Plastic Eggs and STEAM

Do you have a ton of plastic eggs left over from Easter?  Would you like to put them to good educational use?  Then read this post about how I use them in STEAM activities!


Math & Science Activities

Activity 1:  Play-Doh and Egg Towers
Skills:  Angles, height, measurement
Believe it or not, there's so many different angles and ways to build an egg tower.  Challenge your students to build the highest tower and use a ruler or meter stick to measure and make it official.

Activity 2:  Half-Shell Egg Towers
Skills:  Measurement, stacking, balancing

It's more challenging than you might think to balance the half shells of the eggs!  Have students make the highest tower possible and measure with a ruler or meter stick to measure the height.

Art & Science Activities


Activity 1:  Drip Painting
Skills:  Gravity, color-mixing

This painting activity from Learn, Play, Imagine is inspiring!  You can talk about the reason the paint falls through the egg (gravity).  You can mix colors and talk about primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.

Activity 2: Stamping Letter and Words
Skills: Spelling, Circumference, color-mixing

In this stamping activity from I Can Teach My Child,  you can have students cut out large letters or words out of plain paper (or cut it out for them if they don't have the proper skills).  Then have them use half the egg to mix colors and stamp all over the paper. You can measure the circumference of the stamp circles and talk about the different primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.

Technology. Engineering & Science Activities

Activity 1: Egg Catapults
Skills: Angles, building using simple machines, angles

This egg catapult activity from Science Buddies is great for older students.  The project guide gives step-by-step directions on how to build the catapult and launch the eggs.  You can measure the angle of the catapult and measure the distance the eggs fly.  What a fun activity!

How do you upcycle your plastic eggs?  I'd love to hear how!

STEAM, Social Studies, and Language Arts! Oh, My!

I will be teaching a series of Saturday Enrichment Program classes this month.  I'm so excited to be invited back for the second year by Highland School!  Last year, I worked with 2nd and 3rd-Graders on this project.  This year, I will be working with 4th and 5th-Graders.

Teachers get to pick the topic of their class, and I chose STEM.  I also love art, so STEAM was my inspiration.  It was from this inspiration that my "Solve Architectural Problems in a Science Lab!" unit was born.  It's a 5-part unit that's designed to be taught in 2-hour increments.

The first lesson introduces students to what technology really is.  I call this one the "Paper Bag Technology" experiment.  A lot of students think technology is only things that require electricity.  This lesson shows that anything that is designed to solve a problem is technology.

The second lesson focuses on the concepts of team-building and engineering.  I call this one the "Build an Index Card Tower" experiment.  It is the first experiment in the unit in which they fill out the "STEAM Planning and Report Sheet" that follows the five steps of the Engineering Design Process.

The 3rd lesson is the "Build a Longhouse" experiment in which students work together to build a scaled longhouse.

The 5th lesson has the students building a bridge of manila folders in the "Build a Bridge" experiment.

This unit includes:

~Lesson 1: "Paper Bag Technology" experiment. A lot of students think technology is only things that require electricity. This lesson shows that anything that is designed to solve a problem is technology.
~Lesson 2: "Build an Index Card Tower" experiment. It introduces the concepts of team-building and engineering that will be used throughout the following experiments.
~Lesson 3: "Build a Longhouse" experiment in which students work together to build a scaled longhouse.
~Lesson 4: "Build a Covered Wagon" experiment.
~Lesson 5: "Build a Bridge" experiment.
~Instructions for "Parent Visitation Day" to showcase student work

All lessons include:
~"STEAM Planning and Report Sheet" that follows the five steps of the Engineering Design Process.
~Enrichment questions and/or activities. 
~Suggested reading titles for further research. 
~Answer Keys for worksheets

I'm so excited to use this for the SEP!

You can pick up a copy by clicking here.

STEAM, Social Studies, and Language Arts! Oh, My!

In January, I will be teaching a series of Saturday Enrichment Program classes.  Teachers get to pick the topic of their class, and I chose STEM.  I also love art, so STEAM was my inspiration.  It was from this inspiration that my "Solve Architectural Problems in a Science Lab!" unit was born.  It's a 5-part unit that's designed to be taught in 2-hour increments.

The first lesson introduces students to what technology really is.  I call this one the "Paper Bag Technology" experiment.  A lot of students think technology is only things that require electricity.  This lesson shows that anything that is designed to solve a problem is technology.

The second lesson focuses on the concepts of team-building and engineering.  I call this one the "Build an Index Card Tower" experiment.  It is the first experiment in the unit in which they fill out the "STEAM Planning and Report Sheet" that follows the five steps of the Engineering Design Process.

The 3rd lesson is the "Build a Longhouse" experiment in which students work together to build a scaled longhouse.

The 4th lesson has the students building a scaled covered wagon in the "Build a Covered Wagon" experiment.

The 5th lesson has the students building a bridge of manila folders in the "Build a Bridge" experiment.

Each lesson has enrichment questions and/or activities.  All of them include research suggestions and reading titles.

I'm so excited to use this for the SEP!

You can pick up a copy by clicking here.