Halloween STEM Stacking Challenge with Erasers

As we headed out the door for Aiden’s soccer game, I grabbed a handful of pumpkin erasers and a tea cup. This combo would become an easy busy bag to keep my toddler occupied during the game. Using the erasers for a Halloween STEM stacking challenge is a fun way to get kids building and thinking. This post contains affiliate links.

Pumpkin Eraser Halloween STEM Stacking Challenge

We found the bag of pumpkin erasers at Target. My kids immediately asked for them. I knew there were several activities we could do with them. (We started with our Flashlight Halloween Treasure Hunt.)

The stacking challenge was the second activity. As we sat on the bleachers watching the soccer game, Lily became restless. She’d had enough climbing up and down for the time being. I pulled out the tea cup full of pumpkin erasers and asked her if she could stack them. This kept her busy for a while. Safety note: erasers can be small, so only use with children who will not put them in their mouths and always supervise.

Count the pumpkins as they are stacked. How high can you make the tower before it falls over? (We did lose one or two erasers under the bleachers. I couldn’t reach them while babywearing Elon so they just had to stay in the gym.)

Is there a certain way you need to stack them? These pumpkin erasers are not perfectly flat. One side seems to be wider than the other. If we alternated the direction of the pumpkins, our towers could be higher.

Measure the pumpkin eraser tower. How tall is it? Don’t have a ruler? Use non-standard measurements instead. How many hands tall is the tower? How many tea cups high?

In addition to stacking the pumpkins, Lily took them in and out of the cup and handed them to me. She also traced (or at least attempted to trace) them on paper. I call this a successful busy bag for a toddler.

More Halloween STEM

Use static electricity to create dancing ghosts and bats.

Halloween STEAM Challenge cards. STEM plus Art with a Halloween twist. You’ll find fun invitations to create like design a flying ghost or build a spider out of pipe cleaners.

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