Play Doh Christmas Tree Preschool Engineering Challenge

If you really love Christmas, then you’ll love these STEM activities using just red and white beads and green play dough. If you love Christmas, then you’ll love this play doh Christmas tree! It’s so festive and fun even for the youngest Christmas lovers! We did this experiment as part of our Christmas STEM activities for preschool.

If you love Christmas, then you'll love these STEM experiments using just red and white beads and green play dough. So fun even for young Christmas lovers!

Today, Bo (our preschooler) was challenged to create something Christmas-themed from beads and playdough as an engineering activity for kids.

Her results were fantastic with the playdough Christmas tree challenge and the entire process was a whole lot of fun!

It’s one of our favorite Christmas tree STEM activities!

Play Doh Christmas Tree STEM Challenge for Preschool

Let your children conduct their own STEM experiments with these simple supplies.

My preschooler played around with how the dough and the beads stuck together in different ways for quite a while before finally settling on the Christmas tree design.

If you love Christmas, then you'll love this play doh Christmas tree! It's so festive and fun even for the youngest Christmas lovers!

This becomes a STEM experiment when you ask, “what can you do with these materials?”

I asked Bo if she could make a tower, a face, and an alternating pattern. She chose to make the Christmas tree on her own.

I guess she was in a holiday mood!

Hands-On STEM Resources about Trees

Here are some hands-on STEM resources about trees that can be used alongside this Christmas tree STEM activity.

What Preschoolers Learn Doing Playdough STEM Challenges

Play dough is a wonderful material for preschoolers as it helps them learn and explore shapes, textures, the basics of building and engineering, and so much more!

In preschool, kids should work with their hands as much as possible as that is how they make connections and discoveries about the world.

Play dough can also help a preschooler strengthen their hands, which can make writing easier.

Keep reading to find out what you need to set up this particular play doh Christmas tree building challenge and how to set up the activity with preschoolers in the classroom or at home.

Supplies to Make a Play Doh Christmas Tree

Here are some things you can use to create your own play doh Christmas tree for preschoolers or other age early learners.

I recommend using a plastic mat for this activity to protect your surfaces.

For some reason, our play dough was a bit sticky, so we were happy to have the mat so the sticky dough didn’t get all over the table.

All-in-all play dough is a wonderful learning tool in the preschool years and can have so many applications for preschool STEM activities after you decorate your own playdough Christmas tree.

More Christmas Tree Crafts for Kids

Your young students will also enjoy these other Christmas craft ideas in addition to the play doh Christmas tree.

Books about Christmas Trees

These science books about evergreen trees will be a good addition to any Christmas tree STEM project!

How to Make Your Own Playdough Christmas Tree

Follow these directions to show preschoolers how to make a Christmas tree out of playdough and beads. You could even put the supplies into a bag together and use it as a playdough Christmas tree gift idea.

Let the children have everything they need for the project, but don’t give them more than a handful of beads.

If you give them too many, they might get distracted from what you’re trying to do with them (at least my kids do).