STEM Activities
-Make a Marble Maze: Grab some plastic straws, some cardboard, glue, and a marble and challenge your kids to design and make their own marble maze.
-Make and Test Aluminum Foil Boats :
Challenge your kids to make boats out of aluminum foil. Then test how much weight they can hold by filling them with pennies in the bathtub or a kiddie pool.
Challenge your kids to make boats out of aluminum foil. Then test how much weight they can hold by filling them with pennies in the bathtub or a kiddie pool.
-The Paper Chain Challenge : Challenge your kids to make the longest paper chain they can with a single piece of paper.
-Lego Tower Challenge: Challenge your kids to build the tallest tower they can with a predetermined amount of Lego blocks.
-The Egg Drop Challenge: Challenge your kids to design and build a contraption that will keep an egg from breaking if dropped from a predetermined height.
-Build and Test Bridges: Challenge your kids to build a bridge out of whatever materials you have available (popsicle sticks, legos, toothpicks, etc...). Make sure you set a minimum length the bridges have to span. Then test their strength with coins, pebbles, or books.
-Make a Kite: Challenge your kids to design and build their own kite. Materials we've used in the past are wooden dowels, plastic straws, chopsticks, plastic table cloths, plastic bags, and paper.
-Toothpick Towers: Build towers out of toothpicks and marshmallows or toothpicks and gumdrops.
-Penny Spinners: Make spinning tops out of cardboard and pennies. Check out the link above from Teach Beside Me for instructions.
-Marshmallow Shooters: Build marshmallow shooters with plastic containers and balloons. Check out the link from Coffee Cups & Crayons above for instructions.
-Chain Reaction Challenge: Challenge your kids to set up a domino style chain reaction.
-Make and Test Paper Airplanes: Fold N Fly has lots of designs to try here.
-Make a Kite: Challenge your kids to design and build their own kite. Materials we've used in the past are wooden dowels, plastic straws, chopsticks, plastic table cloths, plastic bags, and paper.
-Toothpick Towers: Build towers out of toothpicks and marshmallows or toothpicks and gumdrops.
-Penny Spinners: Make spinning tops out of cardboard and pennies. Check out the link above from Teach Beside Me for instructions.
-Marshmallow Shooters: Build marshmallow shooters with plastic containers and balloons. Check out the link from Coffee Cups & Crayons above for instructions.
-Chain Reaction Challenge: Challenge your kids to set up a domino style chain reaction.
-Make and Test Paper Airplanes: Fold N Fly has lots of designs to try here.
Messy Play
-Sensory Bins: Fill a small plastic bin or a water table with fun materials to play with. Some of our favorites are: rainbow rice, sand, kinetic sand, dry beans, and nature items like pebbles, shells, mud, pinecones, acorns, etc....
-Make Slime: There are tons of slime recipes out there, here are links to recipes for a few of our favorites: Borax Slime, Saline Solution Slime, Edible Pudding Slime.
-Decorate Mud Pies: Grab some old cake pans or disposable aluminum pie pans and let your kids make mud pies. Then decorate them with leaves, flowers, pebbles, etc...
-Chalk Painting: Mix 2/3 cup of water with 1/2 cup of cornstarch and some food dye to make sidewalk chalk paint. Then let your kids paint the driveway with paintbrushes or small sponges.
You can also make chalk paint by crushing up sidewalk chalk and mixing it with water.
-Chalk Painting: Mix 2/3 cup of water with 1/2 cup of cornstarch and some food dye to make sidewalk chalk paint. Then let your kids paint the driveway with paintbrushes or small sponges.
You can also make chalk paint by crushing up sidewalk chalk and mixing it with water.
-Squirt Gun Painting: Fill squirt guns with watered down food coloring or liquid watercolors. Tape some white paper to a fence or tree, and let your kids make art with their squirt guns!
-Baking Soda and Vinegar Reactions: Play around with baking soda and vinegar reactions. If you add a little dish soap to your baking soda before you add vinegar, you'll get a super sudsy eruption. Click the link for more baking soda vinegar reactions to try.
-Make and Test Bubble Wands: Challenge your kids to make their own bubble wands and then test them. Materials that work well are pipe cleaners, straws, toilet paper rolls, and even string.
-Frozen Chalk Painting: If you mix equal parts of cornstarch and water, pour it into ice cube trays, add some food coloring to each cube, and then freeze it, you get frozen sidewalk chalk cubes! These are so much fun!
-Homemade Playdough: There are lots of diy playdough recipes out there. Most are pretty simple and only require a few ingredients. Here are a couple of my favorites:
The BEST Playdough Recipe from I Heart Naptime
No Cook Playdough from Little Bins for Little Hands
4 Ingredient Playdough from Red Tricycle
-Finger Painting: You can finger paint with real finger paints, or any washable nontoxic paints. You can even finger paint with pudding or mud! Or you can try making your own finger paints with cornstarch, water, and food coloring with this simple recipe from Learning 4 Kids: Homemade Edible Finger Paint
-Play with Oobleck: Mix two parts cornstarch to one part water in a bowl with a little food coloring. The result is soooooo neat!
The BEST Playdough Recipe from I Heart Naptime
No Cook Playdough from Little Bins for Little Hands
4 Ingredient Playdough from Red Tricycle
-Finger Painting: You can finger paint with real finger paints, or any washable nontoxic paints. You can even finger paint with pudding or mud! Or you can try making your own finger paints with cornstarch, water, and food coloring with this simple recipe from Learning 4 Kids: Homemade Edible Finger Paint
-Play with Oobleck: Mix two parts cornstarch to one part water in a bowl with a little food coloring. The result is soooooo neat!
Crafts
-Leaf Rubbings: Collect some leaves from your yard and place a few under white sheets of paper. Color over them gently with the long side of a crayon with the paper peeled off. If you want to you can paint over your leaf rubbings with water color paints.
-DIY Suncatchers You can make your own suncatchers from recycled plastic and some paint. This would could be a great Earth Day craft. Click the link for the full instructions.
-DIY Suncatchers You can make your own suncatchers from recycled plastic and some paint. This would could be a great Earth Day craft. Click the link for the full instructions.
-Make Jewelry: Pull out beads, and string or pipe cleaners, and make jewelry. If you don't have any beads, make your own with a little food dye, vinegar, and macaroni or penne noodles. Just stick your noodles, a generous amount of food dye, and a tablespoon of vinegar in a tupperware with a tight fitting lid or a ziplock bag. Shake it around and then let it sit about 10 minutes. Drain the liquid and remove the noodles from the bag or container. Set them in the sun to dry.
-Pinecone Bird Feeders: Collect a few pinecones from your yard. Tie a loop with a piece of string from the top, then spread a little peanut butter over the pinecone and roll in bird seed. Then you can hang them in your yard or from your porch or balcony, and observe the birds that come to visit.
-Paper Chain Snakes: Make paper chains and then decorate them to look like snakes with markers or other craft supplies.
-Water Color Resist Paintings: Draw on white paper with white crayons, then paint over it with water colors and watch your invisible drawings appear!
-Toilet Paper Roll Animals: Make animals out of toilet paper rolls and construction paper.
-Paper Lunch Sack Puppets: Make hand puppets out of brown paper lunch sacks and markers or other craft supplies.
-Paper Pinwheels: Make a pinwheel out of paper, a pushpin, and a staw. Click the link for the full instructions.
-Paint with Toy Cars: Grab some washable paint and some white paper and let your kids make works of art by driving their toy cars through paint on the paper.
-Bubble Painting: Add some food coloring to some bubble solution. Then blow bubbles at white paper using bubble wands and straws, making beautiful art work!
-Salt Painting: Make designs on white paper with school glue and then sprinkle with salt. Shake off the excess salt, and then drop drops of liquid watercolors or watered down food coloring onto the salt lines with a paint brush or dropper. Watch as the colors spread up and down your designs!
-Nature Stamping: Collect leaves, pine needles, flowers, and other nature items from around your yard or neighborhood. Paint them with washable paint and wipe off the excess, then use them as stamps to make prints on paper.
-Toilet Paper Roll Animals: Make animals out of toilet paper rolls and construction paper.
-Paper Lunch Sack Puppets: Make hand puppets out of brown paper lunch sacks and markers or other craft supplies.
-Paper Pinwheels: Make a pinwheel out of paper, a pushpin, and a staw. Click the link for the full instructions.
-Paint with Toy Cars: Grab some washable paint and some white paper and let your kids make works of art by driving their toy cars through paint on the paper.
-Bubble Painting: Add some food coloring to some bubble solution. Then blow bubbles at white paper using bubble wands and straws, making beautiful art work!
-Salt Painting: Make designs on white paper with school glue and then sprinkle with salt. Shake off the excess salt, and then drop drops of liquid watercolors or watered down food coloring onto the salt lines with a paint brush or dropper. Watch as the colors spread up and down your designs!
-Nature Stamping: Collect leaves, pine needles, flowers, and other nature items from around your yard or neighborhood. Paint them with washable paint and wipe off the excess, then use them as stamps to make prints on paper.
Simple Science
-The Naked Egg Experiment: If you have an egg you can spare, stick one in a cup of vinegar for day or two. The shell will dissolve away leaving the rest of the egg intact inside a somewhat clear membrane. It's really cool!
-The Hot Ice Experiment: this is a pretty awesome experiment I found over at From Playdough to Plato, and it only requires a couple simple kitchen ingredients.
-Make a Cloud in a Jar: Make an actual cloud in a glass jar using a bowl of ice and some hairspray. Click the link for the full instructions.
-Make a Backyard Weather Station: You can make a rain gauge, a wind vane, and even a barometer with some simple supplies you likely have around the house.
-Sprout a Bean in a Bag: Stick a damp paper towel and a bean in a clear plastic ziploc bag. Seal it and tape it to a window, and enjoy watching it sprout.
Backyard Fun
-Set Up an Obstacle Course: Set up an obstacle course in your yard with whatever supplies you have on hand. Hang hula hoops to climb through, set up cones to run around, if you have monkey bars or a climbing structure incorporate that. Then time your kids on your phone's stopwatch and challenge them to try to beat that time.
-Build a Fort: Build a backyard fort with blankets, sticks, tarps, whatever you have on hand.
-Water Relay Races: If your weather is warm enough, try some backyard water games. One of our favorites requires a sponge or two, a cup or bowl, and a bigger bowl. Fill the bigger bowl with water and set it on one side of your lawn. Set the smaller empty bowl or cup on the opposite side of the lawn. Then challenge your kids to transfer the water from the big bowl to the other using the sponges. For more backyard water games, click the link above.
-Make a Sidewalk Chalk Mural: Pick a theme and draw a giant mural on your driveway with sidewalk chalk.
-Go on a Scavenger Hunt: Grab a couple baskets or bags, pick a theme, and make a list of items for your kids to hunt for in the backyard or around your neighborhood. Here are a few of our favorite scavenger hunt themes: signs of spring, colors, shapes, letters of the alphabet.
-Have a Backyard Camp Out: Set up your tent and let your kids pretend you're on a camping trip. You could even roast marshmallows over the barbecue.
-Plant Seeds: Plant seeds and watch them grow!
-Make Nature Art: Collect nature items from around your yard like pebbles, leaves, sticks, sea shells, etc... then use them to make designs or pictures!
Backyard Fun
-Set Up an Obstacle Course: Set up an obstacle course in your yard with whatever supplies you have on hand. Hang hula hoops to climb through, set up cones to run around, if you have monkey bars or a climbing structure incorporate that. Then time your kids on your phone's stopwatch and challenge them to try to beat that time.
-Build a Fort: Build a backyard fort with blankets, sticks, tarps, whatever you have on hand.
-Water Relay Races: If your weather is warm enough, try some backyard water games. One of our favorites requires a sponge or two, a cup or bowl, and a bigger bowl. Fill the bigger bowl with water and set it on one side of your lawn. Set the smaller empty bowl or cup on the opposite side of the lawn. Then challenge your kids to transfer the water from the big bowl to the other using the sponges. For more backyard water games, click the link above.
-Make a Sidewalk Chalk Mural: Pick a theme and draw a giant mural on your driveway with sidewalk chalk.
-Go on a Scavenger Hunt: Grab a couple baskets or bags, pick a theme, and make a list of items for your kids to hunt for in the backyard or around your neighborhood. Here are a few of our favorite scavenger hunt themes: signs of spring, colors, shapes, letters of the alphabet.
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| Color Hunt |
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| Shape Hunt |
-Plant Seeds: Plant seeds and watch them grow!
-Make Nature Art: Collect nature items from around your yard like pebbles, leaves, sticks, sea shells, etc... then use them to make designs or pictures!
SO many creative and engaging ideas that also provide wonderful teaching moments. Thank you for putting this together.
ReplyDeleteYour welcome! Thanks for checking it out!
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