It’s back to school week, and we are betting you have more than a few pencils lying around the house. Your child doesn’t have to wait until after the holiday weekend to break those #2’s back out! There are some easy and fun activities you can do together with pencils as your only tool.
You can help your younger child to learn about and build different shapes. Write the names of various shapes on index cards or simply say the name of the shape, and challenge your child to create the shapes using pencils. Depending on your child’s age, you can choose from some of the following shapes, or pick your own:
- Triangle
- Square
- Rectangle
- Rhombus
- Pentagon
- Hexagon
- Octagon
If your child is a bit older, challenge him/her to build a pencil tower! This project works best if you have at least 4 packages of 20 pencils each. On a flat surface, place two pencils parallel to each other. Next, place two more pencils on top of those. They should also be parallel to each other, but facing in the opposite direction to the first pencils. Continue alternating your pencil levels until you run out of pencils. How big of a tower did you make?
Once your child has mastered building the tower, consider challenging them to create more difficult variations. Can they build a tower that gets narrower at the top? How about a tower with a triangular or pentagonal base? Maybe they can make a tower with all the erasers facing the inside of the tower? Think of as many variations as you can!
These one-ingredient projects show us that learning can be simple and fun, and that there is no limit to the things we can learn and enjoy together!
Check out the full project from J Daniel 4s Mom HERE!
As always, get as creative as you want, and above all, have lots of fun learning together!
We’ll see you right back here next Saturday for another STEAM Saturday activity! Scroll through the rest of our website to learn how Critchlow Adkins is Building Brighter Futures for the children and families we serve!
