Earlier this year I shared with you a straw rocket frog leaping activity and one featuring fireworks. Since Santa and his flying reindeer are fun to read about and see in movies in time of year, I thought your children would like to explore flying reindeer. This fun flying reindeer activity invites children to find the best way to get a reindeer to fly a distance.
Flying Reindeer Activity
Getting Ready
Getting the Printables
The first thing you are going to need to do is to download a copy of the Flying Reindeer STEM Activity. It includes a recording printable for your children to place the distance each of their attempts went and a set of reindeer cutouts. You will find a set of colored reindeer and a set of reindeer your children can color.
Gathering Supplies
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You will also need the following supplies for this activity:
- Paper Straws- Red/White
- Plastic Transfer Pipettes
- Glue sticks
- Scissors
- Measuring Tape
Building Background
You may want to read your children a book about reindeer before starting this activity. You will find some wonderful reindeer books displayed below that would be fun to read.
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Conducting the Flying Reindeer Activity
You or your children will need to place a measuring tape out on the floor. They will use it to measure the distance their reindeer travel.
Then it is time to place their reindeer pipette onto the striped straw and give it a good hard blow. (We found that the reindeer traveled the farthest when we lay prone on the ground.)
Next, you will need to measure how far the reindeer traveled and record it on the recording printable.
Then it is time to try to see if you can get it to travel farther. You can encourage your children to try holding the straw at various angles and blowing through it in different ways.
The recording printable gives children the opportunity to record three flying distances. Your children can really attempt to get their reindeer to fly farther and farther as many times as they want.
Finally, your children will need to dictate to you or write down on their own what they did that made the reindeer travel the farthest.
If you like this STEM activity, here are some more activities your children will love:
Building Shapes with The Stickman
Make Rudolph Fly Fast STEM Experiment
New Year’s Thaumatrope Printable Set
New Year’s Ball Drop STEM Challenge
