Looking for a fun and hands-on way to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your students? If you know me, you know I’m all about learning AND fun. Let’s be honest, this day is already typically INSANE, with love and the smell of really sugary candy in the air.
So how do we keep students engaged and focused on this magnificent sweet filled day? I have four letters for you: STEM. That’s right! We’re going to harness that sugar induced energy and put it to good use with some hands-on STEM activities that will keep them focused, learning, and having fun! Keep reading to learn about some easy and engaging STEM activities that are of course, Valentine’s Day ready.
Let’s Get the Stations in Rotation
Before we dive into all the fun activities, let’s talk about how best to set up your materials. I love to create STEM rotations. Typically, we all sit together and learn about the different activities we will complete throughout the day. We go over the rules and expectations before they rotate through the stations. I like to allow them about 15 minutes or so to work on their tasks.
While they work, this grants you the time to rotate around and support students. To be honest, they don’t need much and generally have a lot of fun working together and being creative. It makes it a win win for sure! So without further ado, let’s get into the good stuff!
Stacking Hearts
How many extra boxes of candy hearts do you have lying around? I know I always have SO many. It’s time to dump them ALL out and let them BUILD. Check out THESE cards and let students see how high they can stack their candy hearts before they tumble. They’ll be working their creative brains on the best way to engineer a structure that is sturdy and tall, as well as working their little fingers, getting in some fine motor practice to help them with their handwriting! It’s fun and learning, remember?!
One thing that I LOVE about STEM is the fact that students get to be imaginative and explore what they can do on their own. While this activity is all about stacking, you can also give them some time to free build and see what they come up with! You’ll be amazed at the stunning things they can do with those little hearts.
Heart Towers
Since we’re on the topic of stacking, here’s another fun activity that students LOVE! Who doesn’t enjoy a good game of cup stacking?! It’s time to bust out the red solo cups and get to constructing. Give students the challenge of working together to build a heart out of the cups. When they finish, see what else they can build or how tall they can get their structure. They LOVE working together and it’s truly a sweet sight to witness. This group tried to stack their cups taller than they were and had so much fun!
Have your students show off some extra LOVE this month with this adorable community building FREEBIE! Students will love taking these adorable posters home of all the reasons their classmates love having them around.
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Geoboard Love
Rubberbands and geoboards… YES PLEASE! Provide students with THESE cards and see what Valentine items they can create! Just look at all the creativity of these students below. From hearts to the word love, they get some great practice using this math tool, while having a blast.
Valentine’s Day STEM Challenges
Dissolving Candy
We talked about having all those extra candy hearts right? This activity is a sweet and scienc-y one that is sure to melt student’s hearts! They will have a great time conducting an experiment with those hearts to see what happens when we try to dissolve them. Students will love being scientists and seeing what happens with different types of liquid. All you need is a few liquids, some cups and hearts you already have, your recording sheets, and let students observe the magic! They will make predictions, have a great time talking about everything that is happening, get creative by drawing what each liquid did to the heart, and make conclusions.
Sweetheart Launcher
Bringing the engineer out of my students with this activity puts a new spin on “love is in the air”! This sweetheart launcher challenge is so much fun and such a great way to build perseverance, while also practicing collaborative learning among your students. They’ll learn all about levers, potential, and kinetic energy as they construct a LOVELY catapult to make their hearts soar! After the love has been spread all over the room, they’ll get some measurement skill practice when calculating the distance their sweetheart candy traveled after being launched. Check it out HERE!
Sweet Structures
Let’s face it. Kids love to play with their food right?! So why not let them play with their delicious treats to simply CREATE?! I love to use THESE jelly hearts that are perfect for building! Students can use these cards for inspiration or they can just be allowed to explore. Either way they can learn about how 3D structures work and be creative with all the different things they can build!
I’ve done all the hard work for you! Check out the complete Valentine’s Day STEM Activity Pack for everything you need to make this day a blast. From activity directions, cards, and station signs your students will have blast. You can also check out the jam packed Valentine’s Day bundle HERE!
I really hope you enjoyed learning about some fun and engaging Valentine’s Day STEM activities! Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! Not only will you get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the Valentine’s Community Building FREEBIE! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.
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