Nothing makes me more nostalgic than Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers! So when my son asked for a Super Mario Lesson Plan, the 6-year-old inside of me said, “heck yeaaaah!!!” We will make a DIY Nintendo Switch out of cardboard (that you can actually “play” Super Mario Bros on!), make some free, printable Mario reading and math games, and complete Nintendo math worksheets! In addition to learning how to draw Mario and Toad, we will preview The Pacific Opera Project’s “The Magic Flute,” which is an incredible Opera inspired by the Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. If that isn’t the best way to expose your kids to opera, I don’t know what is! But, before we begin, join our Facebook Group and “like” our Facebook Page, so you won’t miss out on any of our goodies!
🧪 Super Mario Bros STEM Science Activities for Kids
This list of Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros inspired STEM activities is seriously epic!
- Did you know that the Nintendo Switch has a DIY kit called Nintendo Labo that lets kids build fun add-ons for their video games? Aspiring engineers and tinkerers love it! There are a variety of options like the Vehicle Kit or the Robot Kit.
- Another creative engineering-type STEM activity is to make a DIY Nintendo Switch out of cardboard to “play” Super Mario Bros! I’m loving all of these creative ways to re-use cardboard, like the vending machine that we made in the Hershey’s Lesson Plan. Watch the video below to see how clever this DIY Nintendo console is, and you absolutely MUST send me a photo or video via our Facebook Group, when you make your own!
- Do you want to learn about how the number of pixels used in video games (and cartoons) effects how the characters look? Ask your child to form a hypothesis first, and then complete this experiment.
- If you have an older child, this is a very cool project where you learn about creating a video game for the blind. Another great STEM project is to learn how to write computer programs at Code.org. After all, video games are a prime example of code!
- The Super Mario Brothers Automation (in the video below) is a fun STEM project too! All you need are an X-acto Knife, a Self-Healing Mat and a glue stick (along with time and patience!).
🥣 Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda Recipes
Did you know that is an entire Legend of Zelda-themed Cookbook?! You can read it for free via Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program.
You can even turn your fridge into a Dry-Erase Whiteboard Nintendo Game (talk about a way to get our kids to pay attention to their chore chart!). Or add video game nostalgia to your kitchen with Nintendo Mushroom Salt & Pepper Shakers and Wooden Video Game Coasters (Father’s Day, I’m look at you!!!).
📚 Free Super Mario Books & Nintendo Sight Word Game
Take your pick from these free rock and mineral worksheets and reading materials!
- Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program allows you to read books (for free!), and you don’t even have to have a Kindle to use it. Take your pick from these Nintendo-themed books (some of which are free via Amazon’s program!).
- Kindergarten – 2nd Grades:
✏ Super Mario Writing Prompts
- Kindergarten – 2nd Grade:
- Create your own Nintendo story about Mario and Luigi, or Link from the Legend of Zelda or whoever your favorite characters are, and then start writing it down with this printable worksheet. It is a great way to work on learning about the main idea, as well as details, of a story. If you need further inspiration, here is a great list of Mario Writing Prompts.
- 3rd – 5th Grade:
- Select from one of these Mario Writing Prompts to stretch your writing muscles!
🧮 Free Printable Super Mario Math Worksheets
- Kindergarten – 2nd Grades:
- Let’s revisit what we learned in our Money Lesson Plan with this Mario and Luigi Coin Worksheet.
- A really fun twist on this Learn to Read a Clock Lesson Plan is to print out these Super Mario clock labels, and have your child show that time on the clock they made. You could also draw the clock face and have your child draw where the clock hand goes.
- I LOVE this free, printable Super Mario Addition Game.
- Super Mario Bros 2-digit addition and subtraction (with regrouping) worksheets
- If you are working on single addition worksheet, here is a free Super Mario worksheet for you!
- 3rd – 5th Grades:
- Learn about dilations and scale factors with this Super Mario Dilations printable worksheet.
- Writing computer code is an excellent way to practice math. Head over to Code.org to learn how to do it!
🖌 DIY Super Mario Crafts
- Now THIS will keep your kids busy for hours! A Perler Bead Super Mario Activity Kit! If you already happen to have a big collection of perler beads (with the correct colors) and pegboards, you can even make them using this free Mario perler templates!
- Pick one of the following fantastic videos to teach you how to draw Mario or Toad!
- Build your own Mario Brothers pinwheel with this free printable, a pencil and a straw.
- For our younger kids, these Super Mario Brothers sensory bottles are mesmerizing (be warned: older siblings may steal them when nobody is looking)!
🎤 Free Nintendo Opera Featuring Super Mario Bros & Legend of Zelda
- Best. News. EVER! The Pacific Opera Project is going to have an interactive watch party for “The Magic Flute,” which is an opera that will have loads of video game references, especially from The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. You can view it here shortly (I will be sure to post it on our Daily Virtual Class Schedule too), but for now, checkout the preview below!
And the most fun part… share a photo or video of your Nintendo or Super Mario projects or activities on Facebook! Make sure to include a link to this website or to our Facebook Group and Facebook Page, so that we can see it too! I’ve purposefully added a lot of options for parents who need to keep their kiddos occupied for more time and to allow you to cater to your children’s preferences.
These are so fun!