30 Winter STEM Activities
Originally Published: December 6, 2019
Updated: February 2024
Snow ball fights, candy canes, and reindeer…time for some winter STEM activities for kids! Read on for 30 science experiments, math activities, engineering design challenges, and even coding fun - all with a winter theme! All these activities use simple materials and are perfect for the classroom or at home while stuck indoors.
10 Science Winter Activities
Spin like an ice skater! Sit in a chair with arms stretched out. Have someone spin you around. Bring in your arms. Try again holding weights.
Research what reindeer eat to prepare for Santa!
Make holiday goop! Combine corn starch, water, and glitter.
Grow your own crystal ornaments! Here's what you need: white pipe cleaners, string, scissors, wide mouth jar, water, and borax.
Create your shape out of pipe cleaners (snowflake, initial, etc), making sure it is small enough to be suspended in the jar without touching the sides!
Bring water to a boil, remove from heat and stir in 3 tablespoons of borax per 1 cup until it dissolves. Pour the mixture into the jar. Tie a string to your ornament and hang it from another pipe cleaners or pencil to suspend in the jar. Now wait about 6+ hours to reveal a beautiful crystal creation!
What is happening? As the borax settles out out of the cooling mixture, it bonds with other borax molecules on any surface in the container. Crystals form in specific, repeated patterns due to the shape of the molecules in them. You’ll see this crystallization on the bottom and sides of the container, on the string, and on the pipe cleaner arms of your ornament. The borax continues to fall and crystalize on top of your ornament and on top of other borax crystals until you pull it out of the jar.
5. Explore the science of friction to see what items slide best on ice. Read more here.
6. Research animals that hibernate during the winter. Draw your favorite.
7. Blow a frozen bubble! Blow a bubble and catch it on the wand. Wait a few moments to freeze (or stick in freezer). Pop it!
8. What will you do with all those extra candy canes? Melt them for some fun shapes and edible artwork! Here is how to do it: place on a cookie sheet (on parchment paper preferably) and put into 250°F oven for 10 minutes. Then quickly manipulate the candy canes into desired shapes. See image below and read more here.
Melting candy canes! Read more here.
9. Pour whole milk in a shallow dish. Add food coloring. Dip a Q-tip into dish soap and then into the milk. Watch what happens when the soap reacts with the milk!
10. Make your own snow! Put baking soda in a bowl. Slowly add shaving cream to make snow. What happens when you drop in vinegar? Check out more recipes here or this fun video below.
10 Engineering Winter Activities
Design and build a gingerbread house. Add in paper circuits for some technology fun! Check out this how-to video.
Design a vehicle for Santa! Must land on rooftops, travel long distances, and be quiet. Go more in depth as you learn about circuits and use a coin cell battery and vibrating motor to transport “presents” in this lesson!
Build a fort from snow! No snow? Use cardboard boxes or other materials.
Design a snow shelter! Find the activity below - part of our STEM Explorers curriculum for elementary students.
5. Use a Makey Makey to design an alarm that goes off when someone puts presents under the tree!
6. Build a bridge using discarded wrapping paper and tape. More ideas for wrapping paper challenges here.
7. Design and build a catapult to fling snowballs! No snow? Use cotton balls or ping pong balls. Check out our lesson below for elementary and middle school students.
8. Find an item that starts with each letter in "WINTER". Come up with an invention that uses all items.
9. Design a device to help your elf get off the shelf!
10. You can find 25 more Elf STEM challenges here!
5 Math Winter Activities
Make a toy wish list! Find the cost of each item and determine the total cost of your list.
Research how many children are in the USA. If only 80% of children are good this year, how many kids is that? 75%?
Make holiday cookies! How much of each ingredient do you need to double the recipe? Triple?
Build an igloo with sugar cubes and frosting. Calculate the total volume inside the igloo. Learn the formula for finding the volume of a hemisphere and more here.
Set-up a hot chocolate stand. How much will you charge per cup? Extra for marshmallows?
5 Coding Winter Activities
Complete the Frozen Hour of Code challenge. Find it here.
Complete an unplugged coding challenge to make a winter-themed tool!
Another unplugged challenge: create a robot hand to help Santa deliver gifts!
Create a winter-themed coding game on Scratch.
Code a candy cane! Use our binary reference resource - FREE when you become a member of The STEM Space at any level - to make these simple binary candy canes pictured below.
Code a candy cane!
What other ideas do you have for winter-themed STEM activities?
