What to play in autumn? 5 Awesome autumn-themed STEAM activities

Do you like autumn? In this season when the temperature is getting cooler, let's have an autumn-themed activity with our children!

This time we’ve selected 5 STEAM activities related to autumn, including how to use Oreo cookies to understand the moon phase, make pumpkin volcanoes, use building blocks to make pumpkins, and maple leaf dyeing science experiments!

Every kind of activity is really full of autumn feel. Are you looking forward to it?

Read also: The rising of toy industry during pandemic

What to play in autumn? 5 awesome autumn-themed STEAM activities

1. Mid-Autumn Festival Moon Viewing Science: Oreo Biscuit Moon Experiment

The most important festival in autumn is the Mid-Autumn Festival! I wonder if you have any fixed activities during the Mid-Autumn Festival? I love barbecue and grapefruit! (So not creative).

If you want to play something different with your kids during the Mid-Autumn Festival, you must try using Oreo cookies to learn the moon's ecstasy, just do it!

Read also: Bonding time! Do these 6 STEAM activities with your child

Things need to be prepared

• 8 Oreo cookies

• Learning chart (not necessary)

How to do the Oreo biscuit moon experiment?

1. Explain why the moon is cloudy and clear.

2. Use the cream filling of the biscuit to make moon phase changes.

3. Take the child to observe the moon phase changes.

You can also print out the following study sheet to play the moon cookie experiment to make it easier for children to understand!

Credit: Superstar Worksheets

2. Know the fruits of the season: DIY apple life cycle hat

Autumn is the season of apple. Apple is the healthy and a very good fruit. Take advantage of this season to do a little STEAM activities with your children and let them know the growth of apple!

Read also: Recommended toys to develop child's skills for the future!

Credit: The STEM Laboratory

Things need to be prepared

• Drawing paper

• Pencil, colored pen or watercolor

• Double-sided tape

How to make the apple lifecycle hat?

1. Draw a periodic pattern of "from seed to apple" on the drawing paper.

2. Cut out a long piece of paper, wrap it around and stick it as a hat.

3. Paste the drawn patterns on the edge of the hat, and you are done!

You can also search for "apple life circle" on the Internet, and there will be many apple growth patterns or study sheets.

Credit: The STEM Laboratory

Credit: The STEM Laboratory

Wearing such a cool cycle hat not only learns the plant growth cycle, but is also full of fun in the process. Isn’t it great?

3. Halloween pumpkin volcano

Autumn is also the season for Halloween. In addition to the Halloween costume parade, you might as well have a more weird "Pumpkin Volcano" science experiment with your children!

Things need to be prepared

• Dishwashing liquid

• Baking soda

• White vinegar

• Food coloring (orange, purple, green)

• Small pumpkin

• Others: knife, small spoon, small container

Read also: Baby essentials that is important for your children's development

How to make Halloween pumpkin volcano?

1. Cut the pumpkin head and clean the seeds.

2. Pour a teaspoon of baking soda in each pumpkin.

3. Add a little dishwashing liquid.

4. Add food paint.

5. Finally, pour 1/3 cup of white vinegar to complete.

Credit: Natural Beach Living

Credit: Natural Beach Living

Observe carefully, what will happen to the pumpkin?

Adding acid (such as acetic acid) to baking soda will cause a chemical reaction to produce carbon dioxide. At this time, many bubbles will be generated inside the pumpkin. As the carbon dioxide increases, the bubbles will be squeezed out, which looks like a volcanic eruption!

4. Maple leaf dyeing science experiment

This is a very simple scientific experiment that is very suitable for autumn. But first you have to take your children out to "collect maple leaves". Take the opportunity to take the children out for a walk!

Credit: A Little Pinch of Perfection

Things need to be prepared

• Maple leaves of different colors (red, yellow, green, brown)

• Alcohol

• Transparent test tube

Read also: BabyLux event: Get to know your toys with ToyBrain

Credit: A Little Pinch of Perfection

How to do the scientific experiment of maple leaf dyeing?

1. First, wash the picked up maple leaves and blanch them in boiling water for 5 minutes.

2. Take the leaves out and place them on the tabletop to warm them up.

3. Pour alcohol into the transparent test tube container.

4. Put the maple leaf directly into the alcohol and let it stand overnight.

Get up the next day and you will see Maple Leaf stained with alcohol! It turns out that the cooked leaves have no cuticle protection. When they are soaked in alcohol, the chloroplasts of the leaves will be removed and dissolved in alcohol to form dyeing. It is beautiful, right?

Credit: A Little Pinch of Perfection

5. Use building blocks to create pumpkin

Seeing a foreign teacher using Lego bricks to teach children to make pumpkins, I think that Plus-Plus is more suitable! Because you can make an "arc shape" with Plus-Plus, and it can construct a very stunning shape whether it is flat or a 3D design!

See more creation ideas with Plus-Plus.

Welcoming you to be part of BabyLux family, planning to start own business by being baby products distributors but not sure where to start, drop us a message!

Multi sensory at-home activities with below 3 years old during COVID-19 outbreak

COVID-19 outbreak makes many families choose to stay at home to prevent it from widespread. How about our children? If you stay at apartment, there is no enough indoor space to let your children play and run around. How do we keep them busy? One activities per day could keep the stress away, trust me!

Exciting and fun! That’s what will be felt by our children when they were doing at-home multi sensory activities during COVID-19 outbreak. Do you know that although it looks like just playing in general, but the stimulation of two senses at the same time from multi sensory activity will make children’s brain work more optimally in absorbing and storing new information? Yes, that is why children's education experts agree that multi sensory activities are a more productive and useful alternative to learning, rather than let them play with gadget.

Read more: 5 Family bonding activity to play at home and 'hide' from Coronavirus

The most wonderful part is all of the following inspirations of multi sensory activities can be done with equipment and simple materials available at home. You will not frustrate because looking for a place that provides the materials, just stay at home and be safe, please.

Multi sensory at-home activities with below 3 years old during COVID-19 outbreak

Finger painting

As the earliest activity that can be done by every child, finger painting can also be an inspiration for multi sensory activities to introduce textures, colors, and aromas to children under 3 years old. However, I encourage parent with below 3 years old children to DIY an edible paint or a paint that is safe when eaten. Because you know that younger children loves to put everything inside their mouth. To make it yourself, simply mix cornstarch, water, food coloring, andvoila.

Read more: Home made edible paint

Digging dinosaurs

Inspiration of this multi sensory activity is just right for introducing letters and various types of dinosaurs, especially if your children love dinosaurs! Fill the bucket or storage container with sand, then hide some dinosaur toys, some of which have been sticked with a capital letter D and some sticked with a small letter D. Ask your little one to dig up the sand, then group the dinosaurs that have the same typeface, parents can also teach various other words that begin with the letter D.

Read more: Creative sand art activity

Water balloon bath

Make bathing time more fun with multi sensory activities for children. With the help of several colored balloons filled with water, parents can introduce colors and enrich the child's vocabulary with various descriptive words related to the senses, such as slippery, sticky, soft, heavy, light, and so on.

Playing with rice

Apart from food, rice can also be an alternative to sand or soil to conduct multi sensory activities for toddlers. Rice can be colored and added some aroma from flavorings and food coloring.

Rice that has been colored and given a scent, parents can use it to do multi sensory activities such as:

• Dig for treasure.

• Put in clear plastic to teach color and texture.

• Put in a small can and make a simple musical instrument.

Read more: 50 fun way to play with rice

Jello dig

Well, inspiring the next multi sensory activity can Moms try to make toddler snacking time more exciting and productive. Just make jelly as usual, put large pieces of fruit, star-shaped candy, or other objects that are safe to eat. This multi sensory activity is not only effective for stimulating all the senses, but also makes your baby's stomach full.

Apparently it is not difficult to do multi sensory activities for children below 3 years old at home. Although it will be a bit messy, but it is worth with the amount of benefits that will brought to our little one.

5 Family bonding activity to play at home and 'hide' from COVID-19

The Coronavirus is shocked the world. I saw that there are people waiting in line to buy masks, every online store that sell masks are already sold out. We are all very worry about it. How was your children at home? We may can watch the TV all day or just enjoying the sofa, but our children need to do lots of activity, otherwise they may start to get cranky. Despite from Coronavirus, it is a great moment to have a family bonding time.

Family bonding activity to ‘hide’ from Coronavirus at home

Activity 1. Playing with blocks

We all love open-ended toy, it can be played for a long time with a little help from our imagination. They can make houses, towers, bridges, even cars. The benefits of playing stacking blocks at home include:

• Developing their imagination

• Practice maintaining patience

• Develop self-confidence

• Can learn about the concepts of shape, size, balance, to color

Recommended toy:

• Plus-Plus

• Moomu

Activity 2. Color matching popsicle stick game

These colored ice cream sticks/craft sticks are so valuable! One can do so much with it, and they don’t cost that much. You can even collect the non-colored ones and color it yourselves.

Hold up a popsicle stick or have your child choose a popsicle stick. Ask them the color on the end or have them guess the color. Now have your toddler find the matching “popsicle.” Now your child can insert the popsicle stick into the correct color of “popsicle.” Pretend licking of the popsicle must occur. That is always my toddler’s favorite part.

Read more: 9 Fun ways to play with popsicle sticks

The color matching popsicle stick game idea is from here.

Activity 3. Cutting practice

This activity will let you capitalize on your toddler’s interest in cutting, but will also provide a controlled environment for them to practice cutting. Luckily, this cutting practice goes perfectly with learning shapes. Not only will this activity help to teach shapes, but it will also give your toddler or preschooler some great cutting practice!

Once you are done prepping the rectangles, get your toddler ready and pull out the scissors. Usually toddlers will need help with holding the paper and sometimes they will need help with opening and closing the scissors. Try to let your toddler do as much as they can on their own, but don’t worry if they need a lot of helping.

Read more: PDF file for your baby cutting practice

Activity 4. Fashion show at home

Children, especially girls, understand what beauty means. They even find out what make up is and try various products to their faces. Girls are also usually able to choose which clothes make it look beautiful even if only at home. Then, parents can make a catwalk stage for children to do a fashion show. Let them experiment in determining the clothes to the accessories you want to wear. For makeup, Moms can help them not to over-apply. Then, prepare a variety of colorful lights placed on the floor and play fast tempo music to add to the lively appearance of the little one.

Activity 5. Play house

Although only in the house, you can invite your little one to build houses or tents from simple materials. You can create temporary play house with a bed linen fabric that is placed under the order of benches. Parents can also sew any cloth that is made into the shape of a house, then place it as a dining table cover. Little can also play in it like a house or tent. Moms want to try to make it? Here is a guide to how you can follow.

“Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family”

— Anthony Brandt