I am thankful that my family is healthy and we are together. Obviously, because of COVID -19, we will not spend Thanksgiving with our extended family. That makes me a little bummed and I know the kids are too. Next week they don’t have school and I want to do something to make the holiday fun and memorable. I have come up with a list of five easy Thanksgiving themed STEAM activities that kids can do. Mila and Maxwell were my little helpers and they enjoyed it. We will be doing most of them again over the break.
Why STEAM activities?
You probably have done a few STEAM activities with your child(ren) and not realized it. STEAM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. The projects and activities combine two or more of those subjects. This helps your child with creativity, critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills and more. There are multiple benefits for kids of all ages and a wide-range of activities to do. Explore how you can incorporate more STEAM into your child’s at home curriculum on The Find.
Leaves color transformation
We are right in the middle of fall, leaves are all over the ground. Has your child ever asked you why the leaves are different colors? Well basically as the seasons get colder the leaves get less sunlight making the green color fade. In this STEAM activity you will be able to see what colors they were before. This experiment needs to sit and let science work, so you may want to try it out first and continue to observe while you do the others. We still have ours sitting, now for about 24 hours, and the colors have become more prominent. I think it is pretty interesting.
Leaves Color Transition
Materials
- 10 Leaves of 4 different colors
- 4 Coffee filters
- 4 Clear glasses
- 1 cup Rubbing alcohol
Instructions
- Collect leaves from outdoors
- Sort leaves by color into glasses
- Tear up/ground up leaves in glass
- Cover leaves with rubbing alcohol
- Mix well and the alcohol should turn the color of the leaves
- Make a cone shape with the coffee filters
- Place the pointed part into the leaf/rubbing alcohol mixture
- Let it sit for several hours and observe the different colors on the coffee filter
Popcorn Dance Party
Networks and streaming platforms have already started showing their holiday movies and specials. You might enjoy a festive movie or two with your family and some delicious popcorn. What about movie night with a side of dance party? In this Thanksgiving STEAM activity you can make your popcorn dance! It will be a quick little experiment that will definitely have your kids saying cool. If you like this explosion effect, check out the pumpkin volcano or balloon inflation experiments too.
Popcorn Dance Party
Materials
- ¼ cup Popcorn kernels
- 2 tbsp Baking soda
- 1 cup White vinegar
- 2 cups Water
- 1 Clear glass or jar
Instructions
- Fill jar with water
- Add baking soda and stir well
- Add corn kernels
- Pour in the vinegar
- Watch as the kernels bob around
Turkey Snack Bag
Every kid, and some adults, love a personal bag of snacks. This STEAM activity can be made on Thanksgiving Day to keep your children occupied and out of the kitchen. I literally made these with my kids so I could have some peace to write this post. The bag will be a clear glove made to look like a turkey and the snacks can be whatever you choose. We decided to go with M&M’s, rainbow Goldfish, pretzel snaps and popcorn. I also only had gold pipe cleaners, instead of brown. Parents might want to make their own Turkey Snack Bag as well to keep the hunger at bay.
Turkey Snack Bag
Materials
- Clear plastic gloves
- Snacks popcorn, pretzels, cereal, Goldfish, M&M's
- Red and brown pipe cleaners
- Googly eyes
- 1 sheet Orange construction paper
Instructions
- Blow air into plastic glove to temporarily inflate
- Add M&M's and goldfish to the finger holes
- Add in pretzels and popcorn to thumb and hand part of glove
- Secure glove with brown pipe cleaner, by twisting around opening
- Bend secured pipe cleaner to shape like legs and feet
- Cut a red pipe cleaner in half and twist around thumb (part of glove) to make wattle
- Cut a diamond shape from construction paper, fold in half and tape onto thumb to make beak
- Enjoy turkey snack bag!
Thankful Marble Art
This STEAM activity is a twist on a marble art project. There is no paint or paintbrush involved but it does get a little messy. Shaving cream and food coloring will be your art materials. Your child’s masterpiece can be made into multiple things. We did three different ways. They can be made as place cards for your family dinner or it can be cut like a leaf for decoration on the table. You all can also make thankful notes to send out to your family you will not get to see this Thanksgiving.
Thankful Marble Art
Materials
- 2 sheets Card stock can have more or less depending on what you are making
- Foam shaving cream
- Red, yellow and green food coloring If you have brown food coloring use instead of red and green together
- 2 Skewers or Popsicle sticks
- Paper towels
- Paper plates
Instructions
- Spray foam shaving cream onto paper plate
- Put 2-3 drops of red and green food coloring on shaving cream
- Mix with skewer to make brown
- Separately put 2-3 drops of each individual color on shaving cream
- Spread around with skewer slightly
- Press down card stock into shaving cream gently
- Wipe off all shaving cream on card stock with a paper towel
- Design card stock as either a place card, thankful note or cut out into a leaf shape
Pumpkin Pie Rice Krispie Treat
Cooking is a STEAM activity, it requires using skills from multiple subjects to be used. For instance, when making this my daughter used math, science, reading and art for this delicious recipe. My kids love pumpkin flavored treats including pies, muffins and cookies. I found this recipe from another site and I decided to give it a try. It turned out to be so good and I can not wait to try out more different spices with my Rice Krispie treats. The only tip I would say is to make sure that you wrap up your treats tight or they will get really hard to eat. Other than that, they are bomb.com.
Pumpkin Pie Rice Krispie Treat
Ingredients
- 7 cups Rice Krispie cereal
- 5 cups Marshmallows
- ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
- 5 drops Orange food coloring
- 4 tbsp Butter
- 1 tsp Pumpkin spice
Instructions
- Make the "crust" for the pie, spray round pie pan with nonstick spray
- Melt 1 ½ tbsp of butter in pan
- Add in 2 cups of marshmallows and stir until melted over low heat
- Stir in vanilla extract
- Add 3 cups of Rice Krispie cereal and stir until well coated
- Take out the pan and place into pie pan around the edges
- Use a measuring cup to help form the ring
- Make the "pie" filling by repeating steps 2 and 3 with remaining butter and marshmallows
- Stir in pumpkin spice
- Stir in food coloring to your desired likeness
- Add in 4 cups Rice Krispie cereal and stir until well coated
- Once done add to center of pie pan and fill up
- Cut a pie slice and enjoy
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