STEAM Challenge Friday – Exploding Snowman

Exploding Snowman

Today’s STEAM Challenge is all about Science and a little art. Specifically, chemistry! This project requires minimal household ingredients. Simply put your bag and ingredients together and watch before your eyes a fun-filled chemistry experiment.

Materials:
-Sandwich size Ziplock bag (or larger if you want to double it for double the fun!) – the slide ones are quick and easy or little fingers
-vinegar
-blue food coloring (optional)
-baking soda
-paper towel
-black and orange sharpie

Instructions:

  1. Add snowman designs to your sandwich Ziplock bag. You can use marker/sharpie, stickers, or even construction paper.
  2. Put 3 teaspoons of baking soda in a paper towel. Wrap this up into a pouch.
  3. Optional: Add your food coloring to your folded paper towel pouch.
  4. Now quickly pour in 1-2 cups of distilled white vinegar into your melting snowman Ziplock bag.
  5. Quickly seal the bag and get ready for the chemical reaction to start with the vinegar and baking soda.

Before you add the vinegar to your bag, ask some questions to your little scientist. Like, what do we know about baking soda and vinegar. Make some observations. Then, based on our current knowledge and observations, ask what they think will happen? Make some predictions!

Now do your experiment!! What happened? Were your predictions correct? How did the ingredients change? What happened to the Ziplock bag?

What a fun chemical reaction!!

Here is what happened >>

The vinegar and baking soda creates a vigorous acid-base reaction. The bubbles you see are the rapid release of CO2 as unstable carbonic acid (formed first) breaks down, offering a fun way to learn about chemistry.

Be sure to subscribe to our Website and follow our Instagram. We love sharing what our classes are up to as well as fun and free Challenges for you to enjoy with your family.

xo Shiny Happy Kids

STEAM Challenge Friday – Polar Bear Home

It’s all about engineering in today’s STEAM challenge! Are you ready to build a Polar Bear Home? Grab some marshmallows and toothpicks for this activity. Challenge your child to create a home for a polar bear using a few simple materials. You will be amazed by what they can come up with.

Today’s STEAM Challenge requires minimal materials and a ton of fun.

Materials:
-Marshmallows
-Toothpicks

If you don’t have toothpicks, consider using q-tips with the ends cut off, straws, or even pipe cleaners. If you do not have marshmallows, considering using another kind of squishy candy, like gumdrops or even play-doh!

Your engineering challenge is to create a home for a polar bear! Will your home be big enough or sturdy enough?

No polar bear? Get creative and design a home for a penguin, artic fox, rabbit, or even a snowman!

We hope you had fun designing and engineering today. Don’t forget to leave pictures of your designs in the comments below. Let us know how the design and building process went! We can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Be sure to subscribe to our Website and follow our Instagram. We love sharing what our classes are up to as well as fun and free Challenges for you to enjoy with your family.

xo Shiny Happy Kids

STEAM Challenge Friday – Pom Pom Popper

Create this adorable Pom Pom Popper and kids can challenge each other to pop the pom pom the furthest. Children can alter their design as they play to get the furthest distance.

Supplies:
-Paper cup
-Balloon
-Pom balls, marshmallows, or cotton balls
-Tape
-Markers

Putting together this Pom Pom Popper is so easy. Start with removing the bottom of the cup. This part may require adult help. Take your balloon and trim the top part off. Slip it over the bottom of the cup and secure it with tape. Tie the bottom of the balloon. Now the fun part. Add your snowman design. Simply use markers to create your own or get creative with stickers or other fun characters!

Now the challenge. Add your pom ball to the cup, gently pull the end of the balloon back and release. Watch as your pom ball flies through the air!

Want a challenge or contest?

  1. See who can pop their pom ball the furthest
  2. Create a bucket or goal to aim for. How many pom can you land out of 10?
  3. Create a target and point system on the ground and create a game out of it.
  4. Something for fun >>> See if you can pop a marshmallow in the air and catch it in your mouth!

I hope you had fun creating this STEAM Challenge! Stay tuned for next Friday for our next STEAM Challenge!

We would love to see your creations and/or the challenges or games you played. Feel free to leave a comment and post your photos below!

Be sure to subscribe to our Website and follow our Instagram. We love sharing what our classes are up to as well as fun and free Challenges for you to enjoy with your family.

xo Shiny Happy Kids