What happens if Santa’s sleigh is down for repairs with no time to spare? He needs a new one, of course! Are they up for this Santa’s Sleigh Christmas STEM challenge? Can they design and build Santa a new sleigh in time? We love easy and hands-on Christmas STEM activities!
Santa’s Sleigh STEM Challenge
Let’s get started with our Santa STEM Challenge! How about we go through the design steps together to get some ideas? Print out the sheet below as encouragement for your kids!
1. ASK!
What problem needs to be solved? That’s pretty easy! We need to build Santa a new sleigh since his current one is out of commission.
2. THINK!
What are some alternatives for Santa to use this Christmas Eve? What kind of sleigh is best for Santa? Do some research on Santa and his sleigh.
3. DESIGN!
Use our printable sheets below to map out your ideas, sketch a design.
4. BUILD!
Put that awesome design into action and build it. Gather supplies and get to work.
Make sure to supply a STEM kit to provide materials for building Santa’s sleigh.
5. TEST!
Maybe you could think of ways to test the sleigh. How many presents can it hold?
6. IMPROVE!
Maybe your sleigh didn’t hold as many presents as you hoped? Try again and create a bigger or stronger design,
Add this design process sheet to your activity to guide your kids as they develop cool ideas for Santa’s sleigh! Click on the black download button just below it.
Free Printable Santa STEM Challenge
Download the free printable Christmas STEM challenge and help Santa with a new sleigh.
Use The Engineering Design Process For Christmas STEM
This season, why not pair the engineering design process with fun holiday themes, including candy canes, gumdrops, Christmas trees… you get the picture!
Engineers often follow a design process. Although all engineers use different design processes, each one includes the same basic steps to identify and solve problems.
An example of the process is “ask, imagine, plan, create, and improve.” This process is flexible and can be completed in any order.
Read more about the Engineering Design Process and grab the free information guide
More Fun Christmas STEM Challenges
💡 Check out more Christmas STEM projects here.
Santa’s Chimney Challenge: Soft candy and toothpicks are a winning combination for building structures for STEM. Build a chimney for Santa. How high can you make it?
Jingle Bell STEM Challenge: This is our version of the classic egg drop challenge with a more Christmasy theme. Can you quiet a jingle bell so it doesn’t make any noise?
Christmas Paper Chain Challenge: Turn decorating the Christmas tree into a STEM challenge! Make the most festive and longest paper chain you can from one piece of paper.
Christmas Tree STEM Challenge: Get your kids off the screens and into Christmas building games with this Christmas tree cup game. The challenge is to build a Christmas tree with just 100 cups.
Christmas Card STEM Challenge: The best way to recycle all those Christmas cards! What kind of structures can you build with a heap of Christmas cards?
Christmas Catapult: Design and build a simple catapult, and test how far you can fling the red and white pom and poms. Almost to the North Pole!
Santa’s Balloon Rocket: A fun Christmas version of the classic balloon rocket. Explore forces as you send Santa flying across the room.
More Christmas Activities For Kids
- Christmas Science Activities
- Christmas Art Activities
- Christmas Jokes for Kids
- Christmas Games for Kids
Printable Christmas STEM Project Pack
200+ PAGES OF HOLIDAY THEME STEAM, STEM, Science, and Art!
- 25+ Christmas theme science and STEM activities with printable sheets, instructions, and useful information all using easy-to-source materials perfect for limited-time needs. Includes a holiday theme engineering pack with fun, problem-based challenges for kids to solve! NEW observation sheets included.
- Try a Santa’s Letter airplane challenge or take the gingerbread house-building challenge!
- Explore the five senses with a specially designed Santa’s Lab pack.
- Try a mini nature study with your favorite type of Christmas tree.
- Try your hand at building shapes with gumdrop structure challenge cards or build shapes with jingle bells. Or try the Christmas-themed paper chain challenge!
- Christmas Screen-free Coding activities include algorithm games, binary code ornaments, and more!
- Explore 6+ Christmas Art Projects with famous artist-inspired activities that combine art history, process art techniques, and more with simple to-do ideas.
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