Tag: Snow

STEM, Winter

Falling Snowflake STEM Activity

Jennifer

Looking for a quick and easy STEM activity to add to your winter lesson plans? Try this falling snowflake STEM activity! This activity is easy to throw together, but a great way to teach about gravity (Science), and inline planes (Engineering).

Falling Snowflake STEM Activity

Supplies Needed:

  • snowflake picture (downloadable PDF template at the end)
  • crayons
  • scissors
  • curling ribbon or string
  • plastic straw
  • tape
  • glitter glue (optional)

How To:

Print, color, and cut out the snowflake picture template or cut out a snowflake shape of your own. We used glitter glue to decorate our snowflake. Sparkles always makes preschool crafts more fun! If you use glue, let your project dry before making your snowflake “fall.”

Cut off a 1-inch piece of your plastic straw and tape it to center of the back side of your snowflake.

tape the straw to the back of the snowflake
The glitter glue made our colors bleed through the paper, but this is the back side of the our snowflake. Tape your straw to the middle of the back of your snowflake.

Next, cut a 3-foot piece of curling ribbon or string. Pull the ribbon through the straw.

pull ribbon through the straw for falling snowflake STEM activity

Now to make your snowflake fall, have your child hold one end of the ribbon and you hold the other end; be sure to hold each of your ends at different heights. The person holder the higher end of the ribbon should have the snowflake. Let it go and watch as the snowflake “falls” when it slides down the ribbon from the higher side to the lower side. Experiment with holding the ribbon up at varying heights and try standing closer and then further apart to see if the snowflake falls faster or slower.

This can be solo activity as well. Keep your arms spread apart and hold your hands at different heights. Let your snowflake fall back and forth by moving your hands up and down.

picture of falling snowflake STEM activity

FREE PRINTABLE PDF FALLING SNOWFLAKE STEM ACTIVITY TEMPLATE:

Falling Snowflake STEM ActivityDownload
STEM, Winter

Make Fake Snow!

Jennifer

Whether you were wishing you had snow to play in, or are stuck inside because it is too cold out, make some fake snow that won’t freeze your fingers! All you need are two ingredients–baking soda and shaving cream–to make your own snow. The fake snow feels so soft and flakey. It is is tons of fun to squish in your fingers! Add some of your toys so they can have a snow day too. Fake snow is a fun way to add STEM into your preschooler’s activities. Check out my STEM Page for more ideas!

fake snow preschool STEM
Fake Snow Preschool STEM Activity

Fake Snow Supplies Needed:

supplies: shaving cream making soda, foil tray, and measuring cup
  • baking soda
  • shaving cream
  • measuring cup
  • tray or bowl to mix ingredients in (we used a 8×8 inch foil tray)

I love STEM activities that my son and I can do with supplies we already have at home! If you don’t have any shaving cream, another mom said you can use hair conditioner.

How To:

We tried this a couple times before we “perfected” our fake snow. In order to make enough to actually play with, we used 1 Cup baking soda and a little more than 1 Cup of shaving cream. Begin by measuring your baking soda and then dumping it into your tray/bowl. Then measure your shaving cream and dump it on top of your baking soda.

Now for the fun! Use your hands to combine the shaving cream and the baking soda until it forms snow. Add some extra shaving cream if needed to get the texture you like. Want to see this in action? check out our 4 1/2 minute video: How To Make Fake Snow

We had lots of fun just squishing our snow around the tray. My son added a plastic Olaf toy and let Olaf have fun playing in the snow too. Soon my son’s imagination went wild and he pretended that his hands were yetis after Olaf. Warning — snow got all over the table and some ended up on the floor as my son played. Fortunately it was easy to clean up with a wet paper towel.

making fake snow
Playing with our fake snow

More Snow and Winter Ideas!

Winter Fizz STEM Activity: combine blue glitter, baking soda, vinegar to create a wintry-looking fizzy science experiment!

Frozen-Inspired Windsock: create a sparkly snowflake windsock inspired by the movie Frozen!

Fingerprint Snowy Tree: draw a barren tree with a marker and then your preschooler can paint on the snow with their fingerprints.

Craft Stick Snowflake: add some sparkly winter fun to your seasonal decorations with this cute craft stick snowflake!

Snowman Books: Building a snowman is one of our favorite winter things to do as a family. However, even without snow, you can have some snowman fun with these 8 snowman books.