that works for everyone.
Volume 4 – Animals and Plants is great for teaching about biodiversity in the natural world.
Student Resources
The full collection of the Adventures for Little Inventors booklets can be downloaded below and distributed to your students as physical handouts for them to start sketching their ideas and building independently.
