Tis the Season, for it to be almost winter break! This time of year is both exciting and exhausting as an educator. There are often a lot of fun activities taking place at school, but that also means less time for teaching.
We remember when we were students and our teachers put on a holiday movie during that last week of school, sometimes even earlier. When we became teachers, we understood this! By the time December hit, we were exhausted!
While we understood all of the teachers from our younger years turning to movies for ease, as teachers ourselves we couldn’t bring ourselves to do it. We found that just putting a movie on was a bit too boring. Not to mention, the loss of precious instruction time didn’t sit well with us.
The question then arose, how do we keep students engaged in rigorous instruction with each day of winter break creeping closer? Moreover, how do we do this without putting more stress on ourselves?!
Preschool STEM Challenges for the holiday season
The answer to keeping students engaged in learning, without taking away from the joy of the season in our own lives, came through ready to teach activities. One of the first ready to teach activities we created for our elementary school classrooms was The 12 Days of Christmas in the Classroom.
With the same success of The 12 Days of Christmas in the Classroom in pre-k as our original 1st and 2nd grade resource, we started to think of other holiday activities for preschool. What about STEM in preschool?
You may think that STEM for preschool students is the opposite of easy. However, if done correctly, STEM for pre-k can be the perfect solution for easy to teach lessons for December!
Easy STEM Activities for Pre-K
The words “easy” and “STEM” may not seem like they go together. However, with the right prep and planning, preschool STEM activities can be great options that are not only easy but engaging.
One of the easiest ways to make STEM easy for you as the teacher is to establish a set protocol for all of your STEM activities. All of our preschool STEM activities follow the exact same 7 steps. Each step is adjusted to meet the needs of the specific topic. However, the steps are always the same.
Having a set series of steps gives you as the teacher an easy to follow plan for any STEM activity. It also makes it easy for you to implement in your classroom. Once students are familiar with the steps, you can quickly give the directions for any STEM activity.
If you begin your school year with STEM activities then by the holidays your students will be experts in STEM! Therefore, you can easily have pre-k students explore STEM on their own while you enjoy the joy of the season!
Just starting with STEM right now? Not to worry! We have four perfect December Themed STEM activities for preschoolers to get you started!
Christmas STEM Activities for PreK
Gingerbread Man PreK STEM Challenge
Help! The Gingerbread Man is trying to escape, but he can’t cross the river! Have your students help the Gingerbread Man get across the river by building a bridge.
Christmas Countdown PreK STEM Challenge
Need some motivation to get through the days leading up the Christmas break? Have your students help you countdown with this Christmas Countdown activity where students will make a paper-chain to help you all countdown the days.
Santa’s Sleigh PreK STEM Challenge
Uh oh! Santa’s reindeer decided they are not working this Christmas! Have your students help Santa deliver his presents by building a sleigh that can deliver presents without the reindeer.
Elf PreK STEM Challenge
Give students the responsibility of finding a place for the class elf to sit in this PreK Elf challenge! Students will follow instructions to build their own bookcase that the class elf can visit one of the days leading up to winter break.
If you are ready to try STEM activities in your Prek Classroom you can grab all four of our December Themed STEM activities for preschoolers to get you started!
If you’re looking for more STEM activities for Preschool you can visit our shop or you may be interested in these blog posts such as:
