Don’t leave out Thanksgiving when you think of STEM challenges! We have a super fun and easy Thanksgiving STEM challenge for you. Building cranberry structures! Before you turn a bag of cranberries into cranberry sauce make sure to test out your engineering skills first. Cranberry structures make a perfect Thanksgiving STEM activity.
Have A Cranberry STEMs-Giving
November is the time of year for cranberries! Instead of heading to the kitchen, grab a bag of them along with a box of toothpicks and see what kind of cranberry structures you can build with your kids!
This simple Thanksgiving STEM activity is included in our Thanksgiving science experiments and activities collection you won’t want to miss. Scroll down to see more!
Make cranberry sauce when you are finished and you won’t have any waste! You can also try our Cranberry Sensory Bin, Dancing Cranberry Experiment or Cranberry Secret Messages. There are so many fun things to do with cranberries!
Toothpicks and small cranberries encourage visual and fine motor skills for kids as well as motor planning. Finger dexterity and patience are a plus when building cranberry structures! Make sure to check out our cranberry oobleck too.
Building Cranberry Structures
Alternative: If you can’t use food for projects in your classroom or with groups, try whipping up a batch of playdough like our no cook Thanksgiving playdough instead. Roll the dough into “cranberry” shapes, and you are ready to build shapes and structures!
Supplies:
- Bag of Fresh Cranberries
- Toothpicks
- Flat Surface
- Free Printable Challenge Cards (see below)
The Challenge:
Here are some fun building ideas for you to try with your cranberries and toothpicks.
- Building houses…
- Building shapes…
- Making towers…
- Making people…
- Building Letters and numbers…
- or have your kids copy what you make if they need encouragement!
Problem-solving, counting, and designing are all a part of building structures!
Check out more fun building activities for kids! Plus, you may also like to try these easy and hands-on engineering activities for kids.
Engineering activities like these are so much fun and use simple materials. We have used gumdrops too. Don’t want to use food? You can always use playdough, styrofoam balls, or pool noodle pieces.
We also had fun finding the extra squishy cranberries and popping them! If appropriate, use a plastic knife {to cut open cranberries and check out the seeds. You can even paint with the juices.
More Fun Thanksgiving Activities For Kids
Check out all our Thanksgiving activities for kids, including…
Printable Thanksgiving Project Pack
STEMS-Giving Pack! A full menu of Thanksgiving dinner science activities, secret codes, and more!
What’s Included:
- STEMS-Giving! A feast of science and STEM with simple experiments and projects for home or classroom!
- Even More Thanksgiving theme STEM activities with printable sheets, instructions, and useful information all using easy-to-source materials and perfect for limited time needs. Includes a Thanksgiving theme engineering pack with fun, problem-based challenges for kids to solve!
- Got STEAM? Try a turkey in a disguise challenge with writing prompts and more! Also color by code turkeys in disguise!
- Try your hand at building shapes with cranberry structure challenge cards.
- Discover Thanksgiving brick-building challenges perfect for early finishers, quiet time, hands-on math, or family time.
I’ve seen this done with marshmallows, candy, or grapes. I have to say that I love the seasonal twist of using cranberries. So clever! Thanks for sharing. I think I am going to do this with my kids.
✿April✿
✿Grade School Giggles✿
Thank you!