Thanksgiving STEM Activities for Kids

While most parents are busy with meal preparation and keeping guests entertained on Thanksgiving, children are often kept occupied watching the Thanksgiving parade, children’s movies, or other age-appropriate video entertainment. But this Create and Learn site blog entry suggests more engaging activities that will help grade and middle-school children learn STEM concepts.

In an article titled “Thanksgiving Science Experiments and STEM Activities,” Create and Learn suggests activities which can be implemented with everyday household and crafts items, that will challenge children’s minds as well as entertain. Create and Learn is an online education platform that teaches grade- and middle-school children coding and computing skills through cutting-edge instruction activities.

Try out these ideas and have a happy and fun Thanksgiving Day!

For elementary school students:

1. Catch the turkey coding tutorial

Create and Learn suggests budding coders learn how to code a fun game where they have to catch a very fast turkey as he scrambles across an autumn field! Students will use young-child friendly ScratchJr, a fun free app that makes coding feel like connecting LEGOs online to bring a game to life. They can follow this YouTube tutorial for step-by-step instruction.

Related:A Big Batch of STEM Programs for Kids

Create and Learn offers live expert instruction on how to make cool animations and games using ScratchJr, by joining a Scratch Junior class for Grades K-2:

2. Build a turkey cage

This idea uses everyday household supplies to create a cage turkeys cannot escape from. Suggestions include marshmallows, toothpicks, and printable templates. Get tips and inspiration here.

3. Create a pumpkin launcher

Create and Learn also suggests making a catapult out of rubber bands, a spoon, and popsicle sticks! This sort of catapult demonstrates trajectories and introduces kids to fun physics concepts. Read through this tutorial, and fire away using candy pumpkins or candy corn.

4. Write secret messages with cranberries

Cranberries become more than an edible item as Create and Learn suggests using them to create hidden messages.  Learn how to write in invisible ink using baking soda, and reveal the words by painting on a mixture of cranberry juice and sauce. This activity will help teach kids about acids and bases.

5. Make fall leaves slime

Uncover the science behind slime with this vibrant Thanskgiving STEM activity. Using Elmer's glue, saline solution, food coloring, and leaf-shapped glitter, this tutorial explains how kids can make slime from scratch. It's a great lesson in cross-linking (the process of two polymers forming a bond) and shows how liquids transform into solids. Plus, it's a ton of fun to stretch and squish the outcome.

Related:These Ninjas Seek to Conquer Coding in Summer Camp

6. Design turkey ballons

Explore the power of pressure, thrust, and force with a balloon-powered turkey rocket. In this STEM activity, kids create a turkey out of foam, paper, and feathers, and attach it to the string 'race track' with a drinking straw. An untied balloon propels the turkey down the track, and the first to reach the end is the winner!

For Middle School Students:

Create and Learn has also created activities for middle school students that will challenge their creativity and let them find unique solutions to problems.

7. Try a turkey STEM challenge

Watch turkeys (and faces) light up with this easy circuit dough project. Kids use conductive and insulating dough to create a turkey and circuit. They then attach an LED light and hook up a simple battery pack to see if the light turns on. If not, the experimenters get to troubleshoot, expand their understanding of electrical components, and test their hypothesis. This tutorial explains everything all one needs to know about making the dough and attaching the battery.

8. Code a game for dressing a turkey

Related:‘Because Science’ Uses STEM-Themed Holiday Gifts to Promote STEM Careers

In this game, players are able to dress up a turkey using different clothing items, and move the turkey all around. This coding YouTube tutorial introduces students to the essential concepts of - keys to control sprite, broadcast messages, sprite directions, and when sprite clicked. Students will be able to use the free, beginner-friendly block-coding Scratch platform to bring a game to life.

9. Experiment with leaf chromatography

Teach middle schoolers about the pigments that give fall leaves their brilliant colors with this simple chromatography experiment. Using isopropyl alcohol, glass jars, coffee filters, and various colorful leaves, kids can discover the pigments present in each leaf. This is possible thanks to chromatography, a technique used to separate a mixture. In this experiment, kids can watch how the pigments move through the coffee filter at different rates, revealing a colorful band of pigments and highlighting which ones are more or less soluable.

10. Make fall-colored fire

This STEM activity uses fire to teach about chemical reactions. To start, gather various cleaners, chemicals, and salts from around the house. The goal is to see what color flame each produces and how adding or removing a substance changes the color. Try to create a rainbow or attempt a fall color palette of orange, yellow, green, and blue. It's helpful to watch the entire tutorial video beforehand. While this experiment needs more adult supervision than the rest, it's a memorable activity middle schoolers won't soon forget.

11. Run a turkey race

Create an environment of friendly competition and engineering with this turkey race STEM activity. Here, students use critical thinking, measurement, troubleshooting, and collaboration to see who can design the fastest turkey stunt double. Various household items can be used to build their turkeys, like cardboard tubes, construction paper, paper or styrofoam bowls, tape, straws, or index cards. After the students have enough time to test their prototypes, troubleshoot, and redesign, they can race against each other to see which turkey crosses the finish line first.

12. Get toasty with homemade hand warmers

Warm up to chemical reactions by making homemade hand warmers. Using water jelly crystals, iron fillings, calcium chloride, and a plastic bag, kids learn how the reaction between water and iron generates heat through oxidation. The calcium chloride speeds up this process by acting as a corrosive, so students don't have to wait long to feel the heat coming from the bag. Follow this step-by-step tutorial to learn how to make the hand warmers and get an in-depth explanation of the science.