Send Home Family Project Easy STEM Activities – STEM Challenges in a Bag

Engage your students in discovery and procedure with STEM activities. Integrating science hands-on activities into the elementary curriculum is a fun and engaging way to get your students to use their critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration skills in creative ways. These STEAM activities are designed to fit into a baggie and send home with students. But, they are also great to use in class, too!  Make them a part of your science lab, add to a classroom science center or use them on Fun Friday or for a class reward.  The options are limitless. Just know that however you use them, your students will love them!

Each challenge starts with a cleverly written riddle that doubles as the directions for the STEM challenge.  Simply copy the poem and add the easy-to-find supplies into a small baggie.  Send home or set-up in class.  With 10 STEM challenge cards, you will have activities for every month of the school year. Your students and families will look forward to these amazing STEM activities every month, and you will love the positive feedback from parents and families who have so much fun completing the challenges together.

With easy-to-find supplies like toothpicks, marshmallows, sticky notes, aluminum foil, and rubber bands, these monthly STEM challenge activities will be simple for you to put together.  But don’t let the easy prep fool you!  These STEM Challenges are packed with learning opportunities.  You’ll be amazed at what students learn through these engaging activities.

At the beginning of the school year, I place these STEM baggies on each student desk at Meet the Teacher or Open House. I encourage my new students to go home and practice with their family before we do the challenge in class. At the beginning of every month, I send home a new STEM baggie and encourage students to complete the challenge with their family. It’s a fun and easy way to increase family involvement! I hope the fun poem will motivate your families to participate!

Click here to see this source in action!

STEM Challenge Activities include:

• Tower with toothpicks and marshmallows
• Catapult
• Tower with index cards
• Pyramid
• 3D shape
• House
• Boat
• Stage and puppet
• Bridge
• Park

How to Create:

• Step #1: Print the fun STEM challenge cards.
• Step #2: Gather the materials.
• Step #3: Place the materials in a bag for each student.
• Step #4: Staple the STEM challenge card to each bag.
• Step #5: Send home with students and enjoy!

Ideas for Use:

• Give each family a bag at Meet the Teacher or Open House Night (My favorite!)
• Encourage students to take it home and try the challenge with siblings, neighbors, parents, family members, etc.
• Students can bring in their final STEM challenge and display it in your classroom.
• Students can send a picture to you to show other students.

Be sure to check out these other science resources:

• 10 Science Activities: Back to School Science Experiments
• Moon Phases: Lunar Cycle Unit

Teachers Like You Say This: 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “The stem packets are parent friendly and the materials are easy to gather. I am sending this home bi-weekly and the parents are thrilled. The kids love the projects and are learning a lot.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “This resource is great. It is easy to follow and prepare ahead of time. All of the needed materials are easy to obtain and cost minimal money.”

Click here to purchase the download on TeachersPayTeachers.

Copyright © Chloe Campbell

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