In our recurring series, we ask literacy experts in classrooms and libraries to discuss their techniques for selecting and sharing books to lead engaging storytimes. For this installment, PW spoke with three educators who are designing and delivering STEM- and STEAM-focused storytimes to help students and patrons develop an interest in science, technology, engineering, art, and math.
Tara Custer is a former Dartmouth College librarian turned elementary school librarian at Windsor School in Windsor, Vt., who is currently both the school’s librarian and the STEAM teacher. She said she likes to choose STEM/STEAM books for her library lessons, STEAM classes, and storytimes. Custer also tirelessly researches new titles and networks with other educators for best practices and book recommendations.
When sharing a STEM/STEAM title, she will read and discuss it with her students and set up stations to explore and to extend the content in the book. For example, after reading The Blocks Come Out at Night by Javier Garay, illustrated by Keenan Hopson, Custer offered a variety of Lego building activities and challenges tying in the story’s engineering concepts. “I challenged them to create the tallest buildings they could with Lego bricks, make their favorite animals, or build bridges for cars to drive over,” Custer said.
She finds that pairing STEM/STEAM fiction and nonfiction helps her introduce complex topics, encourages problem-solving, and sparks her students’ imaginations. With the picture book classic Stellaluna by Janell Cannon, Custer connected the story to their study of hearing. Upon reading the story, she taught a lesson on echolocation in bats and had her students perform a variety of sound experiments and write or illustrate facts about bats.
As the school librarian, Custer is always thinking of ways to pair nonfiction and fiction titles to expand her students’ TBR piles and enhance their reading lives. This past November, she changed November to “Know-vember” and introduced stacks of nonfiction and fiction titles with similar topics and shared an interesting fact or two for readers to chew on. She also regularly organizes a “Look Book” activity where she gathers several nonfiction titles and has kids look at them for five minutes each. Afterwards, she sends them off to do activities to further pique their desire to know more.
This year, she will be expanding her fact-finding missions to include opinions. “We’ll talk about what facts and opinions are,” Custer said. “I’ll then use varying levels of materials for all of my K–5 kids to explore the differences.” Custer’s opinion is clear on the value of integrating STEM/STEAM storytimes, lessons, and activities in her library and classroom. “It allows me to increase accessibility of science concepts, connect them to real life and social emotional issues, and to ignite wonder!”
Katie Austin is the digital librarian at the Hutchinson Elementary School in Lakewood, Colo., a Denver suburb. While a large part of her responsibilities consists of helping her students access information online and be good digital citizens, as well as offer them first-line technology support, she also designs and teaches monthly STEM labs for her K–5 students.
“This year I am trying to connect the labs with what my students are learning in classrooms a bit more,” Austin said. “For example, the third graders have worked on catapults, fourth graders studied adaptations and ways to help the environment, and fifth graders worked on Minecraft Education that is based off of Jamestown and the Oregon Trail.”
These labs often include a variety of STEM/STEAM storytimes using fiction and nonfiction. The titles have included picture books like ARTificial Intelligence by author-illustrator David Biedrzycki, which explores AI, art, and creativity, and Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts. Austin also shares relevant picture book biographies, including books about women in STEM/STEAM careers such as mathematician and computer programmer Ada Lovelace, civil rights activist Claudette Colvin, and engineer Rae Montague. “I think that it’s important to expose kids to all kinds of STEM/STEAM books so they can see themselves as scientists, technologists, engineers, artists, and mathematicians—and see that STEM/STEAM is all around us!”
Austin routinely incorporates the arts into her labs. “The kids are often surprised that art is part of STEAM,” she said. “And, because we have a part-time art teacher who only sees kids every three weeks, I try to tie in art lessons whenever I can.” This included a recent lesson on the science behind roller coasters, creating miniature roller coasters, and seeing first-hand connections between art and science. “By integrating all of the STEM/STEAM disciplines in the library and their lives, my students also learn that things aren’t always about the outcome—they are about the process!”
Nancy So Miller is a former elementary, high school, and traveling art teacher, a children’s book illustrator (and soon-to-be debut author) and now a youth service specialist at the Live Oak Public Library system in Savannah, Ga. Currently, she is focusing her programs on the “A” in STEAM in the two branches she serves. To begin, Miller asks her younger patrons about what interests them and then develops creative programming that integrates literacy and STEAM concepts. This includes her “Artful Adventures.”
One of these recent sessions centered on Cat Nap by Brian Lies and an activity celebrating Lies’s many illustration styles in the book. After reading, Miller and her students talked about the story and what they noticed in the artwork. She then guided them to look more closely at the cat character. “I just love the ceramics Lies used in the story, so I decided to have my artists use air-dry clay to make their own book-inspired creations,” Miller said. “I taught them some of the basic techniques working with clay, including pinching, and we discussed how it feels to use the clay, and how Lies made the illustrations work together.”
Next up, she will be hosting a papermaking workshop inspired by her forthcoming debut picture book, Sun, Moon, and Star: A Folktale from Korea (Holiday House). “Because of my Korean roots—I immigrated here when I was four years old—and the research that I did on Korean folk arts for my picture book, learning how to make traditional handmade paper and folk painting, it was a natural fit!” Miller said. “I can’t wait to make paper with our patrons when it’s warm enough to do outdoors. There’s a lot of pounding and mess.”
Miller also plans to revive the animation club she has led throughout her teaching career. With each animation project she will continue to integrate art and technology and use picture books to help teach story structure, promote literacy, and provide a launching pad for their own stories. “Picture books are a great way into animation. It gives kids animators a way into their stories if they aren’t comfortable starting a story from scratch,” Miller said. “They can think about the books we read together or other books they love and how to create another version or a sequel—something the author may have never thought of doing!”
She is eager to help her patrons think of their library as a safe space to create art and find their people. “There’s a real social aspect to these programs and others in libraries. Attendees meet people they might not normally come across and find a space to talk about things that they love,” Miller said. “In my animation clubs, kids have discovered that it’s more fun to do things with other people. They also find others who can lift them up and cheer them on!”
