Book Review: 100 Easy STEAM Activities

There are so many great STEM and STEAM activities out there, and I love having books of activities around so my child can choose something she wants to do rather than me having to direct or suggest activities all the time (she’s 10, so she has a good idea of what sounds interesting or fun to her).

100 Easy STEAM Activities by Andrea Scalzo Yi of Raising Dragons is a great collection of low-prep projects that are lots of fun for kids and help them learn while keeping them entertained.

Some of the categories in the book include:

Simple science experiments
Achievable technology ideas (aka coding without computers)
Easy engineering challenges
Accessible art projects
No problem math activities
Toddler STEAM play activities
Seasonal STEAM activities
Sensory STEAM ideas

In all there are 100 different activities, a lot of which you can probably do with materials you have in your house or with a quick trip to the store. Most are great for elementary school aged kids, except of course for the toddler activities.

Each project is rated from one to three beakers in terms of difficulty, so it’s easy to pick things that are perfect for your kids’ skill level.

A few projects at random to give you a taste: Paint your name in binary code, Playdough maze, Calm down building block sensory bottle, Crayon resist leaf prints, Raised salt painting, Fraction animals, Magic pepper experiment.

While lots of these you may have seen before, the beauty of a book version is that you and your kids can flip through it at random when “I’m bored” hits, or if there’s something specific you want to focus on that day. It’s a lot of fun for little artists, engineers, mathematicians and kids in general.

Learn more about the book at her website.

About the book: 192 pages, paperback, 100 activities. Published by Page Street Publishing, suggested retail price $19.99.

Check out our Online store for special buys on Educational gifts We find bulk items and end-of-stock supplies to bring you heavily discounted items. (make sure you check our store often so you don’t miss out on new stock). We also have some free printable files, including a Science PDF for learning about Microscopes.

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Teach the Teacher Printable Worksheets: A Fun…

Whenever you go to the beach with kids, you’re sure to come home with some seashells and more than a little sand. Let’s use some of those treasures to make fun crafts.

This handprint craft is made with a sand-infused salt dough and some little shells from the beach. It’s a cute way to remember how little your kids were on that beach trip. Find the instructions at From Under a Palm Tree.

Here’s another take on sand dough that was used to make little ornaments and sculptures. Get the details from Pink Stripey Socks.

Moms and Crafters used air dry clay and seashells to make these cute necklaces. She used the storebought clay but you can also make your own air dry clay if you’d rather.

Crafts on Sea used a shell to make a whale, but I’m sure you could take this idea and make lots of different creatures. I love the idea of sea creatures made with shells like fish or a jellyfish or an octopus using the same method. They also have a seashell decoration made with salt dough that’s really cute and would be fun for kids to paint. Poke a hole before it dries for hanging if you want.

Or take a bunch of little shells and decorate a frame like these from Rhythms of Play. They used a handprint instead of a picture but you could also put in a picture from the beach trip.

This is probably one for the mamas to make because it uses epoxy, but I also wanted to share these cute and easy shell hair pins from Thrifty Mama Ramblings, which kids are sure to want for their mermaid pretend play.

Or how about some sensory play straight from the beach? Use store bought sand if you don’t have a beach nearby to make this beach sand slime from The Mama Notes. Thrown in some shells and kids will love playing with this one.

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