Are you looking for some low-prep, low-cost, fall STEM activities for your elementary students? September Monthly STEM Challenges include 5 fall-themed STEM activities that your students will love. All activities are easy to prep and use materials you probably already have, or can purchase at the dollar store. Included in this resource: 5 fall-themed STEM challenges (Candy Corn Tower, Pumpkin Catapult, Autumn Leaves, Candy Corn Rafts, and Pumpkin Stand) with instructions and reflection sheets. A design process poster plus design sheets to help students plan their creation. A teacher guide with instructions and tips. Please note: this resource is part of a growing bundle of monthly STEM activities, coming soon! You may wish to wait and purchase the bundle if you are interested in monthly activities. TEACHER CHALLENGE: If you post pictures of your students working on these challenges on Instagram, please tag me (@theaverageteacher) and use the hashtag #ATSTEMChallenge. Each post gets you one entry into a monthly drawing for a TpT giftcard! (More details in the teacher guide). Like this resource? Don't forget to leave feedback to receive credit on future purchases! You may also want to follow my store and social media (@theaverageteacher) so that you never miss a new product.
Have fun this fall with this scarecrow STEM activity! Kids will have so much fun building an effective scarecrow that can scare away birds.
Are you looking for STEM activities for middle school students? These Fall STEM activities for middle school students are perfect for tweens and teens.
Our top 10 FUN Fall STEM activities for engaging, hands-on learning in the autumn months! Leaves, pumpkins, seasons, and more!
Simple STEM Challenge with Paper: Design and Create a Leaf Glider This is a very simple STEM project that can be done using only a few simple materials. It offers high engagement and kids always have fun launching their gliders to see how far they fly and what kind of path they take. First, gather up the materials: You can have students gather fallen leaves to trace or just cut leaves out of paper. Then create a glider! Which leaf will work best? How can you fold or transform it? Here are some design examples: What skills do students work on? In addition to following the Engineering Design Process to complete this challenge, students will get a hands-on feel for concepts like aerodynamics and drag, hone fine motor skills with cutting and folding, and utilize measurement skills by tracking the distance their gliders travel. You can add in a math component by having them launch their gliders ten times and finding the average distance traveled. Add more rigor into this activity with the STEM challenge resource (or get the pack of fall STEM challenges) on Teachers pay Teachers:
All the BEST fall STEM activities! Explore the science of leaves, launch candy pumpkins with a catapult, observe rotting pumpkins, and more.
Have your kids been curious about why leaves change color in the fall? Help them figure it with this STEM activity!
Dancing corn makes a fun fall STEM activity for kids. Watch as the corn is lifted by bubbles and appears to dance around the jar...
This fall don’t just teach the standards. Engage students in hands-on STEM challenges and real-world science experiments with apples! Spice up your lesson plans with these top 4 apple science activities !
Popsicle Stick Catapult! How to make a craft stick catapult STEM activity for kids. Simple fun science activity for all ages.
FUN Turkey Game that is both Thanksgiving activities, Fall STEM, and a physics science experimetn too! Try Turkey Races in November!
This fall don’t just teach the standards. Engage students in hands-on STEM challenges and real-world science experiments with apples! Spice up your lesson plans with these top 4 apple science activities !
These super fun pumpkin STEM investigations for preschoolers complete with free STEM printables is a great way for young kids to explore their pumpkins this fall. And afterward, you could get them involved with roasting the seeds or trying the seeds for a snack for even more exploration!
Fall activities for your little learners for math, literacy, fine motor, and more! There are so many fun things to do and learn about in the fall!
Kids love getting their hands messy and working their little minds as they create and build with this set of fall STEM learning activities.
Can your kids build a floating city? This is a great engineering based STEM challenge for preschoolers and kindergarteners.
Fall is here in the USA and we are excited to share with you some of our favorite STEM activities for the season! Whether you are teaching in the classroom, homeschooling, or just enjoying play time at home with your kids, the following activities are sure to excite and engage any age.
Fall STEM Activities for Kids that will inspire curiosity, passions, and a love of learning! Explore Science, Technology, Engineering & Math.
Print the template for this leaf tessellation art project! This fun collaborative project combines math and art for a cool result.
STEM activities are fun and engaging, but this type of learning is even better when it’s connected to a great children’s book. We’ve shared books that are aligned to social emotional learning and books with themes for every month of the year. This post will share 10 great read alouds for any element
Learn how to build a catapult cannon in this STEM activity, then play a game that explores physics and math. All inspired by Mr. Bean!
Looking for fun hands on ways to explore STEM topics with your kids this fall? This collection has it all with 15+ fall STEM activities your kids will LOVE.
Engaging sports activities are the way to go! In the fall (or anytime) you can keep students involved - STEM, Escape Rooms, and reading passages all sports-related.
Fall is one of my favorite seasons! I love the pretty fall leaves and the cooler “jeans & jacket” weather. Nature also gives us lots of great sensory experiences during the fall. One of my favorite themes during the fall season is apples, not only because they are my favorite fruit (honeycrisp are just so […]
Get up close with the photosynthesis process by painting with chlorophyll. This STEM chlorophyll science lesson will be memorable for all.
I really do love fall. I always have. The beautiful colors, the crisp air, pumpkin spiced everything... and perhaps most importantly, the end of MOSQUITOES! Mind you, this year wasn't too bad for the guys, but I remember a few years back the mosquitoes in our area were truly out of this world. Our neighbours
Need a great STEM Challenge? Without a doubt, this little challenge is one of the best ever! It's super simple and amazingly complex. It's the Index Card Tower!
Code a sequence of commands, also known as an algorithm, to tell BlueFuzz how to roll through the maze in this unplugged sequence activity.
Pumpkins, cooler weather, crunchy leaves...autumn is such a fun and exciting time of the year. Now that the heat of summer has subsided and you're settling into a normal, daily homeschool routine, it's the perfect time to add in something new. Hopefully, this list of autumn STEM activities will get your family excited!
Pack your bags and get ready to go on an incredible journey with your students! One of my favorite things about STEM education is that it is a multidisciplinary approach to project-based learning. Our STEM Explorers lessons truly embody that spirit by connecting engineering design challenges to
Use these fun Google Drawings activities for engaging technology practice your students will love all year long.
Halloween STEM activities for middle school keep kids learning. These middle school Halloween STEM challenges are a fun way to mix science with spook.
Leaf chromatography is an engaging STEM activity that illustrates the separation of different pigments within a leaf.
STEM Class Activities for the First Week of School If you want to get to know a little more about your students, and get them started to think like scientists, mathematicians, and engineers, I have some great ideas for you! Get to Know You Activities for STEM Class Get to know your new STEM students with an All About Me activity! The Math About Me and Science About Me activities are perfect for this. With multiple options, depending on what grade you teach, there is something for everyone. These activities have your students think about things in a slightly different way. For example, in the Math About Me activity, their age can be displayed as a mathematical expression (such as 48÷4), while in the Science About Me activity, the banner asks students to write down how many solar orbits they have taken (their age). Collaborative Activities and Team Builders ABC STEM Game: Try to think of a "STEM word" for each letter of the alphabet as a class. You might start with "astronaut, architect, or ASK (the first step of the Engineering Design Process). Find Your Pair or Find Your Team: Use sets of colored straws, pencils, colored dice, or mini erasers. Pass out one to each student and then have them find the other student(s) with the same color/type of object. You can also use pairing cards such as these. This is great for when you want to build STEM teams, too! Find all my favorite STEM Team Builders and Icebreakers in this post: STEM Lab Rules and Expectations It's important to go over safety rules for all equipment, your specific rules to your classroom, and then to set expectations for students. You may have some you start with and you may want to ask your students to help come up with some basic ones too. Some ideas for STEM rules and expectations: Only operate equipment you've been trained to use. safety Report accidents right away. safety Clean up your workspace when you are finished. responsibility Listen to your teammates. It's okay to disagree but not be disrespectful. cooperation Sometimes you will fail and that's okay! Do your best and try again. growth mindset If you don't know, ask. curiosity What other rules and expectations do you use in your class? You may want to have a specific set of rules for things like robots, too! I created a free set of robot rules you can download below: Need a safety poster for your glue guns? This editable resource is available to download here: STEM Building Challenges Try some basic building challenges with your students so they can get a feel for hands-on activities right away! You can download Tower Task Card Challenges from my free resource library: You can also find STEM challenge cards to use with KEVA planks in this blog post: STEM Books to Read What better way to start off your school year than with books that inspire creativity and explore failure and growth mindset! Find all my recommendations over at this blog post: I hope you have a great start to your STEMtastic year! Pin these ideas to save them for later:
Use these fun Google Drawings activities for engaging technology practice your students will love all year long.
Bucket Towers is an original STEM Challenge for upper elementary classes and it is a student favorite. You will love the easy prep! This is hard to believe, but some of our best STEM Challenges have been created accidentally. The STEM Bucket Tower challenge is one of those! Building boats was another total spur-of-the-moment challenge.
STEM challenges are the best way to begin building classroom community and teamwork at the beginning of the year. They are also a great way to introduce problem-solving skills and get students thinking creatively and outside the box. The best part is students LOVE them, and they don't eve