November is upon us, which means that Thanksgiving is right around the corner! Fall has also arrived, and with it comes a world of opportunities to incorporate STEM activities into the classroom that can directly tie in to the season. There are countless fun science, technology, engineering, and math activities to do with your upper elementary kids that will really get their brains going this fall season!
Here are three fun Thanksgiving themed STEM Challenges that your students will love!
The Cornucopia Catch Game!
Students must construct 5 paper cornucopias along with paper fruits and vegetables. The cornucopias must be strong enough to hold, catch, and toss paper vegetables. Students must come up with their own unique game with instructions, rules, and challenges using the cornucopias. When their STEM group has invented the game, they must teach it to the class. The group with the most creative game wins the challenge!
**For more instructions and a list of supplies, scroll to the end of the post!
Crack the Turkey Code Challenge!
Using a list of supplies, students will first create a turkey craft. On the turkey feathers of the craft, students must decide on made-up symbols that represent letters of the alphabet. They must create an answer key of their symbols that correlate with the letters A-Z. Their turkey craft will have a coded message. The message must be a fact about turkeys and it must contain at least five words. Different colors must be used as a clue for students to know how many letters each word contains in the sentence. (See sample code). When multiple groups are finished, they can give their turkey codes to each other and try to guess what the other group’s message is. The vowels are automatically given to the group who is trying to guess the code to make it easier to decipher.. **For more directions and a list of supplies, scroll to the end of the post!
Toothpick Thanksgiving Table Challenge
Students must construct a Thanksgiving table only using toothpicks and glue. The table must be at least 6 inches long and 4 inches wide, but no longer than 1 ftby 6 inches. The table cannot have more than 4 legs. The challenge is to make the table as strong as possible. At the end of the challenge, students will place weights on top the table. The STEM group with the table that holds the most weight wins the challenge! Students have three days to complete this challenge (to allow for drying time).
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