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in Christmas STEM Activities· Seasonal STEAM· STEM Activities

Play Doh Christmas Tree Preschool Engineering Challenge

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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!

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!

Our Christmas STEM challenges continue with today’s activity.

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 stem activities for preschool!

christmas stem challenge cards

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 differnet 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!

What Preschoolers Learn Doing Playdough STEM Challenges

Christmas Tree Play Dough

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.

All-in-all play dough is a wonderful learning tool in the preschool years and can have so many applications for preschool STEM activities!

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.

What You’ll Need to Make Play Dough Christmas Trees

Play Doh Christmas Tree STEM Challenge
  • Red and white beads
  • Green play dough
  • Plastic mat

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.

How to Make Your Own Playdough Christmas Tree

play dough christmas tree challenge

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).

Just give them enough to complete the STEM experiment and keep the rest out of sight.

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!

First, Bo explored the materials. She stuck the beads into the play dough, smoothed the play dough out, rolled it around, and smooshed it out again.

After playtime, it was time to get to serious business. Bo made a tower, a face, a matching set, and a pattern.

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!

Then, she turned her attention to crafting her Christmas tree. I thought she did a great job!

The beads ended up looking like ornaments on her play dough tree.

Monkey was busy with her school when we did our STEM experiments, but she also would have loved this activity as a 10 year-old.

There is no age limit to scientific discovery!

play dough christmas tree
christmas stem challenge cards

Christmas STEM Activities by Grade

Christmas STEM Activities for Kindergarten

Christmas STEM Activities for 1st Grade

Christmas STEM Activities for 2nd Grade

Christmas STEM Activities for 3rd Grade

Christmas STEM Activities for 4th Grade

Christmas STEM Activities for 5th Grade

Christmas STEM Activities for Middle School

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Filed Under: Christmas STEM Activities, Seasonal STEAM, STEM Activities Tagged With: christmas, preschool

About Brenda Priddy

Brenda grew up thinking she hated science.

But when her 4-year- old daughter was more interested in reading science facts than fairy tales, Brenda realized she had to learn more about science to keep up with her daughter.

Through simple at-home science experiments, Brenda developed a passion for science and now acts as an advocate for STEM education for kids at her website STEAMsational.com.

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What is STEAM?

STEAM activities for kids promote the idea that science, technology, engineering, art, and math can all work together to help kids become critical thinkers, problem solvers, and innovators!

Join us on our journey to discover just how much fun science experiments can be.

What we do… 

STEAMsational offers STEM and science lesson plans and teaching resources to provide a firm STEM foundation for children in the classroom or home.

All you need to do is find your supplies, gather your scientists, and let the innovation unfold.

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