Pair The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes with a hands-on STEM activity that teaches growth mindset and the engineering design process.

Students plan, build, test, and improve a broom and dustpan using simple classroom materials.

This low-prep read-aloud STEM challenge encourages teamwork, creativity, problem-solving, and learning from mistakes—perfect for elementary STEM centers, makerspaces, back-to-school lessons, and growth mindset activities.

Make alphabet practice hands-on with Alphabet Magnetic Tile Building Challenge Cards!

Students use Magna-Tiles, Magformers, or similar magnetic tiles to construct uppercase letters A-Z while practicing letter recognition, shapes, counting, spatial reasoning, fine motor skills, and problem-solving.

These low-prep magnetic tile alphabet cards are perfect for STEM centers, literacy stations, morning work, makerspaces, early finishers, and engaging classroom learning.

Build a growth mindset with this The Magical Yet read aloud STEM challenge!

Students explore perseverance, productive struggle, and the power of “yet” through a hands-on cup-stacking activity.

Perfect for elementary STEM, back-to-school lessons, team building, social-emotional learning, and introducing the Engineering Design Process.

Bring hands-on STEM learning into your classroom with these printable Fall Magnetic Tile Task Cards!

Students use magnetic tiles to recreate apple-themed designs, including an apple tree, apple pie, apple core, basket of apples, and more.

These printable task cards can be used with Magformers, Magnatiles, and other magnetic building tiles.

Students will explore shapes, spatial reasoning, problem-solving, and engineering while creating each fall design.

Make STEM learning fun with Back to School Magnetic Tile Cards!

Students use Magnatiles to build school-themed designs while practicing shapes, creativity, problem-solving, and engineering skills.

These low-prep task cards are perfect for STEM centers, morning work, makerspaces, bell ringers, brain breaks, indoor recess, and early finishers.

Try this engaging We Don't Eat Our Classmates activity for elementary students!

This read-aloud STEM challenge uses cup stacking to teach teamwork, kindness, communication, and the Engineering Design Process.

Perfect for back-to-school lessons, classroom community building, and K-5 STEM centers.

Discover creative ways to use Tangrams Puzzles in your elementary classroom!

These hands-on math and STEM activities help students explore geometry, spatial reasoning, problem-solving, and the engineering design process.

Use Tangrams Printables and Tangrams Cards in centers, STEM stations, morning work, or early-finisher activities for engaging, low-prep learning students will love all year round.

Alphabet practice does not have to begin and end with pencils and paper. With an alphabet tangrams puzzles, students can explore letters while practicing geometry, fine-motor skills, and problem-solving.

A tangram is a traditional Chinese puzzle consisting of seven geometric pieces: five triangles, one square, and one parallelogram. These pieces can be rotated, flipped, and rearranged to create different pictures and designs.

Discover FREE morning work creativity challenges for elementary students!

These quick, low-prep activities build creative thinking, problem-solving, and STEM skills through fun challenges like 30 Circles and Finish the Picture.

Perfect for morning work, brain breaks, bell ringers, and early finishers.

Looking for an easy way to celebrate America’s 250th birthday in your classroom?

These US History Creativity Challenges are a simple, low-prep way to bring American history, creativity, and student imagination together. Students respond to patriotic and US history themes as they sketch, design, and finish creative prompts.

They are perfect for America’s 250th birthday because they give students a meaningful way to think about the United States while practicing creative problem solving.

Looking for a meaningful way to celebrate America’s 250th birthday in your classroom?

This Stars, Stripes, and STEM lesson is a fun and engaging way to bring together US history, problem-solving, and hands-on learning.

With these US History STEM centers, students can explore important American history themes while thinking creatively, working collaboratively, and applying STEM skills in a way that feels exciting and age-appropriate. It is a great option for teachers who want to add something fresh to their history lessons without losing the academic purpose behind the activity.

Looking for a fun summer STEM activity that is easy to prep and exciting for kids to test again and again?

This Air-Powered Fireworks STEM Challenge is a great way to bring a 4th of July theme into your classroom, summer camp, or at-home learning.

After reading Fireworks by Matthew Burgess, students design and build their own firework rocket that launches through the air using a straw and the force of their breath.

It’s perfect for celebrating America’s 250th birthday!

March is the perfect time to bring a little basketball-themed excitement into your classroom, and this STEM challenge is a fun way to do it.

With this hands-on activity, students engineer their own mini basketball game that they can play with one hand using simple classroom materials.

It is an engaging way to mix creativity, problem-solving, and seasonal March Madness fun in a way that feels playful and meaningful for young learners.

March is the perfect time to bring a little tournament excitement into your classroom, and this Trailblazer Tournament is such a fun way to do it.

Inspired by a March Madness-style bracket, this activity invites students to learn about scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and technology leaders while voting their way through each round until one trailblazer is crowned champion.

A Fun Way to Spotlight STEM Leaders

In this activity, teachers choose 16 trailblazers from the included spotlight cards and create a tournament bracket on a bulletin board or wall.

Looking for a fun way to bring coding into your classroom during March Madness?

The Basketball Coding challenge is a hands-on STEM activity that gets students excited about programming through play.

In this lesson, students work in teams to guide a robot across the court and into the hoop, using movement cards to plan, test, and adjust their code along the way.

It’s a simple, engaging way for elementary students to practice sequencing, problem-solving, and teamwork while having fun.

Need a fresh way to teach letters in preschool?

These Alphabet Pre-K Centers get students tracing, building, matching, shaping, sorting, and exploring letters in ways that keep them moving and thinking.

Students rotate through eight alphabet centers: Letter Trace, Play Dough Letters, Make a Word, Popsicle Letters, Alphabetical Order, Letter Sprinkles, Letter Fishing, and Letter Match.

Teachers can launch them as whole-class STEM challenges or run them as rotating centers. With about 10–15 minutes at each station, students stay focused, practice key skills, and jump right into the work.

Basketball STEM Activity: Build a Thaumatrope

If you want a quick, high-engagement way to blend literacy and hands-on science, this lesson built around Billie Jean Peet, Athlete is an easy win.

Students enjoy the read-aloud, then explore how motion changes what we see by building a simple science toy called a thaumatrope. It’s the perfect science lesson for engaging kids during the March Madness NCAA Basketball Tournament.

The investigation has a clear goal: to see how spinning affects what our eyes see. Students make a prediction, test it, and explain what happened—practicing real scientific thinking with an elementary-friendly setup.

Spring is a wonderful time to build early math skills—especially when counting practice feels like play.

With baby ducks waddling to the pond and speckled frogs hopping onto a log, preschoolers stay engaged while working on big foundational concepts like one-to-one correspondence, numeral recognition, and simple adding.

The two spring-themed lesson plans below pair familiar songs with hands-on activities to make counting to 10 fun, active, and easy to use in your classroom or at home.

Water is one of the simplest ways to get Pre-K students engaged in real science thinking. In this sink-or-float challenge, students test everyday objects in a tub of water and sort what they observe into two clear categories: sink or float.

The structure is predictable and repeatable—students make a quick prediction, run a test, then talk about what happened—so they can focus on noticing patterns instead of trying to remember complicated directions.

It also naturally builds early vocabulary (heavy/light, top/bottom, wet/dry) and supports key classroom skills like taking turns, waiting, and explaining their ideas out loud.

9 Fairy Tale STEM Lessons That Turn Story Time Into Build Time

Fairy tales are packed with problems to solve—creaky bridges, wobbly towers, and characters who definitely need better engineering.

Here are nine classroom-ready Fairy Tale STEM lessons that blend literacy with hands-on design, testing, and improving.

1) The Three Little Pigs - Wolf Trap STEM Activity