Flying cupids, launching hearts, and so much more! Let’s kick off the season with a 14 Valentines Day STEM challenges countdown. Valentines Day STEM activities are simple twists on your favorite, everyday STEM activities. Adding hearts, traditional holiday colors, or themed candies/supplies is great for young kids. Encourage a love of learning with holiday-themed STEM activities.
14 DAYS OF VALENTINES DAY STEM ACTIVITIES
Bring STEM fun to your Valentine’s Day this year! It’s super easy to give classic STEM activities a holiday makeover when you add theme accessories and of course traditional colors. This season we have been all over setting up fun and easy to do Valentines Day STEM activities and science experiments to get your kids thinking!
WHAT IS STEM?
STEM takes science and builds in elements of technology, engineering, math, and sometimes even art. A good STEM activity will include at least two of these four pillars such as math and engineering or science and technology.
Amazingly, STEM activities perfect for young kids because it provides so many valuable life lessons and skills such as observational skills, critical thinking skills, and design skills. It also provides a much-needed dose of failure before success. Perseverance and patience.
WHY VALENTINES DAY STEM ACTIVITIES?
You can keep STEM activities fresh all year long by adding fun themes along the way. Adding theme colors and accessories just allows your kids to practice the basic concepts one more time but with a little twist. I have always found that kids love these little twists.
We do love holidays around here, and if you are into them too, these Valentines Day STEM activities will be a big hit. One day my son may not care about themed activities as much, so I am going to enjoy these days while I have them.
Below you will find a mix of classic experiments, activities, and challenges that have been recreated with a Valentine’s Day theme.
START WITH A TINKER TRAY!
Start each holiday or season with a theme tinker tray. Go to your local dollar store or seasonal aisle of any big box store for inexpensive finds to add to this type of tinker kit or tinker tray. Read more about what is on our tray here.
A tinker tray is just one of our go-to resources for inexpensive STEM activities supplies. If you want to learn more about how we do STEM on a budget, click here.
VALENTINES DAY CHEMISTRY FOR KIDS
You can check out more slime ideas, bubble science, potion mixing, crystal growing, exothermic relations, oil and water density, and so much more!
VALENTINES DAY PHYSICS FOR KIDS
We have some super fun physics activities for Valentines Day this season exploring laws of motion, simple machines, buoyancy, and electricity!
VALENTINES DAY STEM SUPPLIES
Have fun with these ideas. Move the calendar around to suit your needs. Pick just a few to enjoy or try each one! It’s up to you how many you try.
The materials are inexpensive overall. You may already have many simple supplies in your cupboards and drawers. The craft store, dollar store, and grocery store have everything you need.
Some of the purchased materials can even be saved and reused for different activities. I like to store materials in a large plastic tote and separate holidays and seasons into zip-top bags to keep it organized.
Click on the highlighted links in the day’s description below to see the Valentines Day STEM activities in action.
Also, check out our chemistry and physics collections above for alternative ideas!
EASY TO SET UP VALENTINES DAY STEM ACTIVITIES
15 days of hands-on learning with a Valentine’s Day theme!
Day 1: Flying Cupids Balloon Rocket
A super fun physics activity with a Valentine’s Day theme! You will find even more fun and simple physics ideas when you click here for the balloon rocket.
Day 2: Valentine’s Day Slime
We have amazing Valentine’s Day slime activities to share with you using some of our favorite and easy to make slime recipes. Fluffy slime, saline slime, floam slime, and more!
Day 3: LEGO Marble Heart Maze
A base plate, LEGO bricks, and a marble! Don’t have LEGO? Try a box top, straws, and tape! Additionally, we have LEGO hearts to build too!
Day 4: Heart Cup Tower Challenge
All you need our these mini red ups and cardboard pieces! Bonus challenge, try a larger version!
Day 5: Heart Designs or Heart Shaped Geoboard
Styrofoam or wood. Small finishing nails, loom bands or small rubber bands.
Day 5: Valentine’s Themed Thaumatrope Ideas
So easy! Computer paper, drinking straws, markers, and tape! No mess!
Day 6: Dissolving Candy Hearts
Explore solubility with Valentine’s Day candy! Free printable too!
Day 7: HEART LAUNCHER
Make a catapult and launch hearts for awesome Valentines Day STEM activities and physics experiments! We also have a LEGO catapult, pencil catapult, and jumbo marshmallow catapult!
Day 8: Squishy Circuits Light Up hearts
The is the most expensive activity on the list as you would need to purchase the squishy circuits kit. It will also require ingredients to make play doughs but you may already have them on hand.
UPDATE: Super fun. I made our reactive play dough pink and used cookie cutters to make thick hearts for the circuits. We ran through the different activities that the website lists on the kit. The pictures from my phone aren’t too great! My son and husband had a great time with the whole kit.
Day 9: Candy Structures
Jelly beans, gumdops, or marshmallows and tooth picks. What can you build? A bridge, a tower, geometric shapes, an abstract sculpture! Check out all the ways you can build structures here!
Day 10: Valentine’s Day Computer Coding
We have been playing around with the binary alphabet to check out coding without a computer. Grab some pipe cleaners and beads or even a LEGO baseplate and small LEGO bricks for this idea. You will also find a link to an algorithm coding game as well!
Day 11: Make a Love Bot
We are going to test out a brush bot robot using this kit and we have a tin can robot kit we received for Christmas. Dress them up with a Valentine’s Day theme!
If you don’t want to build a motorized robot, check out our Build a Recycled Robot activity with free printable droid designs. You could also make a LEGO robot in themed colors!
Day 12: Color Changing Flower Science
White flowers, jars, food coloring, and water. A classic!
Day 13: Homemade Lava Lamp
Explore a fun science activity with a neat result! A DIY lava lamp is an easy to set-up science experiment that showcases some simple concepts like liquid density and chemical reactions.
Day 14: Candy Science
Chocolate science for checking out this physical change that is reversible. Fun and edible chemistry for kids! Make sure to grab some sprinkles too! Make your own chocolates for Valentine’s Day!
BUILDING HEARTS STEM
How many materials can you use to build hearts? You saw the heart cup tower above, but what else can you use for building supplies? Click on the links below to see how we got creative with other inexpensive materials.
We hope you have found some awesome new Valentines Day STEM activities to try this month! We absolutely love holiday theme STEM and Science and hope you will follow along with all year long. Subscribe!
AWESOME VALENTINES DAY STEM ACTIVITIES!
Give science for Valentine’s Day instead of candy! We have all kinds of free printable science cards, and we show you what to pair them with too!
Katie S
What size do you cut the cardboard for the stacking red solo cups into the heart?
littlebins
The width of the mouth of the cup or so is fine. There is no specific measurement or you can use index cards.