1.

Holiday Maker Kit

Start the season by giving your child a workshop in a box. Fill

a shoebox with materials your child can use to invent,
engineer and build their ideas and homemade gifts.
 2. Jumping Tinsel
Static Electricity Experiment

Rub a balloon over your hair. Pick up pieces of tinsel.

Find out what happens. Experiment with different sizes of
tinsel. What else will the balloon pick up?
3. Jingle, Jingle . . . Shhh!
What can you do to stop a noisy bell?
Try this: Put a jingle bell in a small plastic
container with a lid. What can you pack
around the bell to stop the bell from ringing?
4. Magnetic Magic Ornaments

A. Put small metal objects in clear fillable B. String nuts, bolts and washers,
plastic ornaments or water bottles. along with plastic beads onto a
(paper clips, jingle bells, nuts, bolts) colorful pipe cleaner.
What will a magnet attract? What will the magnet stick to?
 5. Needle Nose
Scratch and Sniff

Go outside and collect several different kinds of

tree needles. Scratch each one and compare.
Do they all smell the same?
 6. Get Loopy!
Paper Chain

You’ve made paper chains before. This time make a chain as

long as a room in your house, the length of your back yard,
or the length of your family’s car, or the longest thing you
can think of. Find out how many loops?
Write a number on each loop.
 7. Catch A Falling Flake

Take a magnifying lens outside when it’s snowing.

Catch a snowflake on your mitten or a piece of dark cloth.
Check out your flake’s crystal pattern.
Watch the snowflake until it melts.
If it’s not snowing today, try this on a snowy day.
How do you think the outside temperature affects the shape of snowflakes?
 8. Pinecone Probe
An Open and Shut Case.

Collect some pinecones. Examine them closely.

What’s inside them? Why are some pinecones opened up?
Why are some closed?
Put an open pinecone in a jar of water and see what happens.
 9. Holiday Card Construction

Do you save your Holiday cards year after year? Put them
to good use. Have kids design, engineer and build card
structures. How tall can you go?
What shapes make the strongest structures?
Leave a basket of cards out all season and keep the fun going.
10. Fly to the North Pole

1. Write a letter to Santa.

2. Fold your letter into a paper airplane.
Look up different airplane designs or invent your own.
Send it flying to the North Pole.
Measure how far it goes.
 11. Tricky Triangles

A Tangram is a Chinese puzzle made of seven

shapes . (Tan’s) They can be arranged in a
variety of complex and fanciful shapes. Print
out a basic tangram pattern. Cut the shapes
apart. Experiment and arrange them in
holiday patterns.
12. Bottle of Evergreen

For a fascinating way to discover evergreens,

snip small twigs left from trimming your Christmas tree.
Kids can place them in a water bottle.
Fill the bottle with water,
add a little glitter, and glue the cap on.
13. Snowflake Symmetry

Print out half a flake.

Have kids draw the other half.
Hold a mirror to the half .
Watch the other half appear.
 14. Hey Santa! I Am Here!

Just in case Santa forgot, have your child draw

a map of where you live
so he can find your house.
 15. Shapes and Shadows

Teach kids how shadows work and help them

uncover the science of shadows. Have kids cut
out several holiday theme shapes from cereal
boxes. (Trace cookie cutters ) Tape the shapes
to a craft stick, or straw Shine a flashlight to
make and play with shapely shadows.
 16. Snow Meltdown

Start with 2 clear drinking glasses. Put 1 cup of snow in each. Set
one glass out at room temperature. Set the other glass in the
refrigerator. Check the glasses every 30 minutes. Which one melts
faster? Keep track of how long it takes for each one to melt
completely. Each glass had 1 cup of snow to begin with, now
measure how much water is left behind.
17. Tree Tower

Stack up cups and build a tree tower!

How high can you build it before it falls?
Add extra decorations if you like.
 18. Binary Beads

Binary Code uses 0’s and 1’s to represent letters. (Computers use
binary code ) Using red and green beads for O’s and 1’s spell out
Holiday words on a long string. (Peace, Love, Santa, Reindeer,
etc.) Separate each word with a jingle bell or white bead.
Decorate the tree with the string you make. No beads? Use
squares of red, green and white paper. (see resource page)
 19. Shape Wrap
Homemade wrapping paper

Cut geometric shapes from cereal box cardboard. (triangle,

square, circle, pentagram, hexagon, octagon) Trace the
shapes on newspaper with red and green marker so they
randomly overlap. Color in small areas where they overlap.
Great way for kids learn about shapes and patterns.
 20. Build With Ice

Use food coloring to make colored ice in small plastic

containers and ice cube trays. Build your sculpture outside
on a base of snow. Stick ice together by spraying with cold
water and holding for a few seconds. Use your imagination
to build fancy sculptures.
 21. Flakey Fractions

Color a coffee filter with washable markers. Use bright colors. To make a
snowflake, fold the filter into 1/8’s, make cuts along both edges and cut off
the tip. Open up the flake. Spray flake with water until the marker colors just
barely begin to blur. Let dry. The brightest snowflake ever!
 22. Magnetic Magic

Make an evergreen tree drawing and glue it into the bottom of a shoe
box. Select small decorative items you think will be attracted to a
magnet and place them in the box. Hold a magnet underneath the box
and move the items around to decorate the tree. Did you find any
items that the magnet did not attract?
 23. Flying Reindeer

Make a tube by rolling ¼ sheet of paper around a drinking straw. (Tube must
slide easily on the straw)Tape the tube so it doesn’t unroll. Tightly close one
end of the tube by folding it over and taping it down. Tape a reindeer picture
onto the tube. Slide the tube over the straw and blow a puff of air. Watch
the reindeer fly! Measure and record how far it flew.
 24. Bright Lights

Traveling to Grandma’s in the car? Keep track of the light displays

that you see. Categories: (Lighted Reindeer, Blow up snowman,
Lighted evergreens, ice cycle Lights etc.)
Record your sightings with a bar graph.
 25. Deck The Walls

Save all the wrapping from the presents you

opened. Spread the wrap out flat. Tape it all
up on a wall. Use painter’s tape. Can you cover
the whole wall? Measure how high and how
wide the wall is.
 26. Frosty Freeze

Make frost on a tin can, drinking glass, and plastic cup. Crush
ice cubes and fill each container ¾’s full. Stir a teaspoon of
salt into each. Watch frost form on the sides of the
containers. Which container makes frost first? Why does
frost form?
 27. Weather Watch

Gather leftover ribbon that came off your presents. Tie the ribbons
together. Hang up outside and watch how strong the wind is blowing.
You can also keep a yardstick handy to measure daily snowfalls.
 28. Create A Cloud

Go outside on a chilly day and breathe! Notice how you can

see your breath in the air. The warm moist air coming from
your lungs condenses in the cold air and makes a temporary
cloud. Catch your cloud on a small mirror or a pair of glasses.
 29. Tree Rings

Taking down the tree? Find out how old it was! Saw off a
section of the trunk straight across and count the growth
rings. Saw off a section for each member of your family.
How old were you when your tree started to grow?
Were you born yet?
 30. Feed The Birds

Gather some empty containers from your recycle bin.

Have kids problem solve to turn these items into useful bird
feeders. Add creative artsy touches and of course . . .
bird seed.
31. Midnight Madness

To ring in the New Year, have kids find every clock, cell phone, timer, watch,
computer, microwave, stove, tablet, etc. Set all the alarms to go off at
midnight! (or, choose another time if you aren’t up that late.) Helps kids and
adults become familiar with all our everyday technology. Great math activity
to figure out how many hours till midnight.
 January 1 st
Happy New Year!
Congratulations!
You have just completed another trip around
our Sun on planet Earth. Find out how big our
solar system is by Walking The Solar System!
You can’t really walk that far, but by scaling it
way down, you will get the idea.
(see resource pages for directions)