STEM Activities for Kids: A Gift Guide

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STEM activities (science technology engineering and math activities) are a great way of kids to flex their brains and think outside of the box. They get their hands involved and really have to think things through; how things work, why things work and what is necessary to keep things working.

Take a look at these incredible gift ideas that just happen to be the perfect for doing STEM activities for kids at home. Kids love to explore, so why not give them the opportunity this holiday season. From a Lunar Telescope to a programmable robot you will find the perfect hands on gift that will bring hours of discovery, learning, and fun. Some of these are super quick and easy STEM activities and others will take them a while to figure out.

Christmas day is bound to be full of STEM creations. What better way to quench your kids’ thirst for learning by making it fun! Here are over 25 STEM activities for elementary kids, middles school and beyond that you can give to help turn gift giving into a learning experience for everyone in the family. Get ready to explore and discover some easy STEM activities that allow learning of science, technology, engineering and math at home with great fun and ease.

Laser Pegs

Laser Pegs offer children and “young” adults a fun alternative to the traditional construction toy by illuminating their surroundings with patented light bricks and vibrant color combinations.

Laser Pegs are unique STEM toys that enhance learning of spatial relations, creative abstract thinking, problem solving and math skills by grouping, and improving hand/eye coordination. Laser Pegs’ goal is to encourage innovation, creativity, and excitement while building one set or an entire world of Laser Pegs.

Or, if you know a kid who loves racing, then this Laser Pegs Formula Racer Kit is the perfect choice. See all of the parts and pieces that go into making a car.

Mel Science

MEL Science is a brand revolutionizing science education. MEL Science offers cool science experiments for kids, delivered to the door every month. All of their kits focus on exploration and in-depth science education. The subscriptions are supported by VR and AR technologies and mobile apps. Grab a monthly subscription for the little scientist in your life. 

Smartivity

Smartivity is a fun and exciting new way to learn through play!  Introduce your child to core STEM concepts through fun and engaging toys and activities. This marble slide and crane are amazing and so much fun!

Little engineers can follow the instructions to build their own toy using the pieces provided. The fun doesn’t stop there! Each completed set results in a fun toy or activity that proves that the power of play is the best way to learn. This DIY toy is the smart way to let young minds grow. It’s not only the best DIY toy, but it’s also the DIT toy that lets you Do It Together with the family!

Watercolor Painting Class

Purchase online painting lessons with a Watercolor for Kids class (that don’t expire)! They started with royal animals and ventured into some fun winter accessories and animals.  There is also a Simplified Watercolor for bigger kids and grown ups!

Bitsbox

Bitsbox: Bitsbox is a crazy, fun subscription box that teaches kids how to code! It is perfect for curious kids ages 6 to 12 years old. With the subscription, you’ll potentially get a new project every month, or with the frequency you order. Each box introduces a new computer science concept. Kids will build apps on the Bitsbox website and then the apps they build work on any mobile device!

Creation Crate

Creation Crate is a tech subscription box that teaches electronics and coding by combining hands-on projects and online courses. 

• Every month, you’ll receive a new electronic project from our curriculum
• Projects become more challenging as you learn new lessons
• Canadian subscription box of the year “kids/teens”

Creation Crate: Monthly Electronic Projects: 1 month: $29.99; 3 months: $26.99/month; 6 months: $25.49/month; 12 months: $22.49/month

You can get 25% OFF your first Creation Crate project using promo code: HS25!

GUIDE DOTS

Created by an experienced art instructor, GUIDE DOTS uses a one-of-a-kind process that’s inspired by kids, tested by kids and tailored to kids.  The Level 1 (Ages 4-6) subscriber will receive 3 months of GUIDE DOTS and supplies to include a light tablet, 6 Guide Dots drawing rolls (2 each month), 9 Dual Tip Markers, and 1 box Chalk Pastels for $89.99. There is also a Level 2 (ages 7-9).

You can see our 7 year old watching the video and following along with the dots to create her own unicorn drawing.  

4M and Toysmith 

Magnet Science Kit: Introduce the wonders of magnets with this kit. It includes enough supplies to conduct 10 science experiments. This super magnet set allows you to to perform fun STEM activities as well as play games.

Kitchen Science Kit: Generate electricity using a lemon! Launch a rocket with vinegar. Write secret messages and more. With six exciting experiments that use common household ingredients this kit converts the average kitchen into a science lab. 

KidzRobotix Table Top Robot: Assemble and release this smart robotic crab and watch it scuttle around on the table top. It will detect edges of the table and won’t fall off!

Green Science Aqua Robot: A robot fish that floats and paddles on the water’s surface with the power of the sun or a regular battery. 

Growing Crystals: Color Changing Crystal Light. Grow crystals and display them on their own color-changing LED light base. 

My Designer Faux Leather Bag: Learn basic leather crafting techniques. 

Mastermind

Mastermind Game The Strategy Game of Code Maker vs. Codebreaker: Use your coding skills to make a code that your opponent cannot break! I like that this can be family STEM activity to get everybody engaged. I think my 8 year old would master this in a day!

Chain Reactions

LEGO Chain Reactions Book: Use these all time favorite building blocks to create machines that move. Who would have thought that you could use LEGOs for engaging engineering STEM activities? Kids think they are playing, but they are really designing and building machines that actually move! Nothing says fun like building a catapult to fling tiny LEGO pieces around the floor!

Solar System Kit

3-Dimensional Glow-In-The-Dark Solar System Mobile Making Kit: Snap the solar system together and paint the planets with glow-in-the-dark paint for a science project that can be displayed all year. This is a perfect gift for the stargazers and a fun STEM idea for younger kids that might enjoy the glow-in-the-dark light provided as a night light of sorts.

Brain Builders

Brain Builders Game: This game challenges kids to turn 2-D pictures into 3-D objects. These simple STEM activities take visualization to project in no time at all. Imagine all of the things that you can build with this set, tear them down and then build something totally new and different. It takes great skill to transfer the 2-D image on paper to the 3-D object to which it correlates.

Solve This

Sick Science Solve This Science Kit: Explore the world of physics with these STEM experiments for kids. Discover how the center of gravity can be used to balance several nails on just one nail head with 9 experiments in one set. Trying to figure out where the center of gravity is can translate to so many applications that this is sure to be a winner.

Break Geodes

Break Your Own Geodes: Break open geodes and discover what crystal treasures are inside. Once the geodes have been broken open, you can start to identify exactly what you have.

Lab Kits

Candy Making Lab Kit: Make candy while bringing STEM to life. You can create 16 yummy science experiments and then break all of the science rules and eat you science. STEM activities at home don’t always have to follow the rules.

Discovering STEM kits

Mechanics Cams & Cranks Building Kit: You can build 8 working models that show kids just how cams and cranks work. I really like the STEM kids that have moving parts and pieces that children have to figure out. There are so many processes happening here and they get to discover them all.

There is also a Newton’s Laws Building Kit that focuses on subjects such as inertia and momentum. These are real life engineering STEM activities for kids. There are so many great things that can be made with this kit as well as lessons to be learned as well as Laws of Motion.

Domino Rally

Domino Rally Ultimate Adventure: Kids will learn how to build and plan the ultimate domino set up. The best part is when they get to knock them down. Just hope that a younger (or older) sibling doesn’t get to it first.

Grow your own Crystals

Crystal Growing Kit: Grow sparkling crystals while learning about their geometric structure. Dazzling! Did you know that crystals have different shapes depending on what they are made of? Think of salt and sugar crystals and they shapes they are.

Clean Energy

MudWatt Clean Energy from Mud: This incredible kits show you how to build a living fuel cell that feeds on mud! It generates enough power to light up and LED and run a digital clock. These technology activities for kids are amazing.

Telescope

Lunar Telescope: Take an up close look at the moon with this telescope that has 90x power. What a great way to get kids excited about astronomy. I showed my children a picture of the moon I was able to capture through a telescope and they were amazed.

Snap Circuits

Snap Circuits Arcade Electronics Discovery Kit: Learn all about electric circuits while making over 200 circuit projects! Circuits are a great way to get STEM education activities into kids hands without them realizing they are learning about things like parallel and series circuits which translates to Christmas lights and headlights.

Robot Kits

Geckobot Wall Climbing Robot: Build your very own wall climbing gecko robot! It also climbs up windows, too! I think this might drive my cat crazy. It’s not just a robot but is an actual experiment kit as well.

Programming Kits

Osmo Coding Set: Teach kids how to program an iPad with this STEM pick. The easy to use snap together pieces provide an easy way to teach kids about the power of programming. Don’t tell my kids, but this is going on their list. They can code, discover Newton’s laws and more with a couple additional pieces and an app. My girls actually drew lines as a ball bounced on the screen to redirect it. They couldn’t believe how it worked together.

Engineering Sets

K’NEX 100 Model Building and Engineering Set: Build structures by snapping K’nex pieces together for hours of play. With over 100 pieces, this is an engineering dream. You get ideas for suggested creations as well as the ability to free-play and create on your own.

 

Ozobot

Ozobot 2.0 Bit: Program this toy robot to race, dance, and play games! A dancing, racing and playing robot? Hours of fun, at the very least. Anything that gets kids coding without realizing it is going to help with many skills, not just coding, but processing and cause and effect, too.

Coding Robot

WowWee Coder MiP Robot: Program this balancing robot with easy to use drag and drop commands. The version of this robot is see through. You can see all the gears working away to give children an idea of just what is happening.

Rock Tumbler

Professional Quality Rock Tumbler: Polish stones into gems and turn them into jewelry with this complete STEM kit. Science and art in one fun gift is perfect for the left and right-brained child.

Metal Detector

Metal Detector: Let your kids take you on a treasure hunt! This is a great way to get outdoors and explore. Plus, you never know what you will find. Will it be a treasure? Will it be gold? I wonder what you will find in your own backyard?

Robot Blocks

Cubelets Twelve Robot Blocks: Snap the robot blocks together to make different creations. This set comes with a bunch of blocks including the drive, flashlight, blocker, bluetooth, and more. Putting them together in different arrangements makes a different robot. Even the youngest of kids can play with these and discover different robots to build.

All of these STEM activities for kids can keep their brains excited and engaged. I think these would even make great gifts for adults, too. I might even put a couple of them on my wish list.

While gifting can be a present within itself, these STEM gift ideas also nurture learning and discovery. This is why all of these STEM picks are on the holiday HOT list this year. Inspire your kids this holiday season and swoop up your gifts before the mad shopping rush. If you need some ideas for toddlers, you will want to check out my article on 13 Stem Toys for Toddlers. These gifts generate a ton of STEM project ideas even for the littlest ones in your house from building to creating to moving parts and more.

Did your STEM gift ideas make my list? Share your ideas and favorite picks with me in the comments.