ST. Patrick's Day STEM Stations

As my kids were growing up, the leprechaun visited our house every year! He would turn our milk green or even our toilet water. He would sprinkle green glitter in our hair as we slept. He would leave a mess in our room with remnants of his trickery! I love having kids learn about another culture, other traditions, even have a little o' fun in Science as well as STEM club!

 I am so in love with this new STEM Pack. I was trying hard to find ways to keep my STEM station supplies all in one spot and not have to purchase something for it. So when I saw a box of Manila envelopes in the office I needed to figure out how to utilize them in my organization.

So now it's time to find ways to utilize them...meaning new STEM stations! Some of my favorites yet!

Why am I so excited about them? Well...

• They include activities that can be used within other science concepts such as motion and simple machines.
• The materials are easy to find and affordable! 
• This pack can be used with primary and intermediate classrooms because the sheets for each station are differentiated!
• All the sheets you will need are included: Teacher set up and materials list, stduetn materials list, student guided questions, primary and intermediate record sheets...all in one pack.
• It reinforces teamwork and problem solving!

What STEM Stations are included?

Materials:

• tubes
• masking tape
• pom poms
• pot o gold or cup with pattern for catching the pom poms

We made a game out of it. Each group competed to see who could get four pom poms in the cup fastest. If it missed the cup they had to keep trying! We discussed inclined planes as each group had to have three bends in the maze!

 Materials:

• cups
• masking tape
• egg cartons
• spoons
• tongue drepessors
• bowls and plates
• beans, popcorn kernels, rice  (something to fill it to make noise
• any other items you can think of to make an instrument...a shaker (WE CALL THESE SHAMROCK SHAKES!)

They had to create a Shamrock Shake that could add to our band! We talked about sound energy along with volume, vibrations, pitch. Another great way to add a science concept!

 Materials:

• cups (we used Styrofoam)
• spoons
• masking tape 
• pom poms
• rainbow pattern

They made this into a game as well! We put each rainbow on a different rainbow color. They had to hop over each color in order of the rainbow and at the end they had to get their pom pom into a pot o gold! We talked about rainbows and their colors. We added the milk and Skittles, water and Skittles  and Mt Dew and Skittles activity to see how colors blend! Here is the idea for a Variable lesson...

This week, we also created pulleys.

Materials:

• tubes
• rulers
• string
• empty school milk cartons/ cups for riders
• you can give them binder clips, big paper clips...for a harness (these are my littles so I didn't)

We discussed simple machines and pulleys. We also with my littles talked about push and pull and motion. We discussed friction as we figured out what would support our pulley better at the top!

Next week, we will continue more engaging March themed STEM activities and Science connections so stay tuned. You might be lucky with more easy and engaging ideas you can use this ST. Patrick's Day...until then sign up for my newsletter and in your in box you will get a ST. Patrick's Day freebie!

Want all of the supply lists, differentiated sheets, teacher guide? Here is the complete set! Follow the link for this STEM Velope Pack!!

Give it a pin if you want to remember the activities...or try it out in your inbox with a free language arts connection activity STEM -Velope Style!