One of our favorite ways to increase student engagement during the craziness of the holidays is with STEM. To make it easy for teachers to implement STEM during this busy time in the classroom, we have compiled a list of 12 Days of Christmas STEM activities.
Our Day 2 activity is building a jingle bell maze. Follow these step-by-step instructions to engage your students in this fun, hands-on STEM challenge!
BUILD A JINGLE BELL MAZE
Material List:
3 pieces of cardstock
scissors
10 straws
1 jingle bell
tape
markers, crayons, and/or colored pencils
Divide students into groups of 3-4.
Begin the activity by reading The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. After reading, explain to students that their challenge is to build a maze to get the jingle bell from the North Pole back to the boy.
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Allow students time to plan out their designs individually and as a team. Give students approximately 30 minutes to build their jingle bell mazes. Sit back and watch as students engage in hands-on problem solving!
At the end of the activity, be sure to have students describe and demonstrate how their jingle bell maze works. Students should hold the sides of the maze and tilt it from side to side to get the bell to move from the start of the maze to the finish.
This activity is always a huge hit with students during the Christmas season! For more information, in depth teacher instructions, student handouts, a STEM journal, and student planning and reflection pages, view the full resource HERE.
Be sure to check out the rest of our 12 Days of Christmas STEM activities!
Spend Less Time Planning and More Time Teaching!
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