Looking for fun ways to incorporate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) into your child’s play, try these fun winter-themed STEM activities! These activities use common household supplies, so you should have most, if not all, of the supplies on hand.
Make fake snow in the warmth of your home by combing shaving cream and baking soda! This science experiment is “snow” much fun to make. Your preschooler will love playing with their fake snow.
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). You’ll need a straw, ribbon, and paper.
Give your child some snowflake stickers and let them decorate plastic cups. Then they can have fun stacking the cups, and of course, knocking them down too!
Combine blue glitter, baking soda, and vinegar to create a wintry-looking fizzy science experiment! Fizzing experiments are always a favorite in our family.
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).
Supplies Needed:
snowflake picture (downloadable PDF template at the end)
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.
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.
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.
FREE PRINTABLE PDF FALLING SNOWFLAKE STEM ACTIVITY TEMPLATE:
Here is a low-prep, easy activity to keep your preschooler entertained this winter–winter cup stacking! Give your child some of these snowflake stickers and let them decorate plastic cups. Then they can have fun stacking the cups, and of course, knocking them down too. Other than the sticker backs, this activity is pretty mess free, unbreakable, and easy to put away!
Supplies Needed:
I ordered sparkly snowflake stickers and blue cups from Amazon to give this activity a winter feel.
Children love getting to use stickers! My son had so much fun decorating the cups with these sparkly snowflake stickers.
Building towers out of cups is lots of fun. This winter cup stacking activity is a great indoor activity for when it is too cold to be outside. Bonus, this is a fun way for preschoolers to grasp the building blocks of engineering. Preschoolers learn about building a sturdy base that can support the tower. Plus children will experiment with balancing things, and develop problem solving skills!
More Fun Winter Activities:
–Fingerprint Winter Tree Craft: draw a barren tree with a marker and then your preschooler can paint on the snow with their fingerprints.
–Secret Snowflake Painting: draw snowflakes with a white crayon and watch your child be surprised by the secret snowflakes that appear when they paint over your drawings!
–Make Your Own Fake Snow: combing shaving cream and baking soda! This science experiment is “snow” much fun to make. Your preschooler will love playing with their fake snow.
My family loves St. Patrick’s Day! Every year the leprechauns visit and stir up some trouble while we are sleeping. It is such a fun adventure to see what they got into during the night! My son always makes a leprechaun trap that we leave out, but so far, the leprechauns have outsmarted us! Even if leprechauns don’t come make mischief at your home, you can still get into the spirit by wearing green and incorporating some of these fun St. Patrick’s Day preschool theme books, activities, and worksheets into your little one’s learning.
Preschool St. Patrick’s Day Theme Resources–
BOOKS
St. Patrick’s Day — 17 stories about leprechauns, St. Patrick’s Day, shamrocks, and lucky four-leaf clovers!
Tissue Paper Rainbow: make an awesome rainbow out of tissue paper, cotton balls, and construction paper!
Shamrock Friend: print out the free template to make your own shamrock friend craft.
Rainbow Cloud: make a cute cloud rainbow craft out of a paper plate and crepe paper.
RHYMES
Five Little Leprechauns: In this cute little rhyme, the leprechauns are on the hunt for a rainbow. Try this one with your preschooler and see if they find their rainbow!
Edible Rainbow: Make a free-standing rainbow out of marshmallows, a pipe cleaner, and cereal. This a yummy and fun STEM activity!
Color Green Hunt: Take a look around your home for green things. Try and find something green that you can wear, a green fruit or vegetable that you eat, something green to play with, and something green for drawing or coloring. What other green things can you find?
WORKSHEETS
Clover Counting: color the number of clovers as shown (#1-5).
Add some autumn-themed math fun into your preschooler’s learning with this harvest graphing STEM activity! What is harvest graphing? Harvest graphing is recording how many times a picture shows up each time you the roll the di on the bar graph included in this set. The purpose of this activity is to introduce young learners to the concepts of probability, recording answers, and counting. Once you have completed your graph, count how many times you rolled each food.
Start by printing this free template. The harvest graphing template includes the di, colored tiles, and graphing chart. I used regular printer paper; however, if you use cardstock, then your di will be much sturdier.
Begin by cutting out the di. Once fully cut out, gently fold the tabs inward. Then begin to fold your squares into a cube shape. Add some glue to the tabs and glue them onto the underside of the squares as you form your cube. The very last tab is hard to glue and might require tape. Once your cube is formed, set it aside to dry.
Cut out all of the colored tiles. You will have 8 of each color–red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Each color corresponds with one of the harvested foods. Here’s the color scheme: tomato=red, pumpkin=orange, corn=yellow, peas=green, grapes=blue, and eggplant=purple.
Let’s Graph!
Now it is time to begin harvest graphing. Ask you child to gently roll the di. Which food picture is on top? Is it a red tomato? Take a tile of the same color and set it on the graph above the corresponding-colored harvested food picture. Keep rolling the di and setting tiles in the correct columns until you reach the top of the column.
The best part is you can use this activity over and over again since there is no glue involved. Try this harvest graphing STEM activity again and see which fruit or vegetable makes it to the top this time!
Why STEM?
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. It is important to introduce these concepts to preschoolers in a fun way so that as they get older, they are excited about STEM subjects. What are preschoolers learning in this activity? Preschoolers are learning their colors (science)! They have to identify the color on the di, find the same color on the chart, and then correctly add the same color tile to the graph. Preschoolers are learning how to graph, an important math concept! Add some extra math into this activity by counting how many of each color tile is on your graph and how many tiles your have altogether. Preschoolers are also learning about engineering as they help build the di!
More STEM Activities
If your child enjoyed this graphing activity, I made a free blank di template so you can customize it with your own pictures. You can add computer images, stickers, or draw whatever you want on the dice and graph for your child to practice more graphing skills.
Add some ocean-themed math fun into your preschooler’s learning with this ocean graphing STEM activity! What is ocean graphing? Ocean graphing is recording how many times an ocean animal picture shows up each time you the roll the di on the bar graph included in this set. The purpose of this activity is to introduce young learners to the concepts of probability, recording answers, and counting. Once you have completed your graph, count how many times you rolled each animal.
Ocean Graphing STEM Activity:
Start by printing this free template. The ocean graphing template includes the di, colored tiles, and graphing chart. I used regular printer paper; however, if you use cardstock, then your di will be much sturdier.
Begin by cutting out the dice. Once fully cut out, gently fold the gray tabs inward. Then begin to fold your squares into a cube shape. Add some glue to the tabs and glue them onto the underside of the squares as you form your cube. The very last tab is hard to glue and might require tape. Once your cube is formed, set it aside to dry.
Cut out all of the colored tiles. You will have 4 of each color–red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Each color corresponds with one of the ocean animals. Here’s the color scheme: crab=red, clown fish=orange, clam=yellow, sea turtle=green, whale=blue, and octopus=purple.
Let’s Graph!
Now it is time to begin ocean graphing. Ask you child to gently roll the di. Which ocean animals picture is on top? Is it a red crab? Take a tile of the same color and set it on the graph above the corresponding-colored ocean animal picture. Keep rolling the di and setting tiles in the correct columns until you reach the top of the column.
The best part is you can use this activity over and over again since there is no glue involved. Try this ocean graphing STEM activity again and see which ocean animal makes it to the top this time!
Why STEM?
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. It is important to introduce these concepts to preschoolers in a fun way so that as they get older, they are excited about STEM subjects. What are preschoolers learning in this activity? Preschoolers are learning their colors (science)! They have to identify the color on the di, find the same color on the chart, and then correctly add the same color tile to the graph. Preschoolers are learning how to graph, an important math concept! Add some extra math into this activity by counting how many of each color tile is on your graph and how many tiles your have altogether. Preschoolers are also learning about engineering as they help build the di!
More STEM Activities
If your child enjoyed this graphing activity, I made a free blank di template so you can customize it with your own pictures. You can add computer images, stickers, or draw whatever you want on the dice and graph for your child to practice more graphing skills.
I’ve compiled all of my spring worksheets here for you to quickly access! Each worksheet is a free printable PDF. These spring worksheets are perfect for incorporating into your Easter, Vegetable Garden, Flowers, Bugs, and Rain & Rainbow themes! I have lots of other worksheets that are free if you are looking for more: https://imaginationsrunningwild.com/worksheets/
ALPHABET
–Rainbow Tracing: trace the letters in the word “rainbow” and then color the picture.
–Raindrop Alphabet: trace all 26 uppercase letters in the raindrops.
–Easter Bunny Words Tracing: trace all of the letters in the words Easter Bunny and then color the pictures.
–Easter Egg Letters: practice making all 26 uppercase letters with this fun letter tracing worksheet.
MATH
–Butterfly I Spy: count how many of each butterfly you spy and write the number in the box.
–Carrot Counting: count how many carrots are in each box and then circle the number.
–Easter I Spy: how many of each Easter picture can you spy?
Free, printable nature scavenger hunt to get kids exploring outside!
Need an easy, no-prep outdoor activity? Check out this printable Nature Scavenger Hunt!
Scavenger hunts are so much fun for kids! They get children moving and exploring while working on important observation skills too. Not only do children have to pay attention and concentrate, but they have to think about colors, visual discrimination between objects, and following directions by looking for things on the list.
Print this activity sheet, grab a crayon, and head outside! Put your child’s observation skills to work finding colors, animals, plants, and more things from the natural world. This is a fun way to learn more about the world around us. The best part is seeing the wonder and delight as your child excitedly finds things on the list!
Ask your child questions about the things they are finding. What does it feel like? What color is this? Why is this something you love? Share what discoveries you like with your child too!
Collect leaves while you are out exploring and make a leaf stick puppet! This simple, nature inspired craft allows your child’s creativity and imitation to shine as they play with their puppet.
Read some stories about leaves, birds, and bugs! Check you library for books to read with your child:
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 Activity
Fake Snow Supplies Needed:
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.
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!
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.
Add some spooky STEM fun into your preschooler’s learning with this Halloween graphing activity!
Halloween Graphing Activity:
Start by printing this free template. The Halloween graphing template includes the di, colored tiles, and graphing chart. I used regular printer paper; however, if you use cardstock, then your dice will be much sturdier.
Begin by cutting out the dice. Gently fold the gray tabs inward. Then begin to fold your squares into a cube shape. Add some glue to the tabs and glue them onto the underside of the squares as you form your cube. The very last tab is hard to glue and might require tape. Once your cube is formed, set it aside to dry.
Cut out all of the colored tiles. You will have 4 of each color–red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Each color corresponds with one of the Halloween pictures. Here’s the color scheme: witch=red, pumpkin=orange, moon=yellow, Frankenstein monster=green, bat=blue, and spiderweb=purple.
Now it is time to begin Halloween graphing. Ask you child to gently roll the di. Which Halloween picture is on top? Is it a purple web? Take a tile of the same color and set it on the graph above the corresponding-colored Halloween picture. Keep rolling the dice and setting tiles in the correct columns until you reach the top of the column. Since you are not gluing the colored tiles to the chart, you can use this activity over and over again. The witch was the first to reach the top for us. Which Halloween picture made it to the top of your graph first?
Why STEM?
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. It is important to introduce these concepts to preschoolers in a fun way so that as they get older, they are excited about STEM subjects. What are preschoolers learning in this activity? Preschoolers are learning their colors (science)! They have to identify the color on the di, find the same color on the chart, and then correctly add the same color tile to the graph. Preschoolers are learning how to graph, an important math concept! Add some extra math into this activity by counting how many of each color tile is on your graph and how many tiles your have altogether. Preschoolers are also learning about engineering as they help build the di!
More STEM Activities
If your child enjoyed this graphing activity, I made a free blank di template so you can customize it with your own pictures. You can add computer images, stickers, or draw whatever you want on the dice and graph for your child to practice more graphing skills.
