STEM Activities for Kids

Little kids are full of questions on how the world works? They want to know how boats float, how clouds are formed, why the sky is blue and so on. STEM activities for kids are a great way to answer their questions and keep their curiosity alive. You can do these activities for kids at home or in school to boost their learning of important concepts.

Science and math are core subjects that are a crucial part of a child’s learning. But science and math lessons can be too theoretical and boring for little kids. But hands-on activities that combine science, math, technology and engineering concepts make learning fun and engaging for kids. That’s why we’ve put together these hands-on STEM activities for kids that make learning super fun!

STEM Activities for Kids According to Age

Here are a few STEM activities for kids that cater to kids according to their age and various learning stages. These hands-on activities and games will spark a love of learning and make kids look forward to learning more about these subjects.

List of STEM Learning Activities for Kids

STEM Activities for Preschoolers

  1. Salt and Ice: This is one of the best STEM activities for kids in preschool. This simple science activity is perfect for kids who are just beginning to understand the world around them. All you need is some ice, salt, water, 2 bowls and blue food coloring.
    First, fill 2 bowls with water and add a few drops of blue food coloring to each one. Place the bowls in the freezer and let it sit undisturbed overnight. The next day, take both bowls out of the freezer. Sprinkle some salt over one bowl of ice and leave the other as it is. You’ll notice that the ice melts quickly in the bowl with salt rather than the bowl without salt. This happens because salt lowers the freezing point of water and prevents it from freezing back into ice.It’s also a fun way to teach your kids about the changing state of matter.
  2. Sprout Seeds: This is one of the best science activities for preschoolers. All you need is a 500 ml glass jar, some pea seeds, paper towels and water.
  3. Fill a transparent glass jar with some paper towels. Spray water inside gently to dampen the paper towels. Now push in the pea seeds into the paper towels, ensure that the seeds are next to the walls of the jar. Ensure that they’re firmly placed on the paper towels and set the jar aside. After two days you’ll notice that the seeds sprout and roots grow from it. Slowly the sprout grows leaves and becomes a sapling. This is a great activity to help kids learn how plants grow.

  4. Marshmallow Engineering: This is one of the tastiest engineering projects for kids. You’ll need skewers, toothpicks and a pack or two of marshmallows.
  5. Spark your child’s engineering skills by letting them build anything they want with yummy marshmallows! They can build a castle, a simple building, or a car – the possibilities are endless. And once they’re finished, they can treat themselves to those marshmallows. 

STEM Activities for Kindergarten

Looking for STEM activities for kids in kindergarten? Check out these fun STEM activities for kindergarten.

STEM Activities for 1st Grade

  1. Cup Tower: This is one of the easiest STEM activities for kids in 1st Grade! Stacking cups to make a tower is a great STEM learning activity. Along with boosting their thinking and problem solving skills, it also enhances their fine motor skills and math skills. Give your child a pack of paper cups and ask them to make a tower with the cups. And once they’re done, ask them to count the number of cups used and measure the height of the tower.
    Check out Osmo’s fun measurement game: Math Wizard and the Secrets of the Dragons now!
  2. Candy Math: Test your child’s counting, adding and subtracting skills using candies. Spread a pack of candies in front of your child and ask them to sort them according to color and count them. You can also add in some addition and subtraction practice too.
    For another addition & subtraction game, check out Osmo’s Math Wizard and the Magical Workshop!
  3. Directional Cards: This is one of the best screen-free coding games for kids. In this STEM game, you pretend to be a computer and your child is the programmer. Your child needs to ensure you reach a specific place in the room just by displaying directional cards!
    Directional cards are flashcards with arrows pointing forward, backward, to the right and to the left. You can time this game to make it more challenging.

For digital-physical coding games, shop Osmo’s Coding Starter Kit.

STEM Activities for 2nd Grade

  1. Straw Roller Coaster: This is one of the best engineering games to boost your child’s STEM learning. Give your child a bunch of straws and tape and tell them to make a roller coaster with it. All they have to do is tape the straws carefully to ensure they don’t fall. Once they’ve created it, check how it works by using a ping pong ball as a “car”!
  2. Water Cycle in a Bag: The water cycle in a bag experiment is a wonderful way to help your child learn about the water cycle. First, take a cup of water and add some food coloring into it. Then pour this mixture into a ziplock bag. Tape it to a window or a place which receives a lot of sunlight. After a few hours you’ll notice water droplets on the bag, which after sometime drip down into the pool at the bottom. This shows how water evaporates, condenses, and falls down in the form of precipitation!
  3. Clothespin Math: This fun STEM game is a great way to help your child count and identify numbers. Write the numbers from 1 to 10 on 10 sheets of paper and place them on a table. Ask your child to identify the number on each sheet and pin that many clothespins onto the paper. For example, if the sheet has number 4 written on it, the kids will have to pin 4 clothespins. Check out more number games for kids to help them learn the numbers easily.

These awesome STEM activities for kids in 2nd grade can make dreaded subjects so much easier to learn!

STEM Activities for 3rd Grade

  1. Marble Maze: Help your child learn engineering through play with this marble maze STEM game for kids. All you need is a paper plate, glue, scissors, paper straws, tape and marbles. Cut up the straws and glue them on the plate to make a maze. Add tunnels made of tape to make it more fun. Finally, place a marble on the plate and try to navigate it through the maze without touching it.
  2. Hot Chocolate: This fun STEM game for kids is a great way to teach them about soluble substances and temperature! For this experiment you’ll need some hot chocolate mix, milk and 3 mugs.
  3. Pour cold milk into one mug, lukewarm milk into the second and hot milk into the third mug. Add two spoons of hot chocolate mix into each mug and see which one gets ready to drink first. The kids will observe that the cold milk doesn’t dissolve it and the lukewarm milk takes a long time to dissolve the mix. But the mug with the hot milk dissolves the chocolate mix quickly and the hot chocolate is ready for consumption. Explain to your kids that the higher the energy of the water, the quicker it breaks down the molecules present in the chocolate mix.

  4. Simon Says Coding Game: You can turn this popular game into an offline coding game for kids. Explain to the kids that Simon is the programmer and the people he commands are the computers! Then give silly commands like “Simon says hold your nose” or “Simon says hop on one leg” etc. Kids won’t even realize they’re developing core computational thinking skills while they have fun.

These simple STEM activities for kids in 3rd grade are everything your kids need to learn through hands-on play. We aim to make learning STEM fun with these STEM activities for kids! Don’t forget to shop our wide range of many more STEM games that blur the line between learning and fun. For more activities, games and worksheets that make learning fun, check our kids learning section.

Frequently Asked Questions on STEM Activities for Kids

What are the STEM Activities for Kids?

The STEM Activities for Kids are melting the ice, plant a seed and sprout the seeds, water cycle, marble mazes, Simon says, etc.

What are the STEM Activities for 1st graders?

The STEM Activities for 1st graders are Osmo’s math wizard, stacking and measuring the cups, candy math, screen free games for the kids, art and math activities, etc.