It’s hard for kids to hold on to all the lessons they learned in school over Summer Break and it can be hard to get kids interested in wanting to do anything “school” related over the Summer. These fun DIY STEM crafts will help dust off some of the rust in your kids’ imagination, problem solving and academic minds to keep them fresh by the time school rolls back around.
- Penny Foil Boats: Teaches engineering and buoyancy
- The activity: give each kid a 6X6 inch square of aluminum foil. Challenge them to sculpt it into a boat that can float in a plastic bin or the kitchen sink.
- The STEM element: give your kids a cup of pennies and have them guess how many pennies their boats can hold without sinking.
- BONUS: Little to no clean up. There’s zero glue, markers and other craft supplies involved. You’re just gathering supplies you have around the house, and the only clean up you might have is a little bit of spilled water.
- Paper Cup Balance Scales: Teaches measurement and physics
- The activity: using a plastic clothes hanger, two paper cups, some string and a hole punch your kids can build their own hanging scale.
- The STEM element: kids can measure and compare the weight of things laying around the house like a phone charger compared to a random rock they found on a walk etc.
- BONUS: all of the “mess” stays in the cups and the kids can use the scale through out the week to measure different items they find.
- Alka-Seltzer Lava Lamp: Teaches chemical reactions & density
- The craft: fill a clear plastic water bottle 3/4 full of vegetable oil, then top it off with water and add a few drops of food coloring.
- The STEM element: drop in a broken up piece of an Alka-Seltzer tab. The fizzing releases carbon dioxide gas which pushes the water droplets to the top before they float back down to the bottom
- BONUS: little to no clean up as long as the kids don’t spill anything while the lids are off the bottles.
- Cardboard tube marble obstacle course: Teaches gravity and kinetics
- The craft: collect empty paper towel and toilet paper rolls. Let the kids cut the tubes in half lengthwise to create their own marble obstacle course. Then using painter’s tape, tape them to a wall, sliding glass door or window to create a maze. Make sure to place a catch cup at the end of the course to catch all the marbles that go on the course.
- The STEM element: kids will get to learn about angles and slopes to make the marble roll down to the bottom of their marble obstacle course.
- BONUS: the only clean up required is tossing away the painter’s tape and recycle the scrap cardboard tubes
- Solar Oven S’mores: Teaches solar energy & thermodynamics
- The craft: take an empty pizza box or small cardboard shoe box and line the inside bottom with black construction paper. Cut a flap on the lid, fold it back and line the inside of the flap with aluminum foil to reflect the sun. Cover the opening left by the aluminum flap with clear plastic wrap to trap the heat in.
- The STEM element: have your kids place graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows inside the box. Put the box outside in direct sunlight on a hot day. Kids can see how solar radiation transforms the box into an insulator absorbing the heat while their s’mores heat up.
- BONUS: the mess stays inside the box, which you can toss away once the activity is done.
- Sponge water bombs: Teaches absorption and surface tension
- The craft: cut ordinary kitchen sponges (the non scratch kind) lengthwise into 3 to 4 long strips. Stack about 6 to 8 strips together, gather them in the center with a rubber band or string tied tightly. Now fluff the strips to make a pom-pom looking shape.
- The STEM element: fill a bucket with water and let kids observe how porous sponges are, the difference in weight of a dry sponge vs. a wet sponge. And they can test how far the sponges can be tossed both wet and dry
- BONUS: it’s perfect for a backyard or back patio play activity because unlike water balloons that pop, there’s nothing to clean up and they can be reused all Summer long.