Science in action in spontaneous preschool play – an essential foundation for future understanding

Children are born to play and are born as intuitive scientists and use numeracy and literacy in their play. Playing is an essential apprenticeship for developing scientific (STEM) literacy. Observing children spontaneously playing reveals that they are experiencing STEM in action. They are observing phenomena, asking questions, solving problems, design investigations and adapting what is available to use in their active investigations Nonspeaking children, until they acquire verbal language for themselves and communicating by gestures and actions about findings. Children have various modes of play, free choice, structured and structured. In imaginative play they replicate activities of adults, dressing up as an adult, cooking in a make-believe kitchen, composing and acting out a narrative. In all these activities children do compose their own narrative but listen to narratives particularly in Pictorial fiction books gradually being able to sort myth from reality as well as predicting outcomes and problem solving.