Stem Fort Building Projects With Fort Magic
Posted December 9, 2019 by Fort Magic
Hands-on learning will not only set your children up for a successful future but it will help them develop their brains. It’s also a fun way to spend some time learning with them! Here are some of the many ways you can use one Fort Magic building kit to help your kids learn important STEM skills.
What Is STEM?
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It utilizes a hands-on approach to learning where kids are encouraged to build and create on their own. Instead of learning through traditional textbooks, kids learn through creating projects.
It’s becoming increasingly popular among educators because of its many benefits. Incorporating STEM into learning has been shown to prepare kids for a successful future. It encourages critical thinking, collaborative learning, and builds confidence. In fact, it’s been shown to be so beneficial that there are now many schools across the nation that utilize only STEM tools in their classrooms. Careers in the STEM fields are also rising more quickly than any other fields.
How STEM Learning Affects Brain Development
By the time a child reaches the age of 5, their brain is about 90% of the size it’ll be when they’re full grown. Children are born with a certain amount of neurons, or potential. Through the child’s life experiences, pathways are either created or gotten rid of.
You can see how important this period of development is for the entire rest of that child’s life. If they are nurtured in an environment that strengthens and build these connections in their brain, then they will meet their full potential. However, if they are in an environment where they don’t learn and aren’t stimulated, then these brain connections become unused and the body does away with them. It’s a process called synaptic pruning. The best way to encourage healthy brain growth is to place your children in an environment where they get to build and have hands-on learning, such as with fort building.
1. Learn About Engineering with A Skyscraper Fort
Once your kids are familiar with the basics of fort building, you can encourage them to create their own skyscraper fort. They can learn the fundamentals of engineering while they’re doing it such as why it’s important to have a bigger base. You can also make it more fun by learning about some famous skyscrapers across the globe or even by learning about the history of skyscrapers.
2. Understand Air Travel with an Airplane Fort
If you want to teach your kids about air travel, then incorporate an airplane fort into your lessons. You can go to the library to find books about the Wright brothers and how air travel has changed since then. There are also many great educational videos out there. Work with your kids to build an airplane fort and then climb inside and have fun reading all the books you got from the library.
3. Encourage their Artistic Side with an Art Fort
Encourage your little artist by creating an art space. Start by building the Play House design. What you cover it with will become their canvas. You can use colored cellophane or a plastic shower curtain if you want something that will wash off.
Experiment with different tools for painting such as bouncy balls dipped in paint or even cut up vegetables. If you want a more permanent canvas, you can cover the fort with old white sheets. Once it’s dried, you can even roll it up to save their masterpiece or use it for a fun, colorful cover for another fort.
4. Create A Reading Space with A Bed Fort
One of our favorite ideas to encourage bedtime reading is to build your reading fort right over your child’s bed. Once you’re done with the fort, you can line the inside with a strand of white lights so you can see to read. If your child knows how to read, you can encourage them to read to you right before bed.
5. Learn Life Skills with A Restaurant Fort
Playing restaurant is not only fun but it teaches kids some important life skills such as how to interact with others, how to serve others, and how to make food. You can buy a restaurant pad from the dollar store so your kids can practice taking orders.
They can help come up with a menu as well as have fun coloring and designing that menu. Encourage them to put items on the menu that they can easily create such as sandwiches and fruit platters. You can also teach them about money by paying for your food with some play cash.
6. Spend A Day at the Carnival with A Ferris Wheel Fort
This is another one of our favorite ideas. What can be more fun than spending a day at the carnival? You can have your kids sketch out a Ferris wheel ahead of time. Then, they can learn more about engineering as they try to create their own Ferris wheel. You can help them with this as needed because it’ll be harder to create.
For older kids, you can even challenge them to come up with a Ferris wheel that spins. After they’ve built their Ferris wheel, they can spend the entire day playing games and eating carnival snacks such as caramel apples and homemade elephant ears. This is one of our favorite ideas because it leaves so much room for creativity and what you can do during your carnival day!
Photo Credits:
Learn With Play At Home Blog: An inspiring educational blog created by a primary teacher that strongly believes in making learning FUN & seamless through childhood playtime ideas and activities.
The Artful Parent Blog: One of our absolute favorite creative blogs for children and families. The Artful Parent blog is filled with simple ideas to fill your family’s life with art and creativity. A must see blog for sure.
Epic Childhood Blog: A wonderful family blog about everyday fun and educational activities inspired by play based learning, learning through play, enriched outdoor play, and creative play.
You Clever Monkey: A fun blog with lots of ideas for home and school encouraging children to think, to explore, to question, to contribute, to respect, to create, to play, to engage, to pretend, to care, to communicate, to be confident, to become all that is promised to them.
1+1+1=1: The 1plus1plus1equals1 Blog is a fantastic resource on Homeschooling and educational learning ideas from tots to big kids.
Fort Magic Customer Photos via Facebook: Visit our Fort Magic Facebook page to see our customer creativity shine with fun pics and videos of families enjoying their Fort Magic kit during playtime.
Fort Magic Customer Photos via Instagram: Visit our Fort Magic Instagram page to see our customer creativity shine with fun pics and videos of families enjoying their Fort Magic kit during playtime.
