Make Pipe Cleaner Constellations

Here’s a cute idea for your space-obsessed kids from STEAM Powered Family.

These pipe cleaner constellation models use the actual shape of the constellation on printable cards to help kids see how the stars make the shape.

You can get the printable cards when you sign up for their emails. Then all you need are some basic materials you probably already have around the house. Kids will love this as part of a science unit if you are learning from home this year, or just as a chance to play with and talk about constellations (and maybe even design their own!).

There are some cool ideas in the post for how to work these in different ways to make them more fun and enhance the learning opportunities, too, so be sure to check it out.

[Photo: STEAM Powered Family.] Looking for Space-themed Books? check these out on Amazon

Check out this article on the best STEM gifts for kids.

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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Space Crafts for Kids

We don’t really have any travel to speak of planned this summer, and my daughter is old enough that any lengthy time in the car is usually spent with an audiobook or watching videos. But I remember the struggle of keeping little kids entertained on long trips, especially if you don’t want them on a screen the whole time.

I recently saw this post from Creating Really Awesome Fun Things, which is a roundup of 26 road trip games, ideas and activities that kids can do. From stringing beads onto pipe cleaners to felt busy boards, travel journals and using a pizza box to contain colors, trains (or cars) and more, there are lots of fun and easy ideas here.

I’m a big fan of printable road trip activities, and even have a whole post all about printables for road trips. I used to always do some kind of license plate game, a map, mazes and I-spy style scavenger hunts, which are fun for everyone in the car to play along with. (You can also find some patriotic road trip mazes here.) If your road trip includes a camping trip, check out these camping themed printable games and activities.

Productive Pete has a super cute map of the United States (pictured above) that kids can use in lots of different ways while on the road. They can color the states you travel through, or all the states they’ve ever visited, or use it to give the license plate game an extra challenge as they try to find each state on the map. You can quiz older kids on the state capitols, which you might need to brush up on yourself (guilty!).

Do you have particular games or activities that you always have on hand when you are doing a road trip with kids? I would love to hear about them!

[Photo: Productive Pete.]

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