Make a fun craft project and use your maths to find out about structures with this quick and easy marshmallow igloo. Igloos are built out of blocks of ice or snow by Inuit people living in the Arctic regions of Canada and Greenland. They were used as temporary shelters when people were hunting. No need to worry, we won’t be expecting people to go into the Arctic and carve blocks of ice, this one is going to be made out of marshmallows – yum! You’ll only need a few simple items to make this project, and it can be an edible experiment too. The magic of maths is hands-on fun this Christmas! What you’ll need: • Bag of mini marshmallows or bag of marshmallows • If you are making the buttercream icing, you will also need • 70g softened butter • 150g icing sugar Activity sheets and notes for teachers can be downloaded for free. The activity sheet includes teacher notes, guidance, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved UK nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Oh ho ho, and please do share your homemade igloos with us @IETeducation #SantaLovesSTEM

Make a non-alcoholic family friendly eggnog this Christmas, and learn about science and mixtures in this quick and easy festive recipe. Learn some amazing scientific facts while making this delicious, creamy Christmas treat - the magic of science is real-life fun! More recently, non-acholic eggnog has become a staple of Christmas celebrations, with Americans drinking over 58 million kilograms each year and Christmas Eve now being named National Eggnog Day. Ingredients needed: 500ml whole milk (swap for unsweetened almond milk if dairy-free or vegan) 200g caster sugar 100ml double cream (swap for full-fat coconut milk if dairy-free or vegan) 100ml water 4 egg yolks (swap for vegan vanilla pudding mix if vegan) 1 teaspoon vanilla paste (remove this ingredient if you are following the vegan recipe) Ice The engineering context Baking is engineering. It is using science, maths and technology skills to engineer and create solutions and new tasty products. Engineers need all these skills – precision in weighing out ingredients, the safety required in the kitchen and product design and quality engineering to test, taste and improve with each delicious creation! Download the free recipe and template! All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs. The activity sheet includes teacher notes, guidance, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved UK nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Oh ho ho, and please do share your experiment highlights with us @IETeducation #SantaLovesSTEM

Learn how to create colourful, edible stained glass and discover the science of light in this fun experiment for kids. What ingredients will you need? • 790g white, granulated sugar • 475ml water • 240ml light corn syrup • ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar • Food colouring (red or green) Download the free Edible stained glass activity sheet to learn the science behind this experiment! All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs. The activity sheet includes teacher notes, guidance, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved UK nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Don’t forget to take photos of your edible stained glass and share them with us @IETeducation

Climate change and electricity? Investigate types of circuit with buzzers and lights to experiment and find out which is best for our planet. In this science activity for Key Stage 2, students will investigate different types of circuits to determine the most sustainable ones. They will then build their own Christmas lights by making a circuit with LED bulbs and crocodile leads. This is an engaging experiment that will encourage students to have fun with science! Students will first compare series circuits against parallel circuits. A series circuit is a configuration where components are connected one after another in a single path, creating a single flow of current. In contrast, a parallel circuit is a setup where components are linked across multiple paths, allowing current to split and flow through each component independently. Following this, students will replace the battery pack in their circuit with a solar panel. Students should consider the following questions: Are the LEDs as bright as with the battery pack? How does the weather affect the brightness of the LEDs? Can you add as many LEDs to your parallel circuit as you can with the battery pack? Solar power is a renewable energy source that is much better for our environment. In this activity, we use solar panels, which transfer solar energy into electrical energy and light energy without storing it. Solar panels aren’t useful for Christmas lights as it would mean that they would only work during the day if the solar panel were in direct sunlight. In order to use our Christmas lights at night, we would need to add a storage cell, such as a rechargeable battery, which could store the energy until we turn on the lights in the evening. We would still need to ensure that the solar panel is in direct sunlight during the day, though, to ensure our lights come on every evening. Next time you buy your Christmas lights, think about what you could do differently to help protect our environment, particularly Santa’s North Pole! Equipment required A 2 x AA battery pack and batteries A 3V solar panel At least eight crocodile leads At least 4 LEDs (Different colours if possible) 5V bulb to show the difference in light emitted Download the free Build your own Christmas lights activity sheet! All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs. The activity sheet includes teacher notes, guidance, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved UK nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Oh ho ho, and please share your classroom learning highlights with us @IETeducation.

Use design and technology skills to use a 2D net to make a 3D Christmas cracker and hat This engaging activity for kids is one of a series of accessible STEM resources designed to allow learners to use the theme of the Christmas period to develop their knowledge and skills in Mathematics, Design & Technology and Engineering. Download our free activity sheet for a step-by-step guide on making a DIY Christmas cracker and hat from paper. This activity could be carried out individually or in small groups. Once you have created your Christmas cracker, consider what gifts you could put into it. Who would you give the gift to? Students could add designs to the Christmas cracker and hat as a fun extension activity. For example, they could add different colours and images related to Christmas, such as reindeer or snowmen. Learners could also create a joke book to be put inside their crackers using the IET resource titled ‘Christmas cracker jokes’. Tools/resources required Glue sticks Paper Coloured pencils Scissors Gold/Silver pens to add decoration Pre-printed Christmas images The engineering context Engineers use nets to make 3D models of structures and even products like vacuum cleaners. Suggested learning outcomes By the end of this activity, you will understand what a 2D net or surface development means and how engineers assemble them into 3D objects, structures and products. You will then learn how to create and make a Christmas cracker and a hat from a net. Download the free How to make Christmas crackers activity sheet! All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable so that you can tailor them to your students and your schools’ needs. The activity sheet includes teacher notes, guidance, helpful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in the four devolved UK nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Oh ho ho, please share your classroom learning highlights with us @IETeducation! #SantaLovesSTEM.

This maths activity uses triangular numbers to calculate the number of gifts in the 12 days of Christmas. In this festive maths activity, students will learn about triangular numbers and how, when a number sequence is added together, they can be drawn to make triangles as dots. They will also add together triangular numbers using a staircase and a formula to calculate any triangular number. This activity could be used as a main lesson activity to teach learners how to use addition and multiplication to solve practical problems. It could also be used as one of several activities within a wider scheme of learning, focusing on the use of maths to understand ratios and proportion. Activity: Triangular numbers This activity is one of a set of resources developed to support the teaching of the primary national curriculum. They are designed to support the delivery of key topics within maths and science. This resource focuses on the calculation of triangular numbers using the staircase method and the formula to calculate any triangular number n. We can use our maths knowledge to understand better how to solve problems involving addition and multiplication. As we handle money and make food for big parties of people, we learn how to use addition and multiplication in everyday life. How long will this activity take? This activity will take approximately 40-60 minutes to complete. Resources required Grid paper Pencils Erasers Rulers Calculators The engineering context Engineers need to know how many items are in a sequence. For example, production engineers in ice cream manufacturing need to know the number of double-scoop ice creams possible, given the number of flavours available. Triangular numbers are also used in a variety of other engineering calculations. For example, they can be used to calculate the number of steps in a staircase, the number of bricks in a wall, and the number of components in a circuit. Suggested learning outcomes By the end of this activity, students will know what a triangular number is, they will be able to calculate a triangular number using a staircase, and they will be able to calculate any triangular number (n) using a formula. Download the free Triangular numbers activity sheet! All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs. The activity sheet includes teacher notes, guidance, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved UK nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Please share your classroom learning highlights with us @IETeducation.

In this fun activity for kids, students can make cool crafts out of cardboard boxes. Use a cardboard box of any size and other recyclables you can find and use safely. We challenge you to get creative and bring one of our ideas to life or go a step further and invent your own project. Students should be encouraged to draw or write about as many ideas as possible for their cardboard box creation. They could make a castle, robot, rocket, or musical instrument. Learners could even think about a box they could get into or have fun with. No idea is too big! How long will this activity take? This activity will take approximately 30-59 minutes to complete. The engineering context Engineers must understand the environmental impact of the designs they produce and how their carbon footprint can be reduced, for example, by using recycled or reused materials more. This activity encourages resourcefulness by repurposing materials that might otherwise be discarded. Children can learn the value of recycling and environmental sustainability by transforming cardboard into imaginative creations. These crafts also enhance problem-solving skills as children conceptualise, plan, and construct their projects, developing critical thinking and spatial awareness. Download the free Crafts with cardboard boxes activity sheet! All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs. The activity sheet includes teacher notes, guidance, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved UK nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Don’t forget to take photos of your finished cardboard box design and share them with us @IETeducation.

Play our card activity about animals that hibernate over the winter Play a fun, science flashcard game to learn about the different animals that hibernate over winter, where they hibernate, what they eat and how long they hibernate for. Although you might think a hibernating animal is just having a very long sleep, there’s actually some very clever stuff going on inside its body. Its body temperature, heart rate and breathing rate all drop, so that the animal uses less energy. It’s a game for two or more players. For an extra activity, we have included a crossword puzzle that uses words from the game to promote sticky learning. A free activity sheet and card templates are available to download. And please do share your learning highlights and final creations with us on social media @IETeducation.

Learn how to create a captivating retro lava lamp in this fun Christmas STEM activity for kids. Have a go at our mixtures and density experiment to create fun colour bubbles and explore science. Equipment you will need A jar Half a jar of sunflower oil Water Red food colouring Bicarbonate of soda or an effervescent tablet And a torch The engineering context Understanding the way different materials work and the properties they all hold is vital in creating and developing solutions to our world’s problems. Engineers are interested in the world around them and use these different materials as the basis of every solution they create. Watch the IET video with ‘Science with Bexy’ and download the activity sheet for free! All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable so that you can tailor them to your students and your schools’ needs. The activity sheet includes teacher notes, guidance, helpful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in the four devolved UK nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Oh ho ho, please share your experiment highlights with us @IETeducation! #SantaLovesSTEM.

Design and make a recipe book of kids party food for a celebration Make a recipe book with your class or child! DIY book binding is easy for kids and you can get creative to create a cookbook in 50-80 minutes. This is one of a series of resources designed to allow learners to use the theme of celebration to develop their knowledge and skills in Design & Technology. This resource focuses on the designing and making of a recipe book for food items that could be served at a street party celebrating a special occasion. In this activity, learners will design and make a recipe book of food items that could be served at a party. They will research ideas for recipes or create their own and present them in a book format. They will then bind their book together, ready to cook for the party! **Download our free activity sheet to guide you through. ** All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs. The activity sheet includes teachers’ notes, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. You can download our step-by-step instructions below as either a classroom lesson plan or PowerPoint presentation. Please do share your highlights with us @IETeducation.

Design and make puff pastry pizza swirls with a STEM twist. Puff pastry pizza swirls recipe - easy and fun to do with 4-11 year olds! This can be done as part of a food tech lesson or at home, as the activity is all mapped to the UK curricula for you - download for free below. This is one of a series of resources designed to allow learners to use the theme of celebration to develop their knowledge and skills in Design & Technology. This resource focuses on the designing and making of a food item to serve at a street party celebrating the occasion. This activity could be used as a main lesson activity to teach sketching design ideas and preparing food products for particular events. It could also be used as part of a wider scheme of learning to support focused practical skills within food lessons or – through measuring and weighing ingredients – to support the development of basic mathematical skills. All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs. The activity sheet includes teachers’ notes, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. You can download our step-by-step instructions below as either a classroom lesson plan or PowerPoint presentation. Please do share your highlights with us @IETeducation

Explore maths with gingerbread men, and find out how many combinations of buttons are possibilities. This is a simple maths game for KS1 and KS2 mathematics, as a curriculum mapped activity to do at school or home. This activity in partnership with MEI is a ‘finding all possibilities’ type of problem. It encourages children to work systematically to ensure they know when all the solutions have been found, as well as ensuring they haven’t made any two gingerbread men look exactly the same. A strategy that will be promoted is the idea of fixing one of the variables, in this case one of the buttons, whilst changing the others in turn. To ensure they become confident talking about their maths, ask the children to work in pairs if possible in a classroom or at home. All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs. The activity sheet includes teachers’ notes, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. You can download our step-by-step instructions below as either a classroom lesson plan or PowerPoint presentation. Please do share your highlights with us @IETeducation.

Get children thinking about combinations and KS2 times tables with this visual and hands-on activity for primary aged children. With a row of 24 cupcakes, what happens when every second cake has white icing and every third cake has a red smartie? Our lesson plan is mapped to the UK curricula and has all the notes to hand to guide you through the 45 minute resource as a classroom activity or at home. This activity in partnership with MEI could be used in Key Stage 2 as a stand-alone activity, as a focused task to develop problem solving skills, or as a consolidation task related to 3x,4x,8x multiplication facts. Pupils develop both their problem-solving and reasoning skills. They will also practice their mental recall of the 3x, 4x and 8x multiplication tables without the standard ‘fill out the multiplication table’. All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs. The activity sheet includes teachers’ notes, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. You can download our step-by-step instructions below as either a classroom lesson plan or PowerPoint presentation. Please do share your highlights with us @IETeducation.

In this fun Christmas STEM activity, students will make their own slime – the gooey slippery stuff that’s fun to pull and stretch. This experiment will dive into the science behind this sticky stuff and encourage students to have fun with science. Download the activity sheet below or watch our video for step-by-step instructions. If you’re up for an extra activity, try our snow sparkle slime word search where you look for words used in the experiment. All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs. The activity sheet includes teachers’ notes, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. You can download our step-by-step instructions a classroom lesson plan for free. And please do share your learning highlights and final creations with us on social media @IETeducation #SantaLovesSTEM

Design and make a ghee lamp to celebrate Diwali Lots of people across the world celebrate Diwali, which is known as the festival of lights. Can you make a diya lamp for use during the celebrations? Traditionally made from clay or mud, diyas are an oil lamp that are considered to bring good fortune. In this activity, learners will make a diya lamp using air drying clay. They will first create a pinch pot before making this into the shape for the diya. Once dry, they will design and decorate the lamp by adding colour and then use it to see how well it works. This is one of a series of resources designed to allow learners to use the theme of Diwali to develop their knowledge and skills in design and technology and art. All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs. The activity sheet includes teachers’ notes, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. You can download our step-by-step instructions as either a classroom lesson plan or PowerPoint presentation And don’t forget to share your learning highlights and final creations with us on social media @IETEducation

Making a ghee lamp to celebrate Diwali A diya is an oil lamp that represents the triumph of light over dark, and good over evil. Diyas are traditionally made from clay or mud, with a cotton wick dipped in ghee to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights. This resource focusses on making, decorating and safely using a diya. This could be used as a one-off main lesson activity to develop making skills with air drying clay. Alternatively, it could be used as a part of a wider scheme of work to develop designing and making skills in Design and Technology, and Art, or to build links with Religious Education. All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs. The activity sheet includes teachers’ notes, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. You can download our step-by-step instructions as either a classroom lesson plan or PowerPoint presentation And don’t forget to share your learning highlights and final creations with us on social media @IETEducation

Learn scale with ancient Greek mathematics In this engaging activity for kids inspired by the achievements of ancient Greece, students will discover how to create a scale drawing of an object using ancient Greek mathematics. This activity, which combines maths and history, will introduce students to the concept of scale and teach students facts about how the ancient Greeks have affected modern life. Resources for teachers are provided. And please do share your classroom learning highlights with us @IETeducation

Work out the density of materials This activity for primary kids gives them an opportunity to work out the density of a material using Archimedes’ principle, an ancient Greek mathematician. Combining maths and science, students will learn how to collect data through experimenting and understand the properties of materials. This activity will test students’ number abilities and teach them historical facts about ancient Greece. Resources are provided for teachers. And please do share your classroom learning highlights with us @IETeducation

Make a water clock to measures time In this fun activity for kids, students will learn how water can measure time using principles from ancient Greece. They will then create a Greek water clock that can be used to measure a set period. This activity will test students’ maths abilities and teach them historical facts about ancient Greece. Resources are provided for teachers. And please do share your classroom learning highlights with us @IETeducation

Make a measuring wheel that measures distances This activity for primary school kids involves making a measuring wheel for accurately measuring in metres and centimetres. This activity combines maths and history and is inspired by the achievements of ancient Greece. It is thought that the inventor of the odometer may have been Archimedes, between 2200 and 2300 years ago. Resources are provided to support teachers in furthering their students’ maths abilities. And please do share your classroom learning highlights with us @IETeducation