5 June STEM Activities to Usher in Summer

June is all about celebrating the end of the school year while still keeping our students engaged and learning. With the weather warming up and summer right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to lean into hands-on fun, outdoor-friendly builds, and creative problem-solving. These June STEM activities are designed to do just that! Each challenge blends teamwork, critical thinking, and a little summer flair to create unforgettable experiences your students will love. Whether you’re wrapping up the school year, running a summer camp, or just looking for fresh ideas to finish strong, these summer STEM activities are low-prep, high-impact, and full of imagination!

Common Supplies You’ll Need for June STEM Activities

To make the most of these June STEM activities, it helps to keep a stash of go-to materials on hand. You’ll want to gather items like construction paper, pipe cleaners, rubber bands, craft sticks, cardboard, string, straws, and tape. You can also add marbles, pom-poms, index cards, and recycled materials to your bins to give your students plenty of options. These are easy to organize in bins or drawers by type, so you can quickly prep for any challenge without digging around for supplies.

Dry erase sleeves or laminated response sheets are perfect for running these as stations or centers. You can reuse them over and over again with just a quick wipe. Scissors, glue, markers, and any decorative extras like confetti, stickers, or gems are always a fun bonus that let your students personalize their designs. Having a designated STEM cart or shelf makes it even easier to keep everything accessible and ready to go.

Each activity includes optional certificates and printable stickers, which are a fun way to celebrate student creativity. These extra touches help build classroom excitement and give your students something to take home with pride. No matter the materials you have on hand, these challenges work because they let your students explore, design, and bring their ideas to life in meaningful ways.

How to Structure Your Week with June STEM Activities

With five exciting June STEM challenges to choose from, it’s easy to structure your month or week with a simple, repeatable routine. Start by choosing one challenge per week. This allows your students time to dive deep into the engineering design process. Plus, it gives you the flexibility to adapt the challenge based on your classroom needs.

You might start each week with a mini lesson or read-aloud that ties into the theme. Then, introduce the challenge with a digital or printed task card, model a few ideas, and give your students time to brainstorm. Midweek, your students can build and test their creations, reflect on their work, and make improvements. Finish out the week with a share-out or gallery walk so your students can celebrate each other’s ideas.

If you’re running a summer school program or short-term enrichment class, these activities also make fantastic daily centers. You can rotate small groups through each challenge over the course of one or two weeks, using laminated response sheets or dry erase pockets for quick transitions. No matter your schedule, these summer STEM activities can flex to fit your time and keep learning fun.

Challenge: Splish Splash Diving Board Catapult

This first June STEM challenge is the perfect way to kick off your summer-themed activities with a splash! In the Create a Diving Board challenge, your students are tasked with creating a diving board-like launcher that can shoot a pom-pom into a bucket of water. This hands-on build introduces basic physics concepts, promotes teamwork, and gets your students thinking like engineers.

The goal is to get the pom-pom into the “pool” (a bucket). Your students quickly discover that hitting the target takes planning and precision. They will tinker with angles, measure distances, and adjust the force of their launchers. For an added challenge, you can make the bucket smaller or increase the distance. You might even create multiple targets worth different point values, transforming the activity into a friendly competition.

Students light up when they see their pom-pom splash into the bucket. The classroom buzzes with energy during each test round. With materials like popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and pom-poms, students design, test, and improve their models. They record data, reflect on what works, and support each other along the way, making this a fantastic way to build STEM skills while having a blast.

Challenge: Caps Off – Graduation Cap Design

There’s no better way to celebrate the end of the year than with a graduation-themed design challenge! In this activity, your students are invited to build and decorate their own wearable graduation caps. They can create something that truly represents them using construction paper, string, pipe cleaners, confetti, and any fun extras you have on hand.

Before building, I love to have my students brainstorm what makes them unique. I have them think of their favorite hobbies, subjects, or memories from the year. Then, they include those details on top of their caps through drawings, words, or small decorations. Each hat includes a tassel, which your students can design with yarn or pipe cleaners for a fun, personalized touch.

What I love most about this challenge is how reflective and meaningful it becomes. It’s about self-expression and celebrating how far your students have come. Whether you’re ending the year or marking a milestone, this June STEM activity gives your students a keepsake they can be proud of and a chance to share their stories creatively and collaboratively.

Challenge: Grillin’ and Chillin’ Tool Creation

It wouldn’t be summer without a BBQ-inspired challenge! The Build Grill Tools activity tasks your students with designing a tool that can flip or lift food on a grill. Think of it as a mini invention lab where your students get to problem-solve as grill masters. They can use straws, craft sticks, pipe cleaners, string, and spoons to construct tongs, spatulas, or a completely new creation of their own.

To up the engagement, you can use clipart of burgers or hot dogs and attach them to small weights or cardboard blocks. Then, your students can test their tools to see if they can lift or flip the food. If they want a bigger challenge, ask them to design multiple tools to handle different tasks on the grill. This gets them thinking about function, strength, and creative engineering.

This June STEM activity is perfect for encouraging trial and error. Your students can build, test, and improve their designs while talking through ideas with classmates. They love showing off their grilling tools. You’ll be amazed at the clever solutions they come up with. This challenge also opens the door to conversations about how everyday tools are invented and improved in the real world.

Challenge: Lazy River Pool Float

Let’s dive into summer vibes with the Build a Pool Float challenge! In this activity, your students design a floating device to stay afloat and hold weight, specifically, at least 20 pennies. Using materials like foil, cardboard, cups, and popsicle sticks, they must craft a mini float that balances weight and remains steady on water.

We usually set up a tub or bin as our “lazy river” and start testing. My students love the suspense of watching their float stay up (or sink!) as they add pennies one by one. This challenge quickly turns into a friendly competition to see whose design holds the most weight before sinking. It’s a fantastic way to touch on science concepts like buoyancy, balance, and structure.

This activity is incredibly versatile. Whether indoors or outdoors, your students get hands-on experience with the engineering design process while laughing, cheering, and learning from each other. It’s a go-to summer STEM activity that brings smiles and serious thinking to your learning space.

Challenge: Quench Your Thirst – Water Bottle Holder

To finish out your month of June STEM challenges, it’s time to solve a real-world problem. The problem is keeping your water bottle handy while you’re on the move. In the Water Bottle Holder challenge, your students design and build a water bottle holder they could use at a sports game, field day, or outdoor event. The design must be functional and make the water bottle easy to access.

Your students can use any available materials, from cardboard and string to tape and pipe cleaners. You can increase the difficulty by offering bottles of various sizes. You can even fill them with water to make the designs more durable. This activity is a great blend of engineering, creativity, and practicality.

As your students build, they talk through their ideas, test different attachments, and modify their designs to make them stronger and more user-friendly. I love seeing their pride in creating something they could use. This challenge highlights how STEM can be fun, meaningful, and connected to everyday life.

End Your Year with June STEM Fun

These June STEM activities are the perfect mix of creative energy, problem-solving, and summer excitement. They help your students reflect on their year, collaborate with classmates, and apply STEM skills in new and exciting ways. Whether they are testing pool floats, designing their own hats, or building grill tools, your students are engaged.

Each activity follows a student-friendly routine that includes the engineering design process and simple materials. That makes running them as centers, whole-class builds, or even independent projects easy. With optional response sheets, certificates, and stickers, you’ll have everything you need to celebrate their hard work and creativity. You can find all of these activities in my TPT store.

No matter how you choose to structure your STEM time this June, these challenges will bring joy and learning to the forefront. Get your materials ready, fire up your students’ imaginations, and make the final stretch of your school year unforgettable!

STEM For a Year

If these summer STEM activities sparked joy in your classroom, imagine what a full year could look like! The STEM For a Year Club is packed with engaging, low-prep challenges like these for every season. You’ll get themed activities that build problem-solving skills, promote collaboration, and keep your students asking, “What’s the next challenge?!” all year long.

To make your planning even easier, be sure to grab the free STEM for the Year Scope and Sequence. It outlines how to implement STEM challenges month by month and gives you a clear roadmap for success!

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