by Alice Baggett
Tinkering Time
30 Creative Classroom Projects for Young Engineers, Artists, and Inventors
Tinkering Time is a practical, joy-filled guide to bringing hands-on tinkering into preschool and PreK-K classrooms.
Young children are natural tinkerers. Give them interesting materials, a good question, and room to experiment—and watch what happens.
Tinkering Time offers 30 classroom-tested STEM/STEAM projects for preschool and PreK students, illustrated throughout with full-color photos from real classrooms. From building bridges and imaginary animals to wind tunnels, simple machines, magnets, and more, these open-ended challenges invite children to make, test, modify, and try again.
You’ll find helpful ideas, playful hands-on learning activities, and all the inspiration you need to spark curiosity and confidence in every child.
INSIDE YOU’LL FIND:
- 30 hands-on maker education projects, richly illustrated in full color
- Open-ended STEM challenges with multiple pathways
- Practical guidance for designing classroom tinkering experiences
- Ideas for materials, classroom setup, scaffolding, and family communication
BECAUSE TINKERING ISN’T ABOUT MAKING THE “RIGHT” THING. IT’S ABOUT DISCOVERING WHAT YOU CAN DO.
ALICE BAGGETT is a veteran educator with more than three decades of experience teaching young children. Her passions are tinkering, problem solving, and creating hands-on experiences that help children think, wonder, and build their ideas. She is the author of The Invent to Learn Guide to Making in the K-3 Classroom: Why, How, and WOW!
