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DAY 4: STEVE & ALEX!
Welcome to our “Think, Craft, Repeat – A Minecraft Week” – an at home week filled with days of relaxed learning and fun activities all themed to the ever popular game – Minecraft! After all, what better way to get them to keep learning than to pick a theme they already think is fun! For this week, rather than focusing on just the Minecraft game and how to play, we used their love of the game to dig deeper into the history of the game and learn more about very popular characters!
For this day, we learned all about fan favorites – Steve & Alex – and how they came to be in the game! Read on to check out a fun filled day of learning, reading, crafts, and activities all on these Minecraft characters!!
A TYPICAL DAY
All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 Our relaxed & learning fun day kicks off with an introduction to the day’s theme. Then, we move onto videos and themed activities (reading, writing – or story telling – time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments). Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂
INTRO
If you or your little ones are into Minecraft, chances are you’ve heard of or seen these fan favorite characters – Steve & Alex! Just like the creeper, they’re iconic and appear almost everywhere Minecraft related!
If they haven’t or aren’t familiar with the creeper, these sites are great introductions with interesting facts, images, and related content! They’re perfect for providing a brief intro for your little ones (or to gather up some knowledge as well!)!
WHAT TO WATCH
We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning).
The Minecraft movie also tells the story of Steve and how he came to find the Minecraft world. We saved the movie for our end of week activity, but you could sneak in a few scenes here for the day if you wanted to!
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!
Steve & Alex are so popular that they have their own fruit snack (almost – there are other Minecraft characters in there as well). The Minecraft Fruit Snacks can be found in most grocery stores!
READING
It’s no secret that reading is an important part of learning, which is why we pick out a handful of books that are fun and filled with some learning tidbits. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned! These are a few we picked from for the day:
- The Minecraft Adventures of Steve and Alex: The Abominable Snowman
- Diary of a Minecraft Noob Steve: Book 1 – Mysterious Fires by MC Steve
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing is a great way to keep kids learning by both encouraging their creativity and thought process as well as helping them practice their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: MINECRAFT, CRAFTING, BUILDING, CREATIVE, STEVE, ALEX
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day (and we offered up some examples as well) but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- Imagine being a character in Minecraft and meeting Steve and Alex for the first time. Write a short story about your first encounter! Use dialogue!
- Steve & Alex have no official backstory (as of today). Write a short story explaining how they came upon the Minecraft world and why they do what they do.
CREATE & CRAFT
If you’ve got a crafty little one, a simple craft is a great way to keep them interested in the topic. While their creative juices are flowing, you can also chat about what they’ve learned so far or ask them what else they’re excited about learning! Below are some of the crafts we looked at:
- Alex Paper Craft by Pixel Papercraft
- Mini Advanced Steve & Alex Paper Craft by Pixel Papercraft
- Minecraft Coloring Pages (50+ Printable PDF Sheets for Free) by i Heart Crafty Things
- Woobles Tiny Minecraft Iron Sword Accessory Kit
STEM & STEAM ACTIVITIES
While crafting and writing get their creativity and imagination flowing, we also like to add in an activity that gets them thinking along the lines of science, technology, engineering, or math! These engaging activities or experiments are a great way to keep them learning!
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our at home learning fun article! If you enjoyed this post, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest
Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our other Minecraft Ideas days as well as our DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
MORE MINECRAFT FUN:
Check out our ULTIMATE Minecraft Party!
