Every day is chock-full of new discoveries when you are a kindergartner! These hands-on kindergarten science experiments and activities take advantage of kids’ boundless curiosity. They’ll learn about physics, biology, chemistry, and more basic science concepts, gearing them up to become lifelong learners.
(Just a heads up, WeAreTeachers may collect a share of sales from the links on this page. We only recommend items our team loves!)
1. Make a lava lamp
Help your students make their very own lava lamp using simple household ingredients. Then personalize the lamps by adding a couple of drops of food coloring to each bottle.
Learn more: Science Fun for Everyone
2. Create a tower of ice instantly
Place two water bottles in the freezer for a couple of hours, but don’t let them freeze all the way through. Then, pour some of the water onto a couple of ice cubes perched on top of a ceramic bowl and watch a tower of ice form.
Learn more: Only Passionate Curiosity
3. Demonstrate the power of recycling
Teach your kindergartners how to transform something old into something new. Use scrap paper, old newspapers, and magazine pages to create beautiful handcrafted paper.
Learn more: The Craftaholic Witch
4. Make edible glass
Just like real glass, sugar glass is made from tiny opaque grains (of, in this case, sugar) that when molten and allowed to cool transforms into a special kind of substance called an amorphous solid.
Learn more: Go Science Kids
5. Make their hair stand on end
Learn all about the properties of static electricity with these three fun balloon experiments.
Learn more: MEL Chemistry
6. Create a model of the human spine
Kids love to learn through play. Make this simple egg carton spine model to encourage your students’ interest in the human body and how it works.
Learn more: Mombrite
7. Inflate a balloon without blowing into it
Teach your students the magic of chemical reactions using a plastic bottle, vinegar, and baking soda to inflate a balloon.
Learn more: Hands On Teaching Ideas
8. Move a butterfly’s wings with static electricity
Part art project, part science lesson, all fun! Kids make tissue paper butterflies, then use the static electricity from a balloon to flap the wings.
Learn more: I Heart Crafty Things
9. Use apples to learn what science is all about
This apple investigation is a great way to start. It encourages kids to examine an apple using a variety of techniques to learn its properties. Get a free printable worksheet for this activity at the link.
Learn more: Preschool Play & Learn
10. Paint with salt
OK, kindergartners probably won’t remember the word “hygroscopic,” but they’ll enjoy watching the salt absorb and transfer colors in this neat experiment.
Learn more: A Dab of Glue Will Do
11. Play with “magic” milk
Sometimes science seems like magic! In this case, dish soap breaks down milk fats and causes a colorful swirling reaction that will mesmerize little learners.
Learn more: Natural Beach Living
12. Race balloon rockets
Introduce little ones to the laws of motion with easy-to-make balloon rockets. When the air shoots out one end, the balloons will sail off in the other direction. Whee!
Learn more: Hands On Teaching Ideas
13. Lift a bag with balloons
You’ll need helium balloons for this one, and kids are gonna love it. Ask them to guess (hypothesize) how many balloons it will take to lift various items in a bag attached to the strings.
Learn more: Mess for Less
14. Discover how plants breathe
Kids might be surprised when you tell them that trees breathe. This experiment will help prove it’s true.
Learn more: Edventures With Kids
15. Learn how germs spread
There’s never been a better time to add a handwashing experiment to your list of kindergarten science activities. Use glitter as a stand-in for germs, and learn how important washing your hands with soap really is.
Learn more: Gift of Curiosity/Hand Washing
16. Explore the properties of mystery items
Mystery bags are always a hit with kids. Tuck a variety of objects inside, then encourage kids to feel, shake, smell, and explore as they try to determine what the items are without looking.
Learn more: Raising Lifelong Learners
17. Play with fizzing ice cubes
While kinders may not entirely understand the concept of acid-base reactions, they’ll still get a kick out of spraying these baking soda ice cubes with lemon juice and watching them fizz away!
Learn more: The Play-Based Mom
18. Find out what sinks and what floats
Kids learn about the property of buoyancy and get some practice making predictions and recording the results with this easy experiment. All you need is a container of water to get started.
Learn more: Buggy and Buddy
19. Explore buoyancy with oranges
Expand your exploration of buoyancy with this cool demo. Kids will be surprised to learn that even though an orange feels heavy, it floats. That is, until you peel off the skin!
Learn more: Playdough to Plato
20. Sniff away at scent bottles
Here’s another way to engage the senses. Drop essential oils onto cotton balls, then seal them inside spice bottles. Kids sniff the bottles and try to identify the smell.
Learn more: Things To Share and Remember
21. Play with magnets
Magnet play is one of our favorite kindergarten science activities. Place a variety of items into small bottles, and ask kids which ones they think will be attracted to the magnets. The answers may surprise them!
Learn more: Left Brain Craft Brain
22. Waterproof a boot
This experiment lets kindergartners try their hand at “waterproofing” a boot with a variety of materials. They use what they already know to predict which materials will protect the paper boot from water, then experiment to see if they’re right.
Learn more: Science Sparks
23. Watch colored water walk
Fill three small jars with red, yellow, and blue food coloring and some water. Then place empty jars in between each. Fold paper towel strips and place them in the jars as shown. Kids will be amazed as the paper towels pull the water from full jars to empty ones, mixing and creating new colors!
Learn more: Messy Little Monster
24. Create a tornado in a jar
As you fill in the weather during daily calendar time, you might have a chance to talk about severe storms and tornadoes. Show your students how twisters form with this classic tornado jar experiment.
Learn more: One Little Project/Tornado in a Jar
25. Suspend water inside a jar
Lots of kindergarten science activities involve water, which is terrific because kids love to play in it! In this one, show your students how air pressure keeps water in a jar, even when it’s upside down.
Learn more: A Mothership Down
26. Dig into some soil science
Ready to get your hands in the dirt? Scoop up some soil and examine it more closely, looking for rocks, seeds, worms, and other items.
Learn more: Go Science Kids/Backyard Science Experiment
27. See popcorn kernels dance
Here’s an activity that always feels a bit like magic. Drop an Alka-Seltzer tablet into a glass of water with popcorn kernels, and watch as the bubbles cling to the kernels and make them rise and fall. So cool!
Learn more: Everyday Chaos and Calm
28. Mix up some Oobleck
Perhaps no book leads so perfectly into a science lesson as Dr. Seuss’s Bartholomew and the Oobleck. Just what is oobleck? It’s a non-Newtonian fluid, which looks like a liquid but takes on the properties of a solid when squeezed. Weird, messy … and so much fun!
Learn more: ABCs of Literacy
29. Make it rain with shaving cream
Here’s another neat weather-related science experiment. Make shaving cream “clouds” on top of the water, then drop food coloring in to watch it “rain.”
Learn more: One Little Project/Shaving Cream Rain Clouds
30. Grow crystal letters
No list of kindergarten science activities would be complete without a crystal project! Use pipe cleaners to make the letters of the alphabet (numbers are good too), then grow crystals on them using a supersaturated solution.
Learn more: Gift of Curiosity/Crystallized Letters
31. Bend light with water
Light refraction produces some incredible results. Your students will think it’s magic when the arrow on the paper changes direction … until you explain that it’s all due to the way water bends the light.
Learn more: Go Science Girls/Light Glass Water Play
32. Blow up your fingerprints
You don’t need a microscope to look at fingerprints up close! Instead, have each student make a print on a balloon, then blow it up to see the whorls and ridges in detail.
Learn more: The Natural Homeschool
33. Bounce popcorn with sound waves
Sound may be invisible to the naked eye, but you can see the waves in action with this demo. The plastic wrap–covered bowl is the perfect stand-in for an eardrum.
Learn more: Premeditated Leftovers
34. Build a Three Little Pigs STEM house
Can your little engineers create a house that protects a little piggie from the big bad wolf? Try this STEM challenge and find out!
Learn more: Sweet Sounds of Kindergarten
35. Play a marble maze game
Tell kids they’re going to move a marble without actually touching it, and watch their eyes widen in surprise! They’ll have fun drawing mazes to guide a metal marble through with a magnet from beneath.
Learn more: Go Science Girls/Magnet Marble Maze
36. Germinate a seed
There’s something about seeing a seed develop roots and shoots with your very eyes that’s just so incredible. Sprout bean seeds in paper towels inside a glass jar to give it a try.
Learn more: How Wee Learn
37. Make egg geodes
Engage your students in the steps of the Scientific Method to create these stunning lab-grown geodes. Compare the results using sea salt, kosher salt, and borax.
Learn more: TinkerLab
38. Change the color of flowers
This is one of those classic kindergarten science activities everyone should try at least once. Learn how flowers “drink” water using capillary action, and create beautiful blooms while you’re at it!
Learn more: Fun Learning for Kids
Keep the learning going with these Kindergarten Math Games That Make Numbers Fun From Day One.
