STEAM activities with acorns for the littles

Alex's kindergarten class will learn about the season of fall this week. We have enjoyed walking outside, picking up acorns, giving them names, and acting out adventures with our new friends. (Fred was eaten by a squirrel and Ginnie grew into a beautiful tree, at least in our stories.)


Above is a mix of acorns, mostly from white oaks and red oak trees.


If you look closely at this white oak bough, you will see some acorns.  

What activities can you do with acorns in the elementary classroom or at home?  Quite a few STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) activities, as a matter of fact.

Science

Children can use their senses to describe the acorns, or learn about the life cycle of these baby trees.  They can also learn to identify the different types of oak trees. Here is a red oak printable for students, courtesy of SuperColoring.com.  You can save as a pdf and print for your kids.

Technology

The change of seasons is a great reason to take your child to the library to choose fall or nature-themed titles.  Our library has the following books to check out, old school style.


Many local libraries have free online children's books that you can access from mobile devices or computers.  One of these services is Tumble Books, which we love.

 Tumblebooks Library

 If you have a library card in North Carolina, you can also find downloadable, digitized books through this link.

Engineering

All I can say is that this catapult tutorial would entertain children of all ages.  (Activities in this tutorial are courtesy of WikkiStix.)

Arts

Why not draw these adorable acorns?  Students will learn how to sketch, paint, and draw realistically with acorns as subject matter.


Math

Count, sort, and roll those little acorns all around the room.

Hopefully any of these activities will pique your student's curiosity about the natural world all around him.


Happy learning!



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