Winter STEM Family Night

It was too cold to go anywhere today, so we came up with some fun activities to do together at home. We decided to make our theme "Winter STEM". I wrote up 8 challenge cards and we took turns picking a number to find out which challenge we would do next. We broke up in boys vs. girls teams to do each challenge.
(We have a makerspace area in our home, so we used a lot of the supplies I have in there: https://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/search?q=makerspace)

Challenge #1: Draw a maze that will get the snowball to the snowman. I hot glued a magnet to a little Styrofoam ball and hot glued another magnet to a large Popsicle stick. We each drew a maze on a piece of paper and tried each other's mazes out.

Challenge #2: Build a sled and a ramp using any materials in the makerspace. We came up with very different designs for this!

Challenge #3: Build an igloo using any materials in the makerspace. 

Challenge #4: Make a geoboard snowflake

Challenge #5: Make a snowman using toothpicks and marshmallows. 

Challenge #6: Guess how much water is actually in snow. (We filled this bottle with snow and drew our guesses on the bottle. We let it melt while we did some of the other challenges.) 

Challenge #7: Make an exploding snowman (Draw a snowman on a ziplock baggie that has baking soda inside. Add vinegar and seal immediately. The bag will fill with pressure and pop.) 

Challenge #8: Design a snowflake--we had hole punches, paper, and scissors to create our best snowflake design. 

Home Makerspace

After attending a conference on Makerspaces and teaching a STEM class this year, I really see the importance of getting my kids active with different types of projects that really showcase their problem solving skills and creativity. 

We have a little corner in our living room that I turned into a Makerspace. (It isn't a large area, so it is a little crowded and cluttered, but it really serves it purpose.) 

I found these I can build cards on Teachers Pay Teachers. They work really well to build inspiration. We are having a great time with the space so far. (Rachel's favorite go-to object is toilet paper rolls. David's first project was pot of gold he made out of pipe cleaners.) 

Here is one of the latest creations from the makerspace. 

2nd Annual: A Birthday for Cow Party

We have been reading Jan Thomas's books for quite a few years. Rachel loves all of them. So last year, while reading A Birthday for Cow, we realized that Cow's birthday was October 17th in the book. Naturally, we thought it would be a good reason to celebrate! (https://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2017/10/jan-thomas-book-birthday-party.html) And, we can't just do it once; it is now a tradition the kids look forward to. David wanted to make the cake look a little more like it does in the book, so we used yellow and pink frosting to decorate it.

And, you can't have cow's birthday without turnips! So, we all created turnips in our home makerspace. They all turned out very different, but we had a blast creating them. We can't wait to have our cake tomorrow! 

Summer STEM Night

Rachel loved our Winter STEM challenge, so we decided to try a summer one. Using the materials in our home makerspace, we made a water slide, a bird's nest, and a tent. Each team made their own creation and then shared the finished designs with the other team.