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.

Did you know that October is Squirrel Awareness Month? I didn’t know we needed more awareness of these little creatures, but let’s take it as a sign to learn more about squirrels!

Let’s start with some fun facts via Kids Konnect: did you know there are five subfamilies and more that 280 species of squirrels? The smallest are pygmy squirrels and the largest, the Bhutan giant flying squirrel, can be longer that 4 feet (1.2 meters).

Tree squirrels can climb down trees so fast because their ankles can rotate 180 degrees, allowing them to grab the tree bark as they go down. While most squirrels don’t survive their first year of life, they can live five to 10 years in the wild and squirrels have been known to live up to 20 years in captivity!

Rhythms of Play has more fun facts and tips for observing squirrels if you want to add some real life nature to your nature study.

We always like to start these collections with life cycle and parts of the animal printables, so let’s grab the squirrel life cycle an parts of a squirrel worksheets from Montessori Nature. (It doesn’t look like these are free any more but they have a whole unit study on squirrels you can buy that includes life cycle and parts activities, characteristics of different kinds of squirrels, a printable poster, information about predators and more.)

Grab the squirrel lapbook printable (free with email address) from Homeschool Share to learn the parts of a squirrel, where they live, what they eat, whether they hibernate and more. There’s also a nut taste test printable, a place for making observations about squirrels, life cycle of an oak tree, games and more.

Simple Everyday Mom has some cute squirrel themed worksheets including tracing the letter s, labeling the parts of a squirrel and a letter s maze. She also has more activity pages with a squirrel theme, including matching, a more traditional maze and a counting and graphing activity.

Work on letter recognition with this squirrel and acorn game printable from Teaching Mama. I love the idea of hiding the letters in a fall themed sensory bin for kids to find, identify and match to the letter on the worksheet.

For older kids you can do this “if I were a squirrel” writing prompt from Lesson Planet.

And throw in a little counting with these squirrel and acorn tens frame printables from JDaniel4’s Mom, which you can use to count real acorns or any other little fall themed thing you have handy.

Have you read?

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