The Maker Movement
Little Makers is a daycare inspired by the maker movement, which encourages learners to use time, space, and a variety of tools to create, tinker, and invent. This approach aligns with STEAM learning and taps into the natural curiosity and questioning at the heart of early childhood education. Children use loose parts and building materials to invent, finish stories, solve problems, and share ideas, formalizing the kind of exploratory making children have done for centuries.
Multi-age Learning
Little Makers uses a multiage model that mirrors family life, where children learn alongside peers at different developmental stages rather than being separated strictly by age. This helps counter the age isolation common in many daycare and school settings and creates a classroom culture where children naturally observe, imitate, and build on one another’s ideas.
In this environment, older children practice leadership, empathy, and support, while younger children gain exposure to more advanced language, problem solving, and creative thinking. Because children are constantly watching others create and experiment, multiage learning strengthens collaboration and makes shared discovery part of everyday learning.
Parent Partnerships
Parent partnerships are about building a strong foundation between school and home, not about peer learning within the classroom. The program emphasizes close communication with families through daily updates and regular conversations about how to support each child’s growth both at daycare and at home.
This partnership reflects the idea that early childhood education works best as a shared effort, with parents and caregivers actively involved in a child’s development. Framing it this way keeps the focus on trust, consistency, and communication, which is different from the child-centered social and developmental benefits of the multiage classroom.
How STEAM Learning Happens
At Little Makers, learning is experiential: children try something, see what happens, adjust, and try again, mirroring the scientific process. STEAM education harnesses this natural experimentation, treating young children as “little scientists” who explore and test new ideas through play. Because STEAM competencies (curiosity, testing hypotheses, creativity) are universal, they work across the 0–5 age range, with the same materials becoming more complex and purposeful as children grow.
STEAM for All Learners
STEAM activities are adapted for each developmental stage while keeping the same core domains: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. Infants investigate the world through their senses and simple tools, while pre‑toddlers and toddlers begin manipulating tools, testing ideas, and building with materials. Preschoolers engage in more complex testing, problem solving, building, pretend play, and early symbolic math, using STEAM tools to explore and invent at a deeper level.
From Philosophy to Curriculum
Click to learn more about how learning through exploration works in practice in each classroom
Little Makers STEAM Early Learning Center