Easter Egg  Stem Activity

The week before spring break can be challenging. You and your kids are ready for a much needed break. Let's be honest....you really just want to put a movie in to have a little quiet time for yourself and keep your kids calm. I totally understand this feeling. However, why not try something fun and educational....a team building activity....something the kids can learn from and enjoy. You don't have to do much but observe and discuss the activity. Your kids do all the work. Sounds great right? 

Here's the activity I did with my kids the week before spring break to get them thinking and working together. I was shocked at what they told me they learned from this activity. I had one of those O.M.G I can't believe you are saying this...I'm gonna cry...WOW! moments. It was amazing.  This is the website where I got this idea but I put my own twist to it...

Easter Egg Stem Activity

Step 1: You will need to gather the materials needed which cost me all of around 5 to 10$. 

Materials:

4-5 tubs of play-dough (a tub of play-dough for each group)

2-3 bags of Easter Eggs (20 eggs for each group)

Box of Peeps (you can use really whatever you choose)
paper and pencils for brainstorming

5 Rulers or Yard sticks

the floor or a desk

kids

energy and excitement (weave the magic baby, make your kids excited by your excitement)

Once you have the materials you should sort them out so that they will be easily available for your groups. I had 5 groups with 3-4 kids in each group. So each group gets a tub of play-dough, 20 Easter Eggs, yard stick/ruler, paper and pencils. 

Step 2: Explain to your kids that this activity is all about teamwork and building friendships. This is an activity to help you learn how to work together and encourage each other. We have been working on kindness in my classroom and this was a great way to extend that lesson. 

The Hook: I told my kids that they were going to build an Easter Egg tower using 20 eggs and the play-dough. They had to figure out a way to make the eggs stand 12 inches tall. They can use the eggs ANYWAY they want...yes this means they can open them and break them apart. The point is that the Easter Bunny is coming after the chick (peep) and it needs a place to hide. We have to build a tower that is 12 inches tall and will stand after placing the chick (peep) on top.  Ya'll my 4th graders ATE THIS UP! It's all about getting them excited! 

Step 3: Brainstorm: Give the kids some time to discuss how they might want to build this tower. They can draw it out and write down ideas about how it could work. What could the do to make the eggs stick together and stand up.

Step 4: Begin working on their tower.  I originally set the timer for 20 minutes but we ended up working on this for around 45 minutes. It's totally up to you how long you want your kids to work on this. Once the groups build their towers and they stand 12 inches then you can give them a peep to place on top of the tower. If it remains standing then they have won the challenge! Just keep in mind this is difficult! Some of my kids were frustrated because they couldn't get it to work. THAT IS OKAY!!! They learn through the struggle! They need to learn that sometimes you don't always get the answers right but as long as you try that is all that matters. We can always learn from our mistakes. This is something I stress with me kids on a daily basis. This can be turned into a history lesson where you can bring in all the people that failed through their lives but became famous or accomplished great things in their lives.

Step 5: DISCUSSION! Ask your kids questions about this activity! Let them tell you the problems they had and how they addressed them. What did they learn? What made it difficult or easy? How did your group solve problems or how did you work together? How could this have been different? What would you have done differently if we did this another time? How did you make your tower work? This can be turned into a great writing piece about what they learned or even used as a HOW-TO writing assignment.  You could use a cause and effect graphic organizer to discuss what happened as well. 

My kids told me that they really learned how to work together and when someone wanted to give up they encouraged each other to try again. I didn't hear any arguing among the group members but a few heckling and trash talk between some groups who were close to being finished. My class is super competitive! They told me they had fun even though some of my groups weren't able to complete the challenge. They learned it's okay to try and fail. They were able to explain the process they used to make their tower stand and explain to the groups who didn't make it how they could have changed their design. 

This was a great experiment for my students and one they loved doing. We enjoyed it on our last day before spring break. Hope you try this with your kids or it gives you an idea of what you could possibly do in the future. Thanks for reading.

Here is another great Easter Stem activity to try...I will have to do this in the future.

Building with Jelly Beans