Paper plates are cheap and easy to find materials for an assortment of STEM challenges and activities!

Kids can build things like towers, bridges, and 3D shapes with paper plates.  The plates can be folded, cut, rolled, or torn.  They are cheap and easy to find.  Why not try to build a 3D haunted house out of paper plates this fall?  

This pack of 5 STEM engineering challenges uses paper plates in a variety of ways!

All you need is a large pack of paper plates and a few other supplies.  Many of which you should be able to find at school!

Paper plates can be cut, rolled, folded, or torn in a number of ways.  These challenges get them thinking!

While these STEM engineering challenges are a lot of fun, the Minute to Finish It pack using paper plates is really engaging.

Click here to check out the pack!

These 8 quick STEM challenges can be done in a single day or over the course of a few days!  The kids form a team and then do 8 different activities with paper plates and a few other materials.

One of my favorite activities from this pack is the Plate Flipping!

Can your team flip and catch the highest number of paper plates using just one hand?

Materials (per team):

-1 paper plate per person

-timer

Click here to check out this pack in my TPT store!

Do your students like emojis?

Why not try to make some paper plate emojis in this STEM challenge?

This is a challenge that my kids always want to do more than once!

Click here to check out this challenge.

What are some of your favorite materials to use for STEM activities and challenges?  I am always looking for cheap and easy to find materials for the STEM challenges and activities that I create for my own classroom!

Time to try some STEM challenges and activities in your classroom!

I am always interested in finding new items and ideas for my classroom space!  Working in a large, urban district means we have little funding for our classrooms and have to provide most of it ourselves, which is one of the BIG reasons I began creating lessons for TPT.

Click here for a link to my Amazon storefront.

If you have ANY items you absolutely LOVE, please share!  I am always looking for good ideas!

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Smart Chick

This year I am focusing on one STEM area each month!  September is going to be all about TOWERS!

While I wish we could do STEM every single day, there are other things I need to teach in my 5th grade classroom.  This is the schedule I am going to try my best to keep for the month of September.  We may work on some of the topics for more than one day throughout the week.  Figure out what will work for your classroom!

I am going to dedicate a bulletin board in my classroom to my STEM theme each month.  This bulletin board will have the vocabulary words, informational pages, and hopefully pictures of the challenges we do throughout the month.  I also plan on hanging this calendar up to hold myself accountable for doing these different activities and challenges!

I use my Towers pack for the bulletin board.  Click here to see it in my tpt store.  These theme packs can be found in either my tpt store or my blog store if you are interested.

I bundled all of the TOWER resources I am planning on using during the month of September at a reduced cost.  There are 10 tower resources included in this bundle!  Grab the September calendar for free in the PREVIEW file for this bundle!  Click here to check out the bundle for September!

Why not try a STEM focus area each month this year?

We studied sharks at the end of this school year.  The kids did reports, question slides, STEM challenges, and a dissection!

One of their favorite activities so far has been designing a shark cage!

There were some rules they had to follow.  The cage had to be three dimensional and there had to be some type of way for someone inside the cage to see things outside the cage.  There also had to be a way to open and close the top of the cage!

We used a variety of supplies for this challenge, this included cardboard, straws, craft sticks, model magic, and masking tape.  The kids came up with a lot of different ideas for this one!

This STEM challenge was a lot of fun for everyone!  Click here if you want to check out a 5 pack of shark related STEM challenges!

Why not try some shark STEM challenges?

National Paperclip Day is celebrated on May 29th!  Why not do a paperclip STEM challenge on this day?

A paperclip is a small, bent piece of wire used to hold papers together.  Even though it is simple, it became one of the most useful office supplies ever invented.  Paperclips were invented during the 1800s.  The most useful paperclip shape is the Gem Paperclip.  No one knows who invented the first paperclip because many people designed many different versions.

Paperclips are cheap and easy to find.  This STEM challenge is a fun one!  Teams have to figure out ways to float the MOST paperclips at a time.

All you need are some paperclips for each team and a container of water.  

Paperclips can be floated individually or hooked together to form a paperclip raft!

There are lots of ways to do this one!

You can find this pack by clicking here!  There is a calendar collection of May STEM Challenges based on different holidays that can be found here!

What can you do with paperclips?

Looking for a way to being some excitement to your spring science lessons?  You may want to try adding some jumping beans.

I buy a jumping bean for each student in my classroom.  I grab mine from Amazon, but you can sometimes see them at gas stations or grocery stores.  Jumping beans are seeds that move because a tiny larva is living inside them.  They JUMP randomly throughout the day, and the kids get so excited.  Over time a tiny moth will emerge from the seed.  The adult moth doesn't eat and will only live for 3-4 days.

We read this picture book while we are learning about jumping beans.  Click here to see the book on Amazon.

We use this Jumping Bean pack to learn more about these interesting insects.  Click here to check it out in my tpt store!  This pack includes lab sheets, vocabulary words, and more!

This pack can be so motivating to keeps kids focused in the classroom!  They really want to take care of their little jumping bean.  

We usually do these labs at the end of the year, after our state testing.

Are you having a hard time finding the TIME for STEM in your classroom?  These one minute challenges may work for you!

This is a fun and engaging activity either before or after the Easter holiday!  We usually do it after the holiday in my classroom.  I grab plastic eggs as well as the other supplies at my local Dollar Tree store.  Many of the materials can be used year after year!  Click here to check it out!

There are 8 quick STEM challenges included in this pack!

They can be done all in the same day or over a few days.

We do them over a week in our classroom and the kids get so excited!

They compete with other teams to see who can get the best scores.

We keep a score sheet for each team and they record their scores!  

I project the challenge sheet and the kids complete it in a minute.  For some of these, we practice first!

There are several other packs just like this one with other materials like balloons, play dough, pipe cleaners, craft sticks, etc.  You can even buy a bundle of 8 different packs!

Don't have a lot of time, all you need is a MINUTE!

National OREO Day is celebrated on March 6th, the date when this delicious cookie was first sold in stores back in 1912!  It is a great day to do some STEM challenges and other activities with this cookie!

Kids LOVE Oreo cookies, so this is a great way to have a little fun!  We do a weekly reading 

challenge all about Oreos for the week!

These are great to use as a way to teach reading strategies and comprehension!

Click here to check out this item in my tpt store!

There are lots of STEM challenges and math activities you can do with Oreo cookies!

Building an OREO Tower is a real challenge, especially if you build it as a single stack of Oreos. 

This can be done with regular or mini-sized Oreo cookies!  Click here to see this pack!

You can also do a Math Mat using Oreo cookies!  Click here to check it out!

Here are some other ideas:

You can also make estimates about how many cookies are in a container or package of Oreos.

Kids can make their own Oreo sculptures using model magic air dry clay.

You can review the phases of the moon using Oreo cookies!  

Kids can write the BEST way to eat an Oreo cookie.

What ideas do you have for National Oreo Day?

Trial-and-error learning is super important for kids because it’s how their brains naturally learn best—by trying something, noticing what happened, adjusting, and trying again. It builds both thinking skills and confidence.

Here are the biggest reasons it matters:

1) It builds problem-solving skills.

When kids experiment and make changes, they learn how to:

- identify what went wrong

- figure out why it happened

- try a new strategy

That’s real-life problem solving—not just memorizing answers.

2) It teaches perseverance (“don’t give up”).

Trial and error helps kids learn:

- mistakes are normal

- effort matters

- improvement takes practice

They start to think: “I can’t do it yet… but I can keep trying.”

3) It strengthens brain connections.

Every time a child tries, fails, and tries again, their brain is:

- making connections

- strengthening memory pathways

- learning what works and what doesn’t

This is one of the best ways to create deep learning.

4) It builds independence.

Instead of always depending on adults for the “right answer,” kids learn to:

- trust themselves

- test ideas

- make decisions

That leads to stronger confidence and self-control.

5) It encourages creativity and innovation.

If kids aren’t allowed to try and fail, they stop being creative. Trial-and-error teaches that:

- there can be many solutions

- it’s okay to experiment

- new ideas are welcome

This is huge in STEM, art, writing—everything.

6) It helps kids learn from mistakes in a healthy way.

Kids who experience safe failure learn:

- mistakes are information (not embarrassment)

- errors help you improve

- failure doesn’t mean you’re bad at something

That mindset protects self-esteem.

7) It builds “real world” learning skills.

In real life, adults don’t get answer keys. Trial and error is how we:

- learn new jobs

- solve problems at home

- fix mistakes

- invent new things

So, kids who practice trial and error early are better prepared later!

We have been working on building roller coasters in our classroom as we study force and motion in science.  

We build the roller coasters using the foam pipe insulators cut in half lengthwise.

I grabbed these from my local hardware store.  I got 12 packs for my classroom, and it was more than enough for my 7 teams.  We also needed rolls of masking tape and marbles!

We focused on one element each day and the kids built roller coasters for each element.  

We needed to give each team an area of the room to use for the construction of their roller coasters each day!

Seeing the way each element impacted the speed of the marble really helped them understand different concepts.  I have a couple of packs in my tpt store that we used!  Click the pictures to check out each pack!

Both of these packs helped us with lab sheets and vocabulary words!

Check out the bulletin board display in our classroom!

Having the vocabulary words up helped with our class discussions as well as giving support as students completed their lab sheets each day!

What do you use to teach force and motion concepts?

Looking for something fun and challenging to do on   National STEM Day on November 8, 2025?  Why not try this challenge?

All you need is 20 toothpicks and 25 marshmallows for each team!  The large marshmallows work best for this challenge, but you could also use the small ones!

We practice for about 10 minutes, then we spend 25 minutes building the marshmallow towers.  The towers need to be free-standing, they cannot lean on anything!

Materials can be found at your local dollar store or grocery store!  I plan on grabbing 3 bags of marshmallows and two boxes of toothpicks for my own classroom!

This is the perfect day to get engineering!

Can your students make the longest paper chain using just one sheet of 9 x 12 construction paper?

This seems like a simple and easy STEM challenge and in some ways, it is one of the easier ones we complete.  It can be a challenge, though!

The best STEM challenges often use the easiest to find materials.  For this one you need a sheet of 9 x 12 construction paper for each student, some scissors, and tape or staplers for groups to share.  Here are all of our chains!

This challenge took us about 45 minutes to complete.  The kids were so focused on it!

These are some of the chains that were created by my students this year.  Our longest chain had really wide loops and was over 11 feet long!

The kids could use any size and width of chain they wanted to use for the challenge.

We talked about the different chain lengths and the different reasons why some chains were much longer than others.

This is a challenge that may be fun to do later in the year!

If you are looking for some fun and easy challenges, you may want to check out my World Record STEM Challenges pack!

Which STEM challenges have you tried already this year?