Literature - Keep in mind that STEAM concepts often can be found in books that do not have an obvious STEAM theme. Also note the current events options below.
Jack and the Parachute by More Than a Worksheet
A simple STEM engineering project where students make a parachute to help Jack escape the giant.
Marshmallow Catapult by Science Demo Guy
A STEM engineering project with a video where students design a popsicle stick catapult to launch marshmallows.
Saving Sam with STEM by Get Caught Engineering
A fun challenges where students must create a contraption to save Sam the gummy worm from drowning.
Picture Books and Books for young readers
The Water Princess K - 4 brings us to a different continent where water is a precious resource that is not easily gotten.
Science and History Around the World.
11 Experiments that Failed by Jenny Offill, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. A fun take on the scientific process that teaches kids that failure is a crucial part of learning.
CommonLit’s website full of fiction and non-fiction leveled passages for students in fifth through twelfth grade. It organizes texts into collections to make it easy for teachers to find a passage to share with their students.
Papa’s Mechanical Fish by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Boris Kulikov. This book was inspired by inventor Lodner Phillips, the creator of one of the first modern submarines. Lodner’s children observe their father inventing one “mechanical fish” after another. Determined to make a workable submarine, he tests each new invention out, adding improvements and starting over again.
Galimoto by Karen Lynn Williams, illustrated by Catherine Stock. A galimoto is simply a push toy crafted out of found material. Kondi wants to make a galimoto out of wire, he’s been saving up in his shoebox. Undeterred by his short supply he wanders around his village in search of more wire. His determination to make a galimoto is also admired by the others he meets during his search and that despite a few obstacles he remains persistent.
The Dot, Ish and Sky Color by Peter Reynolds. Turn STEM into STEAM with the “Creatrilogy” books. This best selling trio of books about the ability of small moments to transform into big creative endeavors. Each one encourages kids to look around them to find art in their own world.
Chapter Books
STEAM Science Books (K - 3) Includes STEAM Coonection activities
Books That Grow is a digital reading platform featuring fiction and non fiction texts that adapt to the student's reading ability, so that students of varied abilities can read and learn together. Video overview
Nonfiction eBooks Focusing on STEAM Unite for Literacy
Provides free access to more than 185 books available in approximately 35 language narrations. The ebooks, which are organized by topic, are mostly nonfiction with an emphasis on STEAM They include high-interest themes, such as animals and plants, and migrants
Love Science (android app) Kids Love Science series of stories are written for children of ages 3-10, with the aim entertaining these youngsters while introducing them to significant achievements in the history of science, exploration and adventure.
Wow in the World, NPR’s first podcasts aimed at K–6 students, guides curious children away from their screens and on a journey to connect and discover the wonders of the world around them. Through a combination of careful scientific research and fun, students go inside their brains, out into space, and deep into the coolest new stories in science and technology. For example, in the “Dinosaurs’ Puzzling Backbones” podcast, students discover how 170,000-pound dinosaurs walked around without collapsing under their own weight. In “It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s A … FLYING TAXI?!” students ponder where in the world we will see the first flying taxis, what the taxis will look like, and who will operate them.
STEM Challenge with the Novel, Hatchet
What to do with a Problem? video version
What do you do with an Idea? video version
Sleeping Beauty and Enchanted Engineering lesson plan
Save Sam with STEM! With a gummy worm, gummy lifesaver, a cup, and a paperclip, students will work in teams of two to solve a STEM challenge. Based on a popular STEM activity, we have added the engineering design process to this free activity. Good for an introduction to engineering in grades k-6 or a staff workshop
Jack and the Parachute A simple STEM engineering project where students make a parachute to help Jack escape the giant..
Class Activity: Make an Alarm
After reading the story Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary, students will build an alarm system for something in the classroom, as the main character Leigh does to protect his lunchbox from thieves. Students will learn about alarms and use their creativity to create an alarm system to protect their lockers, desk, or classroom door.
Current Events Readings
NEWSELA gr K-12 emphasis on nonfiction reading,provides daily current events articles written specifically for K–12 students. Each day the site adds three new articles to the collection. Categories include, Science, Health and Arts. For every article, there are versions written at different levels. Also an app
Breaking News - Are you looking for a site filled with great news articles? Discover this wonderful resource that allows you to assign a reading that provides same content at different reading levels.
Readworks.org should definitely be on your list. This website offers a wide range of lesson plans, comprehension units, and reading passages organized by skill and Lexile level.
DOGOnews a next-generation online network empowering kids to engage with digital media in a fun, safe and social environment. News section has current events and news from all around the world. Written for and in some cases by children. The Maps section is an interactive way for younger readers to read news headlines geotagged on a world map. Learn about the world and see where it’s happening. Also, teachers can set up their own DOGONews page and create a very personalized learning experience for their kids.
TeachUNICEF is an outreach project from UNICEF. The goal of the site is to provide lesson plans and other resources to help teachers teach about wide variety of global issues. The "explore" section of TeachUNICEF showcases materials for teaching about global issues with connections to social studies, science, math, English/language arts, foreign/world languages. Teachers can filter the results according to topic and grade level.
A simple STEM engineering project where students make a parachute to help Jack escape the giant.
Marshmallow Catapult by Science Demo Guy
A STEM engineering project with a video where students design a popsicle stick catapult to launch marshmallows.
Saving Sam with STEM by Get Caught Engineering
A fun challenges where students must create a contraption to save Sam the gummy worm from drowning.
Picture Books and Books for young readers
- More books and free teacher guides
- Add more picture books
- Engineering Challenges Through Fairy Tales gr K-5
- Enchanted Engineering gr. K-5
- Literacy Rich STEM Activities K - 2
- Fairytale STEM Challenges gr. K - 2
- Splat the Cat - Where the Wild Things Are - Music, Music for Everyone scroll down the page to see lessons
- Color Changing Lemonade (inspired by Ada Twist, Scientist) || Left Brain Craft Brain
- Rainbow Science (inspired by Rainbow of my Own) || Rhythms of Play
- activities featuring "oobleck" (also known as goop, gluep, flubber or slime). The name "oobleck" is borrowed from the Dr. Seuss Caldecott Honor book Oobleck is an inexpensive, easy-to-make, non-Newtonian substance that behaves like a solid and a liquid. In the Planet Oobleck activity, learners not only make and test oobleck with different tools, they also design a spacecraft that could land on an oobleck-covered planet, take a planetary sample, and return to Earth. Learners can compare their designs with others online, and engineer a model spacecraft to test on their oobleck concoction.
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is part of the probability lesson in the When Pigs Fly activity. Learners read the book and brainstorm possible and impossible activities—making predictions, recording data and graphing results.
- Constellation Sun Prints (inspired by There’s No Place Like Space) || Figment Creative Labs
- STEAM / STEM Challenge (Inspired by Giraffes Can’t Dance) || Preschool Powol Packets
- Storytime LEGO Building Challenge || Left Brain Craft Brain
- Architectural STEM with the 3 Little Pigs (Inspired by The Three Little Pigs : An Architectural Tale || Little Bins for Little Hands
- Log Pile House Building Challenge (inspired by The Gruffalo) || Inspiration Laboratories
- Wiggle Pig (Inspired by Robot Army Rampage) || STEAM Powered Family
- 100 Invitations to Build (Inspired by Iggy Peck, Architect) || Left Brain Craft Brain
- Tinkering Station for Young Engineers || Left Brain Craft Brain
- Fantasy Structures (Inspired by Iggy Peck, Architect) || Flash Bugs Studio
- 10 Math Books and Tools to learn Measurement || Edventures with Kids
- Multiplication by 8 Spider Craft (inspired by Charlotte’s Web) || Thriving STEM
- Fun with Color Mixing (Inspired by Mix It Up) || Gift of Curiosity
- DIY Upcycled Guitar (inspired by Pete the Cat – Rocking in my School Shoes) || Preschool STEAM
- Simple Braille Slate and Stylus (inspired by Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille) || Pink Stripey Socks
- Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty
- Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building by Christy Hale. Kids at play mirror great feats of engineering around the world. A fantastic book for preschoolers.
- Calpurnia Tate, Girl Vet (series) by Jacqueline Kelly. This is a spin off of the excellent middle grade novel about a budding young naturalist, Calpurnia (see below). In this series, Calpurnia and her younger brother learn to take care of the local wildlife.
- Zoey and Sassafras (series) by Asia Citro. This 3 book series about a can-do girl scientist who hones her skills by taking care of magical creatures will charm you. I especially love the winsome illustrations.
- 7 x 9 = Trouble! and Fractions = Trouble! by Claudia Mills Third grader, Wilson is embarrassed that he struggles with math in school. He dreads timed tests and fears his friends will find out he has a tutor.
- Trouble Next Door (Carver Chronicle series) by Karen English. This book thoughtfully presents a moral dilemma that Calvin must work through as he learns how to make the right decisions when his science fair data doesn’t connect the dots in the way he wants.
- The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill. The practical side of math is highlighted when sixth-graders Rufus and Kate decide to invent a superior toothpaste, sell it and make their fortunes. First published 40 years ago, Jean Merrill’s book (she also wrote The Pushcart War) is still a highly entertaining celebration of the imaginative spirit.
- Phineas L. MacGuire . . . Erupts!: The First Experiment (series) by Frances O’Roark Dowell. Phineas (aka “Mac”) is a fourth grader who goes through life looking at everything from a scientific angle. He observes, collects and applies data and when he is paired with the new kid at school for a science experiment they have to figure out how to work together. The end of the book even includes several experiments for readers to try at home.
- Sophie Simon Solves Them All by Lisa Graff. A “humorously brusque” heroine who is a genius in spite of her parents who aren’t quite sure why she would want to learn about calculus at the tender age of eight. Sophie, on the other hand, is still learning all about what it means to have friends.
- Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor (series) by Jon Scieska, is a very funny series that is great for so-called “reluctant readers.” Frank is a boy genius bent on winning a science competition with his robot inventions but his rival, T. Edison, is determined to thwart him.
- Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist by Jim Benton. Franny is a young mad scientist. but I Her problems are that of a normal kid. She just wants to fit in with the other kids at school. Since she is a scientist she makes observations about what the other kids are doing (playing with dolls, dressing “cute”) and eating (squishy white bread sandwiches instead of pumpkin ravioli) and then conducts experiments to see how best she can adapt.
The Water Princess K - 4 brings us to a different continent where water is a precious resource that is not easily gotten.
Science and History Around the World.
- The Kite that Bridged Two Nations: Homan Walsh and the First Niagara Suspension Bridge and SMILE's Sled Kite activity;
- LIVES OF THE SCIENTISTS: EXPERIMENTS, EXPLOSIONS (AND WHAT THE NEIGHBORS THOUGHT and SMILE's Building With Wonderful Junk;
- Tutankhamun: The Mystery of the Boy King and SMILE's Tomb Mapping;
- Maria's Comet and SMILE's Make a Model Comet and Eat It!;
- What Color Is My World?: The Lost History of African-American Inventors and SMILE's Seeing is Believing;
- George Washington, Spymaster: How the Americans Outspied the British and Won the Revolutionary War and SMILE's George Washington's Secret Code;
- Stowaway and SMILE's Maritime Munchies;
- The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkinsand SMILE's Waterhouse Hawkins and the Nano Dinosphere Museum;
- Castle and SMILE's Construction and Destruction;
- The Emperor's Silent Army: Terracotta Warriors of Ancient China and SMILE's Building an Army.
11 Experiments that Failed by Jenny Offill, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. A fun take on the scientific process that teaches kids that failure is a crucial part of learning.
CommonLit’s website full of fiction and non-fiction leveled passages for students in fifth through twelfth grade. It organizes texts into collections to make it easy for teachers to find a passage to share with their students.
Papa’s Mechanical Fish by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Boris Kulikov. This book was inspired by inventor Lodner Phillips, the creator of one of the first modern submarines. Lodner’s children observe their father inventing one “mechanical fish” after another. Determined to make a workable submarine, he tests each new invention out, adding improvements and starting over again.
Galimoto by Karen Lynn Williams, illustrated by Catherine Stock. A galimoto is simply a push toy crafted out of found material. Kondi wants to make a galimoto out of wire, he’s been saving up in his shoebox. Undeterred by his short supply he wanders around his village in search of more wire. His determination to make a galimoto is also admired by the others he meets during his search and that despite a few obstacles he remains persistent.
The Dot, Ish and Sky Color by Peter Reynolds. Turn STEM into STEAM with the “Creatrilogy” books. This best selling trio of books about the ability of small moments to transform into big creative endeavors. Each one encourages kids to look around them to find art in their own world.
Chapter Books
- Chasing Vermeer (series) by Blue Balliet, illustrated by Brett Helquist. This book is a tour de force! When a painting is stolen, friends Petra and Calder team up to find the thief. The thief leaves a series of clues in the newspaper and challenges the community to become art detectives. If they solve the mystery, he will return the painting. Illustrator Brett Helquist incorporates clues for the reader throughout the book’s illustrations. These clues revolve around pentominoes (a math puzzle).
- The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, illustrated by Jules Feiffer. Oh, you thought The Phantom Tollbooth was just about grammar and word play? Don’t forget Milo and Tock visit Digitopolis, chat up a Dodecahedron and explore curious mathematical concepts like infinity with a mathematician.
- The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, illustrated by Rotraut Susanne Berner. This is an odd sort of book, translated from the German. 12 year old Robert has trouble with math and each night in his dreams he meets the Number Devil who helps him understand various mathematical concepts, some of which are quite advanced. Illustrations are in color, which is unusual for a chapter book and math concepts are visually displayed.
- The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (series) by Jacqueline Kelly. In 1899, Calpurnia loathes the expectations set for 12 year old girls; she’d much rather read Darwin’s The Origin of Species and catch and study wildlife with her naturalist Granddaddy. I loved this tale of a girl coming of age at a time when natural science and engineering discoveries were changing the world.
- Secret Coders (series) by Gene Luen Yang, illustrated by Mike Holmes. Hopper is the new kid at school and she starts things off on the wrong foot. She gets her hackles up when she gets into a tussle on her first day at the strange and creepy Stately Academy but soon Hopper and another student, Eni, team up to solve the mystery of the school. There are binary numbers to figure out, coding puzzles to solve and computer programs to unravel. If your kids can spend hours on coding websites, convince them to enjoy some off-screen time while working on the same type of problems—but with a book.
- The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. Hugo lives in the walls of a Paris train station when his secretive life is interrupted by the connections he makes with an unusual girl and an elderly toy vendor. A magical, marvelous, intricate, mysterious and stunning book that will inspire kids to tinker and build.
- The Friendship Experiment by Erin Teagan. Madeline is starting middle school. She misses her scientist grandfather and decides to apply her research formula, what she calls her “Standard Operating Formula,” to her social life. This is a great book for kids who might not naturally be drawn to science.
- Nick and Tesla’s High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself (series) by Bob Pflugfelder, illustrated by Steve Hockensmith. 12 year old twins, Nick and Tesla live with their mad scientist uncle. They spend their days building crazy inventions, conducting science experiments and trying to solve mysteries. Instructions for the projects are included in the books along withe the necessary safety precautions.
- The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages. In 1943, 10 year old Dewey works on her own inventive and scientific projects while her father lives and works in the secret scientific community working on the development of the atom bomb. After her father’s death and the testing of the bomb, Dewey and her friend struggle with the moral implications.
- The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Youth Edition) by William Kamkwamba, and Bryan Mealer, illustrated by Anna Hymas. Your children will be inspired by the true story of how William Kamkwamba brought wind power to his African village.
STEAM Science Books (K - 3) Includes STEAM Coonection activities
Books That Grow is a digital reading platform featuring fiction and non fiction texts that adapt to the student's reading ability, so that students of varied abilities can read and learn together. Video overview
Nonfiction eBooks Focusing on STEAM Unite for Literacy
Provides free access to more than 185 books available in approximately 35 language narrations. The ebooks, which are organized by topic, are mostly nonfiction with an emphasis on STEAM They include high-interest themes, such as animals and plants, and migrants
Love Science (android app) Kids Love Science series of stories are written for children of ages 3-10, with the aim entertaining these youngsters while introducing them to significant achievements in the history of science, exploration and adventure.
Wow in the World, NPR’s first podcasts aimed at K–6 students, guides curious children away from their screens and on a journey to connect and discover the wonders of the world around them. Through a combination of careful scientific research and fun, students go inside their brains, out into space, and deep into the coolest new stories in science and technology. For example, in the “Dinosaurs’ Puzzling Backbones” podcast, students discover how 170,000-pound dinosaurs walked around without collapsing under their own weight. In “It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s A … FLYING TAXI?!” students ponder where in the world we will see the first flying taxis, what the taxis will look like, and who will operate them.
STEM Challenge with the Novel, Hatchet
What to do with a Problem? video version
What do you do with an Idea? video version
Sleeping Beauty and Enchanted Engineering lesson plan
Save Sam with STEM! With a gummy worm, gummy lifesaver, a cup, and a paperclip, students will work in teams of two to solve a STEM challenge. Based on a popular STEM activity, we have added the engineering design process to this free activity. Good for an introduction to engineering in grades k-6 or a staff workshop
Jack and the Parachute A simple STEM engineering project where students make a parachute to help Jack escape the giant..
Class Activity: Make an Alarm
After reading the story Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary, students will build an alarm system for something in the classroom, as the main character Leigh does to protect his lunchbox from thieves. Students will learn about alarms and use their creativity to create an alarm system to protect their lockers, desk, or classroom door.
Current Events Readings
NEWSELA gr K-12 emphasis on nonfiction reading,provides daily current events articles written specifically for K–12 students. Each day the site adds three new articles to the collection. Categories include, Science, Health and Arts. For every article, there are versions written at different levels. Also an app
Breaking News - Are you looking for a site filled with great news articles? Discover this wonderful resource that allows you to assign a reading that provides same content at different reading levels.
Readworks.org should definitely be on your list. This website offers a wide range of lesson plans, comprehension units, and reading passages organized by skill and Lexile level.
DOGOnews a next-generation online network empowering kids to engage with digital media in a fun, safe and social environment. News section has current events and news from all around the world. Written for and in some cases by children. The Maps section is an interactive way for younger readers to read news headlines geotagged on a world map. Learn about the world and see where it’s happening. Also, teachers can set up their own DOGONews page and create a very personalized learning experience for their kids.
TeachUNICEF is an outreach project from UNICEF. The goal of the site is to provide lesson plans and other resources to help teachers teach about wide variety of global issues. The "explore" section of TeachUNICEF showcases materials for teaching about global issues with connections to social studies, science, math, English/language arts, foreign/world languages. Teachers can filter the results according to topic and grade level.