**This Christmas STEM activity lets students create Christmas tree decorations in a new way, using chromatography! ** Students will use coffee filters, washable felt tips and a few other items to learn about mixtures, pigments and more! 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. And please do share your learning highlights and final creations with us on social media @IETeducation #SantaLovesSTEM

Consider colour sequences and measurements while making paper chains for Christmas Paper chains are super easy to make and a great way to decorate a room or Christmas Tree. In this Christmas STEM activity, students are going to try to make the longest chain possible with three pieces of paper. Students will consider the different sequences that are all around them, whilst thinking about colour patterns and number sequences. 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 do share your learning highlights and final creations with us on social media @IETeducation #SantaLovesSTEM

Experiment to find out which substances effect oxidation of apples Thinking about what snack to leave out for Santa and his reindeers on Christmas Eve, our activity suggests cut-up apples but experiment with ways to prevent discolouration. Using different substances such as saltwater, lemon juice and milk, students will test their maths and science skills and learn about oxidisation, acids, alkalis and more. 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. And please do share your learning highlights and final creations with us on social media @IETeducation #SantaLovesSTEM

In this fun Christmas STEM baking activity, students will make Rudolph cookies, with his famous red nose. Combing maths and science, this activity will teach students precision measuring, different imperial measurements, chemical changes and more. 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. And please do share your learning highlights and final creations with us on social media @IETeducation #SantaLovesSTEM

Engage your student’s sciences skills and get them thinking about liquids, ions, icy surfaces and global warming In this winter STEM activity, students will experiment with salt to test different freezing points. This activity will engage their sciences and maths skills and get them thinking about liquids, ions, icy surfaces, global warming and more! 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. And please do share your learning highlights and final creations with us on social media @IETeducation #SantaLovesSTEM

This activity will engage student’s maths and science skills, making them think about adhesives, molecular bonds and more! One of the traditions at Christmas time is to decorate our houses. In this creative Christmas STEM activity, students will be making wintery window decorations which will stick to a windowpane all by themselves! 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. And please do share your learning highlights and final creations with us on social media @IETeducation #SantaLovesSTEM

Make edible snowmen from puffed rice and marshmallow This easy STEM themed baking activity lets students use puffed rice cereal, marshmallows and decorative items to create snowmen Rice Krispie treats! Baking is engineering. It is uses science, maths and technology skills to engineer and create solutions and new tasty products. So, 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 bake! 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. And please do share your learning highlights and final creations with us on social media @IETeducation #SantaLovesSTEM

Watch crystals form from a bicarb solution It’s hard to imagine a wintery snow scene without crystals and icicles. Drips of icy water freeze into long frozen structures which hang from roofs, windows and from the branches of trees. In this fun activity students are going to create crystals without the use of a fridge! This experiment will test and improve their maths and science 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 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. And please do share your learning highlights and final creations with us on social media @IETeducation #SantaLovesSTEM

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Describing a sports team using fractions and percentages In this fun maths activity, students will test their fractions and percentage skills by looking at football teams. Before a big competition a squad is selected and from that the final team will be chosen. In this activity we describe the squad using fractions and percentages and then select a team. Can someone else work out which team has been selected from the fractions and percentages used to describe it? The purpose of this activity is to deepen understanding of fractions and percentages as ways to describe proportion or parts of a whole. There are opportunities to look at equivalent fractions and equivalence between fractions and percentages. 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 please do share your learning highlights and final creations with us on social media @IETeducation

Use fractions, percentages and averages to decide the best footballer In this engaging activity students will explore statistics and use them to decide on a ranking of football players. Football players are ranked in different ways and there are a variety of awards that they can be rewarded with. Each year the Ballon D’Or is awarded to the player judged to be the ‘best’. The Golden Ball is given to the best player in the World Cup tournament. In this activity, pupils are presented with data and can use it to decide who they consider to be the best footballer. The purpose of this activity is to explore statistics and to use them to decide on a ranking of football players. Pupils will compare data and use average scores to find ways of comparing data and making decisions. 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 a classroom lesson plan and PowerPoint presentation And please do share your learning highlights and final creations with us on social media @IETeducation

Create biscuits in national flag colours to celebrate an international sporting event Combine science, maths and design skills to celebrate the different nations taking part in international sporing events such as the Football World Cup and the Olympics. This fun STEM activity focusses on making and decorating biscuits with flags from the different nations. Students will consider the colours and shapes used in different national flags. They will then make and use icing to colour their biscuits in national flag colours from each teams. 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 a classroom lesson plan and PowerPoint presentation. And please do share your learning highlights and final creations with us on social media @IETeducation

Select your own football team based on data and strategy In this engaging activity for kids, students will use their math skills to build their own football team. Fantasy football games and football cards are great ways to get involved with football, follow players and enjoy the game even when the match is over. These activities explore the maths of fantasy football and football cards. The purpose of this activity is to compare numbers and measures, add totals and find differences within the context of exploring the ways that footballers can be compared. The resource includes three different activities that allow students to consider who they want in their team, use stats to select players, and turn their team into Top Trump cards. 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 please do share your learning highlights and final creations with us on social media @IETeducation or send them via email to IETEducation@theiet.org to be featured in our online gallery.

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