7 Valentine's Day STEM Challenge Activities
February is here and my kids are so excited for Valentine’s Day! I love to incorporate activities in my classroom that channel this energy into learning activities. My favorite way to spend a class party or February afternoon is by setting up our Valentine’s Day STEM stations. They are low prep and contain a variety of challenges so that all of my students can find something that they enjoy!
Setting Up Valentine’s Day STEM Challenges
These challenges can be implemented any time of the day! You can prep all of the stations in advance, then just set out all the station trays when it is time to begin.
Each station includes a STEM Challenge Poster that poses a question and explains the materials that can be used. I find it easiest to place each poster in a tray with the allotted materials.
Interested in downloading all the printables in this post to print and use right away? Click on the image or button below to check them out in my TPT shop:
How to Prepare Your Students for STEM Rotations
I find it easiest to gather my students in one location and go around the room to explain each challenge before beginning rotations. We read the question together and review all the available materials. I always explain that students can only use the materials provided in their bin to complete each challenge. Having to brainstorm how to use your allotted materials is part of the fun of a STEM challenge!
When it is time to begin rotations, I give each student a STEM Journal. The journal includes 7 pages that align with each challenge. As your students finish a challenge, they can match the number on the challenge poster with the number in their journal. Each page has a fun written activity where students draw a sketch or answer a question regarding the completed challenge. This written journal will help you to hold each student accountable as they complete the challenges. It’s a great way to share learning with parents as well!
7 STEM Challenges
STEM Challenge 1:
In this first challenge, you will set out a bucket of candy hearts. Your students will use these Valentine candies to try to build the tallest tower they can using ONLY their candy hearts.
When your students finish the challenge, they will draw a sketch of their tower and record how many candies they can stack in their STEM journals.
Teacher tip: Make sure you purchase candy hearts that are flat on both sides. My first trip to the store resulted in rounded sides on the hearts and these did not work!
STEM Challenge 2:
In this second challenge, each student is given a pair of scissors and one sheet of colored copy paper. The challenge is to build the longest link chain using that one piece of paper.
It is so fun watching as students discover that the skinnier they cut the paper, the longer their chain will be!
STEM Challenge 3:
In this third challenge, you will give your students Valentine’s Day candies and toothpicks. First, they have to count out 30 candies and 30 toothpicks. This is excellent counting practice for students who are still learning to count! If you are completing this challenge in a classroom where students need help counting, you could place materials in zip-top bags before you begin the activity.
Using their materials, your students will try to construct the tallest tower they can. One of my favorite moments from my own class rotations was watching the lightbulb moment when one of my students realized that he had to deconstruct his tower and begin again because he used the heaviest candies on the top of his tower and the lightest candies on the bottom of his tower.
STEM Challenge 4:
In this fourth challenge, I pre-cut small, medium, and large hearts on different colored Astrobrights papers using the template in my Valentine’s Day STEM Pack. My students had to place as many of these hearts as they could inside the heart on the large heart workmat without overlapping any hearts.
Teacher Tip: Use 3 different colors of paper to help students differentiate between the sizes of hearts on their workmat.
STEM Challenge 5:
In this fifth challenge, my students used lego building blocks to build a heart. This heart was a very simple interpretation of a heart, but other students used up to 20 legos to construct their hearts.
STEM Challenge 6:
For your sixth challenge, your students can use craft sticks, a plastic spoon, and rubber bands to engineer a catapult. This catapult uses a lever simple machine to launch something. It is so much fun to watch them test out the number of craft sticks they needed to use in order to launch a Valentine candy into a tray.
STEM Challenge 7:
In this seventh and final challenge, your students will use a single piece of paper to construct a paper airplane. Then, they can launch their paper airplanes to try to score points on the printable Valentine point board.
Reflection
After completing all seven challenges, you can take advantage of the excitement by having your students write a writing reflection of their day. I really enjoyed these reflections in my own classroom since I could read about my student’s favorite activities and the challenges that were easiest and most difficult for them. It is truly a day filled with memories for our young learners!
I hope you were able to grab some fun ideas to do with your class or your kids at home. If you want to grab the printables resources shown in this post, you can click here to download my Valentine STEM Challenges from my TpT store.
Looking to learn about other STEM activities you can do in the coming weeks with your students? Check out these blog posts:
How to Catch a Leprechaun STEM Challenge
Learn About Simple Machines by Racing Race Cars!
This post may contain Amazon affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase through one of my affiliate links, which helps to support The Primary Brain blog. As always, I only recommend products that I love and all ideas shared are my own.
Written on February 14th, 2020 by Laurin Brainard