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The Polar Express STEM Sleigh Exploration

There are so many wonderful events that take place in the book The Polar Express. One of my favorites is the Santa taking off in his sleigh.  You might enjoy having your children do a STEM experiment based on that section of the story. The experiment is to find out if a sleigh will travel faster or slower down a rooftop if it is filled with a sack filled with heavy or light objects. I am calling it The Polar Express STEM Sleigh Exploration.

Fun Science and Engineering investigation based on the book The Polar Express, exploring and investigating how to launch the sleigh!

The Polar Express Exploration

Fun Science and Engineering investigation based on the book The Polar Express, exploring and investigating how to launch the sleigh!

Making the Sleigh

The first thing your children are going to need to do is to build a sleigh. A small box makes a great sleigh.  They can leave the box as it is or cut it to make it look more sleigh like. Then they will need to paint the sleigh. (We found that acrylic paint works well on cardboard.)  Finally, They can decorate the sleigh with ribbons, sticks, or drawing tools (marker, crayons or paint).

Fun Science and Engineering investigation based on the book The Polar Express, exploring and investigating how to launch the sleigh!

Making the Ramp

Once you have your sleigh build, you will need to create a roof for the sleigh to travel down. We used a decorative tin as the base for our ramp that looks like a Christmas present. The ramp is roasting pan turned upside down.  You could use a cookie sheet or jellyroll pan instead if you like.

Santa Sack for the Objects

You will need a sack to hold the objects you will be placing in the tray. It can be a homemade sack like we used or you can use a cloth sack or stocking you already have. We made ours by cutting out a circle of felt. Holes were punched around the edge of the felt. Then cord was woven through holes.

We made ours by cutting out a circle of felt. Holes are punched around the edge of the felt. Then cord was woven through holes.

Fun Science and Engineering investigation based on the book The Polar Express, exploring and investigating how to launch the sleigh!

Gathering Objects

You will want to have some heavy objects like rocks and glass pebbles. You will also want to have lighter objects like buttons and coins.

Fun Science and Engineering investigation based on the book The Polar Express, exploring and investigating how to launch the sleigh!

The Polar Express Exploration Begins

  • Place a small number of objects into the sack and then place it in the sleigh.
  • Then you will place the sleigh at the top of the ramp. Have your children give it a little push to get it to go down the ramp. It will be fun to see how far down the ramp the sleigh will travel.
  • Next, they will change the objects in the sack. They will try having the sleigh travel down the ramp again. Have your children share orally or record on paper which object made it travel the farthest.
  • They will repeat this process until they have tried transporting each of the objects down the ramp.

The Polar Express experiment can be expanded to include a steeper incline or additional objects.

Out Now! – Countdown to Christmas Ebook

When life gets hectic in the lead up to Christmas wouldn’t it be great to be able to spend a little time with the family creating gifts for others, food to enjoy together and traditions that make magical Christmas Memories?

But what actually happens is you spend hours searching through Pinterest looking for ideas and realise halfway through saying you are going to start that you have only 1 thing on the materials list!

I’ve been there!

So that is why we’ve put together our 24 favourite Christmas Activities, Crafts and Recipes with full materials lists and step-by-step instructions so that you have everything at your fingertips.

Produced as a PDF you can download, print and use these ideas throughout the festive season with your children and families.

Find out more as we share with your our Favourite Ways to Countdown to Christmas.

Fun Science and Engineering investigation based on the book The Polar Express, exploring and investigating how to launch the sleigh!
Fun Science and Engineering investigation based on the book The Polar Express, exploring and investigating how to launch the sleigh!
Author
Deirdre from JDaniel 4's Mom

Deirdre is the founder and author of JDaniel 4’s Mom. A teacher from South Carolina. She has 1 son JDaniel 4th. He is ten years old.

A specialist in Technology Integration as well as Early Elementary teaching she can be found sharing hands-on learning over on her blog.

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