Apple STEM Activities for Back to School

I don’t know if there’s much that’s symbolic of fall and back to school time like apples, so let’s play with our food and do some learning while we’re at it with these apple STEM and STEAM activities.

Why not make an apple bird feeder and keep a log of the different kinds of birds and other animals you see using it? Messy Little Monster has this simple DIY.

Since apples are alive they can decay, so you can use them to learn about mold (on a smaller scale than the classic decaying pumpkin experiment). Share It Science has a post about a kid’s book you can read about observing mold and decay, plus all the details for setting up your own kid-led experiment to see what happens when apple slices are left to rot and how well different preservatives help them stay fresh.

On the other end of the spectrum you can dry apples, which is another means of preserving them. Adventure in a Box has all the details for turning apple drying into a science experiment for kids that you can eat when it’s done!

While you’re slicing apples, make some apple boats with this idea from A Dab of Glue Will Do. Let the kids decorate their sails (and/or make them different shapes, sizes and materials) and have them use the worksheet in the post to hypothesize whether their boats will float and why.

Kid Minds has a fun experiment using an apple where you investigate the center of gravity by balancing an apple off the edge of a table. Head to the post to see how and why this one works (and definitely consider doing the stabbing of the apple yourself instead of having a kid do it).

And then of course there’s the classic apple volcano experiment, speaking of things done on a smaller scale than using a pumpkin. Homeschool Preschool has all the details on this fun project that kids of all ages enjoy.

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

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