Christmas STEM and STEAM Activities

Christmas STEM Activities for Kids

Ho, ho, ho! Try out these Christmas STEM activities this holiday season to keep students engaged all the way until holiday break. I have created twelve fun AND differentiated STEM and STEAM activities that range from simple towers to moving conveyors!

Get started with Christmas STEM

Jump right in with peppermint candy and have students create either a tower or a bridge. Don't forget to follow the engineering design process! While you don't need to spend a lot of time on each step, it is important to follow the process. Kids will want to start building right away! One way to avoid this is to hold off on building material distribution until after a design sketch has been completed.

Then move on to a gingerbread house! If you are working with upper elementary or middle school kids, create the house with cardboard and have them add a simple circuit to light up their house.

STEM Strength Challenge - Support the Weight of the Stocking Goodies!

An empty stocking is not that difficult to support, but what about all of the goodies Santa leaves? Students will need to design a counterbalance system to keep the stocking from falling. This is a great activity to practice the testing phase of an engineering design challenge. It's also important to make sure that your testing set-up is safe so that no toes are injured when the stockings inevitably fall!

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Design and create a jingle bell for Christmas! Use metal objects to create a jingling bell.

Once the bell design is complete, change up the challenge by having students create a way to silence the jingle bell.

Help the Elves in the Workshop

Moving gifts around in the workshop is no easy task! Help the elves by designing and creating a conveyor belt! This challenge is perfect for showing how rotational motion can be converted into translational motion.

Find these and more activities in the 12 Christmas STEM Challenges Activity pack! Not only will you find more detailed instructions for the above challenges, but each challenge comes with a colorful poster and engineering design recording page!

CONTENTS of the Christmas STEM Resource

• Suggested Material List
• STEM Challenge Tips: General tips for any STEM challenge.
• Teacher Notes: includes terminology and differentiation ideas.
• Christmas STEM decor
• Poster and dedicated recording page for each of the 12 main STEM challenges that guide the students through the engineering design process. Some of the challenges have an additional recording page for added difficulty, or to include metric measurements.
• Challenges
  • Christmas Tree
  • Parachute Gift Drop
  • Workshop Conveyor Belt
  • Snowball Launcher
  • Stocking Holder
  • Candy Structures
  • Reindeer Shelter
  • Jingle Bell
  • Gingerbread House
  • Elf Zip Line
  • Sleigh for Santa
  • Christmas Maze
   

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