#BabipurSTEM – Time

It’s time for a new STEM challenge and as the Summer Solstice was just last week we thought we’d have some fun exploring time as a theme this fortnight.

This is a brilliant subject for big and little ones as time can introduce numbers for counting on a clock or you can explore it through the days of the week and the calendar.

The Longest Day

In the northern hemisphere this day falls on 21st June and the earth spins closest to the sun for 24 hours thus giving us more daylight than any other day of the year. In contrast in the southern hemisphere it is the shortest day. The Solstice is lots of fun to do with children as you tell them some fabulous stories about the Pagans and Stonehenge, and even explore the myths of the Gods about the daily fight for Night and Day.

Our eldest used the Babipur exclusive Grimms Gwawr and Semi circles to do a simple set up to show the imperfect balance of night and day on the Solstice. The additional Grimms Celebration Figure really works well and was a great visual for all our children to understand.

We couldn’t talk about the Solstice and not mention Stonehenge. So we recreated it using the Grimms Small Pyramid. We tried to match it as accurately as we could using images from our visit to the site. We then used a torch to shine a light over the stones to mimic the way the sun would rise and show our children the magic of the stones.

Sundials

We were at a local heritage site and came across a fascinating sundial. It took quite some explaining but you can actually work out the time down to the precise minute if you get good light. Our little ones thought this was amazing so we had a go at making our own. There are sundials everywhere if you look for them, don’t forget to tag us if you find one out and about!

We used the Grapat Brots and we initially set them up as a clock on a nearby tree stump. We used 12 of the 18 Brots. Our smallest counted confidently to 12 and then our middlest sectioned the circle into 4 to illustrate each quarter hour.

The Brot acting as a gnomon cast a fabulous shadow in the lesser spotted sunshine and using a compass as a guide we managed to roughly estimate it was around 11am. It was half past so we called that win!

Our eldest (9) was particularly interested in this so we might redo the sundial in more detail with them later on during the challenge. The beauty of these STEM challenges is that you can tailor them to suit any age.

How do you enter?

All you have to do is post a picture or video on your public Instagram account or in the Babipur Hangout Group on Facebook showing your little ones making learning fun whilst learning about Time. Use the tag #babipurSTEM so we can find your entries and on Instagram don’t forget to tag @babipur too!

Multiple entries are always encouraged and we’ll post some STEMspiration for you over the fortnight. The challenge will run for 2 weeks and entries will count from today up to Wednesday 10th July 2019 at 11am. Both the winner and the next challenge will be announced shortly after.

What’s the prize?

This fortnight the prize is the incredibly versatile Grapat 60 Counting Coins. With the numbers 0-9 stamped on one side and lovely plain wood on the reverse, great for not just counting and number recognition but for all sorts of open ended play too. 

You can find a blog post >here< explaining the concept of STEM if you’re unfamiliar with the idea. Please feel free to ask us any questions, this challenge is all about having fun whilst exploring a simple theme in an educational way.

We can’t wait to see what you all come up with for this challenge. We love looking through your entries and seeing how you make colourful learning fun with Babipur!

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