From Cooking Up Literacy to Unearthing a Story: Families Explore Literacy and STEM Together

A night of mysteries, movement, excavation, reading—and

plenty of discovery—at McDonough Public Library

What happens when a story doesn't stay on the page?

Last Thursday night at McDonough Public Library, nine families helped us answer that question.

Children and caregivers didn't simply sit and listen to Unearth a Story. They became part of it.

They participated in Reader's Theater. They followed a mystery. They navigated through learning zones. They investigated clues. They excavated hidden objects. They sang. They learned new vocabulary. And, importantly, parents and children stopped to read and learn together

.

There was plenty of laughter along the way.

We are especially grateful to Anna Cogdill and McDonough Public Library for welcoming What's Stirring Family Foundation and creating space for this kind of interactive family learning experience.

A Different Kind of What's Stirring Experience

Unearth a Story is not Cooking Up Literacy, the signature family engagement program of What's Stirring Family Foundation.

Cooking Up Literacy brings families together around food and nutrition while integrating reading, vocabulary, movement, singing and hands-on learning.

This time, we removed the food and put STEM and mystery at the forefront.

Families had a problem to solve.

The room became part of the story, with families moving through different learning zones as they followed clues and investigated what might have happened. Our facilitator model was intentionally designed so families would observe, discuss, move, investigate and explore rather than spend the hour simply listening to presenters.

But something important remained exactly the same as Cooking Up Literacy:

Children and caregivers were learning together.

Youth Were Helping Lead the Experience

This program also gave Daniel and Alonna a different role.

They served as co-presenters and co-creators of the experience alongside me.

Daniel helped create props and illustrations for our vocabulary anchor charts. Both Daniel and Alonna contributed ideas and suggestions as we developed the Reader's Theater, helping us think about an important question:

Will this actually be fun for kids?

Their input helped us make the experience more interactive and child-friendly.

During the program, they weren't simply reading scripted lines. They helped move families through the story, reveal clues, encourage participation and facilitate the learning experience.

That was a meaningful evolution from our first Cooking Up Literacy pilot at St. Peter Claver, where Daniel and Alonna participated as youth researchers while Middle Georgia State University students helped facilitate the learning zones.

At McDonough, Daniel and Alonna helped facilitate the experience themselves.

Then Came the Excavation

One of the most exciting moments came when families reached the excavation portion of the mystery.

The program was designed around the idea that natural objects can tell stories through their texture, shape, environment and other evidence. The original facilitator framework included rocks, shells, pine cones and leaves as comparison specimens and emphasized that children should observe carefully rather than automatically assume an object was a fossil.

During the event, children and their caregivers worked together at the excavation site, searching through the material and examining what they uncovered.

The adults weren't supposed to immediately tell their children what something was.

Instead, we wanted families to look, question and think together.

And that's when one of my favorite moments of the evening happened.

“What Is Evidence?”

After the investigation, I directed parents to work with their children on their Evidence Sheets.

As I was explaining what families should do, one child asked a wonderfully simple question:

“What is evidence?”

His question stopped me.

Earlier, I had prepared an illustrated EVIDENCE vocabulary anchor chart. It was still on the floor, intentionally hidden because we had not reached that clue in the experience.

His question reminded me that we had reached the moment when he needed it.

So I went back, retrieved the anchor chart, revealed it to the group and explained the word with the visual illustration.

Then I placed it on the board where children and parents could see it while completing their Evidence Sheets.

The program guide defines evidence as information that supports an explanation and asks families to connect what they believe with how they know it.

But that evening, evidence wasn't a vocabulary word introduced simply because it appeared on our lesson plan.

A child needed the word to understand what he was doing.

He asked.

We answered.

And then he immediately had an opportunity to use the concept.

That is the kind of learning moment we hope to create.

Helping Parents Become Learning Partners

Another goal was less visible but just as important.

We wanted parents to leave with simple ways to support literacy and learning beyond the library.

So while families investigated and later read together, we circulated instead of standing at the front of the room.

We encouraged caregivers to resist giving children answers immediately and instead try questions such as:

“What do you notice?”

“What did you discover?”

“What makes you think that?”

“What evidence do you see?”

“What do you think will happen next?”

Those aren't questions that require a parent to be a science teacher.

They are questions a caregiver can use while reading a book at bedtime, walking outside, looking at an insect, visiting a park or trying to figure out why something happened.

That was intentional. Our family literacy challenge extends the same strategy into the home by encouraging families to read together and pause to notice, identify clues, make predictions and support ideas with evidence.

Family literacy isn't only about getting a child to read. It can also be about helping adults know what to say and do while they read and learn with their children.

Reading and STEM Belonged in the Same Adventure

The shared-reading portion gave families an opportunity to slow down after all that movement and investigation.

Our program materials connected families with books about topics including fossils, dinosaurs, explorers, archaeology, nature and mysteries.

Parents and children explored books together while we circulated and continued asking questions.

And that's where the relationship between literacy and STEM became especially clear.

To solve the mystery, children had to listen and comprehend.

To navigate, they had to interpret information.

To investigate, they had to observe.

To explain their thinking, they needed vocabulary.

To determine what happened, they needed clues and evidence.

And when they wanted to learn more, they could turn to books.

Good reading and scientific thinking didn't compete for time that evening.

They strengthened one another.

Parents Told Us What Their Children Discovered

The response from participating caregivers was encouraging. Parents expressed orally and through their written evaluations how much they enjoyed the experience.

But some of the most meaningful comments weren't about whether the event was “fun.”

They told us what their children had learned.

One caregiver wrote:

“This was the first time for my daughter learning what a compass is and does.”

Another shared:

“We discovered the old oak tree. Also, compass was new to her vocabulary.”

Those comments matter because they point to something that can easily get lost when we talk about family engagement.

A child can be laughing, moving, singing and digging through an excavation site—and still be building vocabulary, comprehension and scientific understanding at the same time.

What We Learned, Too

Nine families participated in this experience. That's a small enough group that we were able to move around the room, listen to children's questions, interact with caregivers and adjust when a learning opportunity presented itself.

We aren't going to make sweeping claims from one evening with nine families.

But the experience gave us something worth exploring further.

It showed us what can happen when family literacy, STEM investigation, storytelling, movement, music, youth leadership and caregiver engagement are intentionally brought together.

It also reinforced the value of designing programs in which children aren't asked to choose between learning and having fun.

They can do both.

Where Could We Unearth a Story Next?

We hope Unearth a Story can continue evolving through partnerships with public libraries and school libraries throughout Metro Atlanta and Middle Georgia.

There is much more we would like to explore: how repeated experiences might strengthen children's STEM vocabulary and curiosity, how caregivers can become more confident learning partners, how youth can take meaningful leadership roles, and how libraries can become spaces where families don't simply find stories on shelves—but step inside stories and investigate them together.

Cooking Up Literacy showed us that families can read, move, sing, learn about nutrition and prepare food together.

Unearth a Story reminded us that the same family-centered philosophy can travel somewhere completely different.

Sometimes families can cook up literacy.

Sometimes they can follow the clues.

And sometimes...

they can unearth a story together.

What's Stirring Family Foundation creates interactive family learning experiences that bring children and caregivers together around literacy, curiosity, exploration and discovery.w