STEM Bin Ideas: 10 Materials + 4 Ways to Spice Up STEM Bins®

Here we are, over halfway through the school year, and your kiddos have been movin’ and groovin’ with STEM Bins® all year long! Your students love them, and they’re fitting seamlessly into your daily routine. Maybe you’ve tried incorporating them as Morning Work, or as a choice for early finishers. Maybe you’ve started using them during centers, during indoor recess, or as a behavioral incentive for specific students. Read more about the basics of STEM Bins® at the post below:

STEM Bins®: Hands-on Solutions for Early Finishers

STEM Bin Ideas: 10 Materials to Start With

Every STEM Bin® holds one building material plus a ring of task cards. Most of my favorite materials are math manipulatives you already have, or finds from the dollar store and Target Dollar Spot. Here are 10 my students love:

1. Pattern blocks. Build flat designs, pictures and puzzles. (Pattern Blocks Speed Builds)
2. Linking cubes. Snap together towers, shapes and 3D structures. (Linking Snap Cubes Speed Builds)
3. Building bricks (LEGO). Build bridges, buildings and anything kids can dream up, and add a baseplate for bigger builds. (Building Bricks Speed Builds)
4. Base ten blocks. Stack and arrange them into towers and structures.
5. Popsicle sticks with Velcro dots. Stick the ends together to make shapes, frames and bridges.
6. Toothpicks and playdough. Playdough balls become the corners (vertices) of cubes, pyramids and prisms.
7. Mini cups. Stack towers, forts and cup pyramids. (Mini Cups Speed Builds)
8. Wooden planks. They’re similar to Jenga blocks and perfect for towers, bridges and chain reactions.
9. Magnetic tiles. Click together 3D shapes and buildings. (Magnetic Tiles Speed Builds)
10. Plastic snowflakes (like Brain Flakes®). They interlock into all kinds of 3D creations. (Brain Flakes® Speed Builds)

Bonus: sparkly foam balls and toothpicks are always one of my students’ first choices!

K–2: start with the photo task cards, so students build what they see. 3–5: use my advanced task cards with no photo cues and written response sheets, and add Quick Writes for a writing or math extension.

Ready to set them up? The Original STEM Bins® set on TPT has the task cards, bin labels and editable box covers for your materials.

It’s no secret that kids of all ages and abilities are big fans of STEM Bins®, and it’s not hard to see why. They get to work with their hands, challenge themselves, and express creativity through engineering design. And teachers are loving them almost as much as their kids as they watch their students’ engagement, motivation, and problem-solving skills soar.

Just like any other procedure or “system” that is consistently used in your classroom, it’s important to keep student interest levels high and keep their curiosity piqued. STEM Bins® have to be kept fresh so that they remain effective and engaging for the entire school year.

Here are 4 surefire ways to respark that motivation and creativity among your students:

1. Seasonal Task Cards

Something about pulling out holiday-themed task cards in December opened up a whole new world of exciting challenges for my little ones. They loved attempting to build brand new familiar structures such as sleighs, chimneys, and trees, and as soon as January hit, they couldn’t wait to construct igloos and snowmen. I usually throw in 6 new task cards each month, and it’s a simple and low prep way to boost their motivation and interest levels.

Grab my growing mini bundle of seasonal and thematic task cards for STEM Bins® at the link below. I’m always adding fun and fresh structures to this pack!

Seasonal Task Cards for STEM Bins®

2. Fresh Materials

Another easy way to boost STEM Bins® engagement (that’s also sure to result in squeals of excitement from your kiddos) is to add new materials to your STEM Bins®. New manipulatives don’t have to be fancy or expensive. In fact, many I just happen to come across at the dollar store or a garage sale. Since first releasing my original STEM Bins® pack, I’ve added new material covers to the pack that you might want to consider adding to your collection. Make sure to redownload the pack from TPT because I’m always adding more goodies!

The wooden planks are similar to Jenga blocks, and they’ve been known to be found in the Target Dollar Spot on occasion too. My favorite brand of wooden planks is KEVA Planks (affiliate link), and you can find tons of variety packs on Amazon. There are also many varieties of magnetic blocks on the market, but hands down, my kids’ favorite is Magformers. They are a little pricier, but are extremely high quality and will hold up for daily use.

I also LOVE these sparkly foam balls from Hobby Lobby. They come in tons of colors and work beautifully for building structures with toothpicks. They’re always one of my students’ first choices for materials.

3. Quick Writes

If you’re ready to deepen your students’ STEM Bins® experience and integrate literacy and math, my Quick Writes are the perfect extension. Leveled for lower grades and upper grades, students can grab a Quick Write along with their STEM Bins® tub and write sentences, record steps of construction, measure the dimensions of their structure, and more. This is also a great way to integrate STEM Bins® into your literacy and math centers. You can store Quick Writes in a hanging file near your STEM Bins® or even in a hanging pocket chart.

4. Mix It Up

And finally, another way to spice up your STEM Bins® is by allowing students to combine materials and collaborate with others, especially if they typically work independently. While this can get louder and messier, it works great as a whole class reward and fits best in a more unstructured time of your day.

I let my Kindergartners combine materials on Election Day to construct a White House together, and this is how amazing their creation turned out:

I hope your students are loving STEM Bins® as much as mine are, and I hope these suggestions and supplements will help keep them fresh and exciting all year long! If you have some speedy finishers in your classroom, check out my “Hands-On Solutions for Early Finishers, Morning Work, and Beyond” to keep those quick learners engaged with meaningful, hands-on challenges!

These are part of the STEM Bins® MEGA BUNDLE on TPT, which puts all 15 together in one download.

Prefer a ready-made kit? The hand2mind STEM Bins® kit comes with the building materials, tubs and challenge cards ready to go.

STEM Bins® was created by Brooke Brown, NBCT, of Teach Outside the Box. STEM Bins® and STEAM Bins® are registered trademarks of Teach Outside the Box, LLC. STEM Bins® kits are also available from our partner hand2mind.

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, Teach Outside the Box earns a small commission at no cost to you.