20 Terrific science activities for toddlers and preschoolers. Great for home, daycare, the classroom or even for kids’ parties! Simple enough for toddlers and preschoolers, but fascinating enough for kids of all ages!
I’ve been sharing a lot of simple science experiments for kids on my facebook page lately, and the response from you guys has been terrific!
Wow! Your children really love science, don’t they?
Well guess what! I’ve rounded up a whole bunch of my favourite science-based activities for toddlers and preschoolers and put them right here, all in one place for you!
Pin this post, or bookmark it, and you’ll have it handy any time you need a fun and easy science-based activity to do with your kids!
For your convenience, this post contains affiliate links.
20 Science Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Colour Mixing Experiment for Toddlers and Preschoolers:
Set up a colour laboratory with water, bubbles and an assortment of containers and fine motor instruments. It’s a great way for kids to explore liquids, colour and colour mixing.
Expanding Ivory Soap Experiment:
Watch a bar of Ivory soap expand to 6 times its size in a minute and a half!
Water Displacement Experiment for Preschoolers:
A few rocks, a jar and a small toy animal are fun for teaching kids about water displacement.
Art and Science with Salt, Glue and Watercolours:
Kids can practice spelling their name or simply create stunning pictures with this salt, glue and watercolour experiment.
Melting Ice Experiments for Preschoolers:
Watch and learn how salt helps to melt ice in the following FANTASTIC activities! (Bonus: They’ll all keep your kids busy for a good, long time too)
Enormous Homemade Bubbles Recipe:
Kids AND adults will absolutely love blowing these GIANT homemade bubbles! They really are the best bubbles EVER!
Turn a Grape into a Raisin:
Watch a the slow process of a grape turning into a raisin. You’ll require a little patience, but it really is cool!
Puffy Paint with 3 Kitchen Ingredients:
Puffy Painting: Kids can watch their paintings go from flat to fluffy in a matter of seconds in the microwave.
Create an Ocean in a plastic Jar or Bottle:
Observe how oil and water behave together with an Ocean in a Bottle. Your finished bottle will have a wonderfully mesmerizing and calming effect too. Never a bad thing!
Wax Resist Art:
Through this beautiful, artistic process, kids can see how crayon wax and water resist each other.
Colourful Fizzing Baking Soda and Vinegar Science Experiment:
Kids LOVE the fizzing action that comes along with this colourful science activity. All you need is baking soda, vinegar and food colour or liquid watercolour.
Turn Cream into Homemade Butter:
Kids of all ages will get a kick out of making their own butter with nothing more than jar full of cream.
Water Absorption and Colour Blending Experiments for Toddlers and Preschoolers:
Learn about water absorption and colour blending with these simple experiments:
And lastly, there’s this classic science experiment. Dyeing flowers with water and food colouring. I haven’t a post to go along with this photo of mine, so I’ll send you over to Twig and Toadstool to see how they recently coloured a bouquet of rainbow daisies.
More fun Science Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers:
Check out these cool and creative activities for kids!
- 2-Ingredient Goop and Nature Goop
- 25 Easy Art Techniques for Toddlers and Preschoolers
- 15 Homemade Paint Recipes for Kids
- 25 Water Play Activities
Get the 3-5 Playful Preschool e-Book!
25+ Preschool activities by 25 bloggers, 10 printables, PLUS 50 links to activities not featured in the book.
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
mummabw
Love these – thank you! I’ve already tried some of them out from previous blog posts of yours!
Mark
Absolutely love the idea of gigantic bubbles for kids. My four year old has a bubble machine and will no doubt love trying this idea on the weekend. I will post a link on my site http://www.excitedkids.com to this page as these are great.
Superhero Mama
We’ve done some of these already and I can’t wait to add some new ones from your ideas to my bag of tricks. Any new ones I try I’ll be sure to link them on my site http://science4superheroes.wordpress.com !
Lisa
Thanks so much for this-can’t wait to try some of these out with my little girl 🙂
happyhooligans
You’re welcome, Lisa! Have fun with them!
janelle
greta ideas, thanks for posting. Have a very recently turned two year old niece who is advanced for her age so these will attract her attention. It has everything i see language skill, math as well in these
paula
wonderful blog ! i like so much,bravo
Ala
Thank you for great ideas! The idea with the soap I want to do on this weekend.
Jen
Cool
Jennii
Way cool! Have you grown a pet TickleMe Plant yet?
happyhooligans
Not yet, but they look very cool!
Michelle Lee
Love, love, love all your ideas!! Thanks for sharing!
Jeannie
Great ideas! I can’t wait to try some of these! I really want to do the water displacement and color lab experiments with my son! I know he’ll love it and keep him entertained! Thanks for the ideas!
Elane
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Marie Schemmel
I am really excited to do so many fun and engaging science activities with my kids this year! I would love for you to share your favorite science activities for preschoolers in the comments!
Science Experiments
I really loved all the science activities especially this one “TURN A GRAPE INTO A RAISIN”. Thanks for sharing.