Zoo Themed STEM Activity

STEM activities are so popular  these days and my girls love to create and build so I knew it was time to work on a STEM project!  I made them a Zoo Themed STEM Challenge so that they could work on building and designing some of the buildings and places we've seen at the zoo.  It was so easy to prep and used only things we already had on hand.  That's a win right there!  They had so much fun designing different habitats for their animals.

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To prepare for this STEM challenge, I printed out the STEM cards (free down below) and gathered the building supplies.  My requirements for the building supplies were that they were open ended (could be used in lots of different ways) and we had them on hand.  I gathered toilet paper rolls, corks, toothpicks, marshmallows, index cards and thick popsicle sticks.  I also went through our animal collections and pulled out animals that we would find at the zoo.  We LOVE the Toob animal collections that you can find at Michael's, Joann's and on Amazon.  I don't think we have a set that is specifically zoo animals, but we have safari animals, farm animals, and jungle animals that I picked through. The endangered species toob would be another good one for zoo animals.  

Once I had the supplies all set up, I had my 5 year old pick a challenge card.  She grabbed the "build a doorway tall enough for the giraffe" card.  I showed her the building supplies and told her she could make it anyway that she wanted as long as it was tall enough to go over the giraffes' heads.  She pulled the giraffes out of the pile and got to work creating with toilet paper rolls and index cards.  This one was easy for her!

Our next challenge was a little more, um, challenging.  K picked out the "build a bridge" card.  With this challenge the animals needed to be able to walk under the bridge while people walked on top.  She quickly set to work creating a bridge using toilet paper rolls and index cards.  I went in search of "people" and found a few princesses.

We set the princesses on top of the bridge and the cards started to sag under the weight.  I used it as a learning opportunity to push K to think of a way to improve her design.  I showed her some of the other supplies and asked if there was anything that we could use that would be stronger than the index cards to hold up the princesses.

She quickly grabbed the popsicle sticks.  She started laying them horizontally but then went back and made them vertical as well. She even made some weave in between the others.

She decided to go back and add the index cards to the top of the popsicle sticks to make a flat surface.  The results were MUCH better this time.  The bridge didn't sag under the weight of the people at all and the animals still had space to walk underneath.  Mission accomplished!!

After that challenge, she quickly whipped up this one which was supposed to be a building where the workers could go.  She made a building out of corks and index cards.  This was easy compared to the bridge where she had to think and try out different solutions.

These are just a few of the 12 zoo challenge cards that I created. I love this activity because it is open ended.  It challenges children to build and create but gives them some limitations and challenges to focus their creating.  My girls LOVE creating and also loving playing with little characters and animals, so this was a perfect fit for them.

Do you want to try these zoo themed STEM challenges with your little learners?  Just click to download, enter your information and the challenge cards will be emailed directly to you.  

Need some more zoo inspiration?  Check out some of these amazing ideas from some blogger friends!

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:

Editable Name Puzzles // Playdough to Plato

It's a Zoo Graphing Game // Stay at Home Educator

Zoo Themed STEM Activity // Sara J Creations

Interactive Animal Alphabet Flashcards // Science Kiddo

Zoo Sight Word Book // Still Playing School

Zoo Small World Busy Box // Play and Learn Every Day

Zoo Animals: Tracing Lines // Liz's Early Learning Spot

Letter and Number Matching Puzzles // The Simplified Classroom

Zoo Busy Box // Teach Me Mommy

Zoo Pom Pom Mats // Fairy Poppins

Invitation to Make Dear Zoo Small World // Adventures and Play

Zoo Number Puzzles // The STEM Laboratory

Zoo First to 20 and First to 50 Math Game // A Dab of Glue Will Do