At SchoolAmanda Vaden
Holiday STEM Activities are a fun and festive way to celebrate the winter holiday season with your students.

For many people, the weeks leading up to the end of the year are a blur of fun, food, and festivities. The same can be true for students and teachers in the classroom. With the buzz of an upcoming, long holiday break it can be hard to find engaging ways to get students to focus on the lessons or activities for the day. That’s where holiday STEM activities and Sphero come in! With holiday STEM activities, students can have a great time together celebrating and making memories while still learning. 

Holiday STEM Activities for Your Classroom

With holiday STEM activities your students can practice their coding skills, share traditional holiday stories or customs, and even embrace the “A” in STEAM with a creative twist on arts and crafts. 

Are you ready to start planning for the “countdown weeks” ahead? We’ve compiled a list of eight activities, inventions, and programs that are holiday-themed or that can be easily adapted to share a holiday tradition of your very own. 

1. Program an Ornament with Sphero BOLT

With this simple program, you can hang a Sphero BOLT on a Christmas tree among colorful garland wraps, string lights, and other timeless ornaments. When BOLT is connected, the program utilizes the LED matrix and front and back LEDs for a beautiful holiday-themed animation.

2. Create Unique Holiday Art

This program shows you how to easily create beautiful, festive long-exposure light art. Let your students' creativity shine through!

3. Hanukkah Dreidel with BOLT

Spin the dreidel bot! This program uses BOLT’s accelerometer and gyroscope to add a fun twist on the traditional dreidel game for celebrating Hanukkah. 

4. BOLT Blocks 2: Light and Sound Stories 

In this activity, BOLT’s lights and sounds can make your stories come to life. Put on your storyteller’s hat and get ready to program your favorite holiday story to share with the whole class. 

5. BOLT Blocks 6: Sensor Storytelling Sidekick 

Want to add a little flair to your holiday stories? Or act out a scene from your favorite movie or play? With this program, you can code BOLT to be your sidekick, including the best sound effects and lines to make your story come to life. 

6. Hit the Road for the Holidays with indi

Sphero indi is a fun robot to use during storytelling and other holiday STEM activities.

Recreate a holiday road trip with Sphero indi! Have students draw three things they like to do or places they like to visit with family and friends during the holidays, e.g. grandparents’ house, downtown for shopping, or a local cafe for hot chocolate. Place the drawings on the floor and have them use indi’s color tiles to program it to drive to the three places while they share their favorite memories of each stop with their classmates.

7. Sphero littleBits: Ugly Holiday Sweater Hack 

Hacking an ugly sweaters is one example of a holiday STEM activity.

Ugly sweaters are a funny holiday party tradition for many people. With this littleBits invention, you and your students can add lights and sounds with various Bits to bring your ugly sweater to life! 

8. Sphero littleBits: Ice Skater

littleBits can bring an ice skater to life in this holiday STEM activity.

Is ice skating a winter activity your students enjoy? Create a lovely, moving ice skater display with a few basic craft materials and the littleBits DC motor. It’s like a moving snow globe! What else can your students create with these items?

No matter how you plan to celebrate the upcoming holiday season in your classroom, we hope you have fun, get creative, and enjoy this special time of year with your students.

Happy holidays from all of us at Sphero!
At school