Low Prep Halloween STEM Activities for Kids of All Ages

Halloween STEM Activities for Kids of All Ages

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate with kids, and I don't even like spooky, horror, etc.! I think of it as a time of year to dress up or be playful, share candy with friends, and try out some fun Halloween-themed STEM challenges.

Try these STEM challenges with your kids and let me know how they went!

Create a Twirling Bat

All you need for this one is paper! Students can design their own paper bat, or you can find printable bat templates to test out. You can find templates in the Halloween STEM resource listed at the end of this post. Watch a video of a twirling bat in this video:

Create a Spooky Ghost Chain!

For this one you only need paper and tape (or staples). Using only one piece of paper, can your students create the longest ghost chain possible? To make this more challenging, have them see how much candy (like candy corn) the chain can support the weight of (they may need to rig up a paper cup or other basket-like device to hold the candy corn).

Design and Create a Candy "Bank"

While you can use real candies for this, I always avoid anything edible for STEM (it's just a personal preference). You can print out images of candy in different sizes and challenge your students to create a bank that the candy will fit in. It can have either one or multiple slots.

Create a SLIME Mold!

Slime is always popular for students to play with or work with. See if your kids can create a shape to contain the slime and then observe what happens as they fill it. You can specify a maximum size or challenge them to create specific shapes (circle, triangle, square, etc.). Use your favorite slime recipe and see what your students create!

Get the Resource!

 

If you would like to find even more low-prep Halloween STEM activities, I have put together a resource with 12 (!) - it includes teacher instructions, recording pages for each challenge, plus a poster you can display in your STEM Center or makerspace, or if you are having a Family STEM night for Halloween, you can hang the posters on each table for STEM stations.

 

 

Save these ideas for later by pinning them:

STEM Activities for the First Week of School

STEM Class Activities for the First Week of School

If you want to get to know a little more about your students, and get them started to think like scientists, mathematicians, and engineers, I have some great ideas for you!

Get to Know You Activities for STEM Class

Get to know your new STEM students with an All About Me activity! The Math About Me and Science About Me activities are perfect for this. With multiple options, depending on what grade you teach, there is something for everyone. These activities have your students think about things in a slightly different way.

 

For example, in the Math About Me activity, their age can be displayed as a mathematical expression (such as 48÷4), while in the Science About Me activity, the banner asks students to write down how many solar orbits they have taken (their age).

Collaborative Activities and Team Builders

ABC STEM Game: Try to think of a "STEM word" for each letter of the alphabet as a class. You might start with "astronaut, architect, or ASK (the first step of the Engineering Design Process).

Find Your Pair or Find Your Team: Use sets of colored straws, pencils, colored dice, or mini erasers. Pass out one to each student and then have them find the other student(s) with the same color/type of object. You can also use pairing cards such as these. This is great for when you want to build STEM teams, too!

Find all my favorite STEM Team Builders and Icebreakers in this post:

STEM Lab Rules and Expectations

It's important to go over safety rules for all equipment, your specific rules to your classroom, and then to set expectations for students. You may have some you start with and you may want to ask your students to help come up with some basic ones too.

Some ideas for STEM rules and expectations:

• Only operate equipment you've been trained to use. safety
  
• Report accidents right away.  safety
  
• Clean up your workspace when you are finished. responsibility
  
• Listen to your teammates. It's okay to disagree but not be disrespectful. cooperation
  
• Sometimes you will fail and that's okay! Do your best and try again. growth mindset
  
• If you don't know, ask. curiosity
  

What other rules and expectations do you use in your class?

You may want to have a specific set of rules for things like robots, too! I created a free set of robot rules you can download below:

Need a safety poster for your glue guns? This editable resource is available to download here:

STEM Building Challenges

Try some basic building challenges with your students so they can get a feel for hands-on activities right away! You can download Tower Task Card Challenges from my free resource library:

You can also find STEM challenge cards to use with KEVA planks in this blog post:

STEM Books to Read

What better way to start off your school year than with books that inspire creativity and explore failure and growth mindset! Find all my recommendations over at this blog post:

I hope you have a great start to your STEMtastic year!

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Elementary STEM Con & Beyond

I often get asked about STEM PD opportunities, and while there are a number of awesome conferences to attend, this virtual one is a teacher favorite.

Elementary STEM Con & Beyond is the STEM PD event of the year! Some professional development just really hits the mark. ❤️ 

Conference Content:

• 45+ sessions, panels, and interviews from 25+ passionate educators
• 30+ hours of video & live sessions
• Daily freebies, raffles, & giveaways
• Private conference Facebook group to interact with presenters and win prizes
• Bonus Bundle of 13 STEM resources for all attendees

Learn More

Session Topics include: 

• Integrating STEM with literature and content standards in multiple content areas
• Authentic STEAM 
• Culturally responsive STEM/STEAM
• Social-emotional learning & STEM/STEAM
• Makerspaces & Builder Clubs
• Special education & STEM/STEAM
• Augmented Reality apps
• Robotics
• Distance learning approaches & modifications
• Green screen
• The EDP, helping kids deal with failure, questioning methods, and many more!

Sign Up

Continuing Ed. Credit:

See FAQ on the registration page for the most up-to-date information, fees, and deadlines.

We have the following options:

• Conference certificate (all teachers)
• 2 CEUs through UC Santa Barbara Extension (all teachers)
• Up to 25 CTLEs through University of Rochester (NY teachers)
• Up to 25 STEM Clock Hours through CSTP (WA teachers)
• Up to 25 CPDUs through (IL teachers)

Live Panels

One of my favorite parts of STEM Con? Live panels! This year's panels are going to be ah-mazing! Diverse and inclusive read alouds? So important and there are so many amazing books, especially picture books, that I can't wait to hear about!

Speaking of books, the authors above? Some of the BEST! Not only are their books right up there for me with permanent library spots, but they are just lovely, inspiring, and interesting people.

I can't wait!

My sessions are about Impostor STEM and coaching a robotics team. These are both near and dear to my heart!

I hope to "see" you there!