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Kindergarten Science Experiments & STEAM Activities Made Fun & Easy

  • Writer: Amy Wung Tsao
    Amy Wung Tsao
  • Jun 16
  • 5 min read

Kindergarten is such a great age to spark curiosity, because they’re so naturally curious! 


But what if your kindergarten science lesson is a little dry? A little worksheet-heavy? 


Don’t remake your lesson from scratch. (You don’t have time for that anyway!) Instead, jazz up the science lesson you already have planned! Just add the perfect STEM picture book read aloud, a laugh-while-they’re-learning STEM video, or an easy STEAM activity.  Ready to get inspired?


Collage of photos of kids science experiments and STEM activities for kindergarteners. The collage is titled “Kindergarten Science Experiments.” The photos are laid out in groups, labeled “pushes and pulls”, “interdependent relationships in ecosystems”, and “weather & climate.”

Kindergarten Physical Science Experiments: Pushes and Pulls 


By Adrienne Mason, illustrated by Claudia Davila

There’s so much opportunity for play-based discovery with the physics of pushes and pulls! This nonfiction picture book is full of super easy activities and kid-friendly explanations. For example, kids can push bowls filled with objects of different weights. In another activity, kids blow through a straw to push something light across the table. (Teachers, there’s a lot here to support NGSS K-PS2-1!)


Check out there fun STEM read alouds about pushes and pulls!

Cover illustration of a brown-skinned, smiling girl in pink overalls pulling a red wagon full of books and a dog riding in it.


Kindergarten Life Science Experiments: Pollinators 


Photo of flowers drawn on pavement with chalk. A hand is holding up a piece of sponge with chalk that has rubbed off on it.

Make “Pollen” Chalk Art from the Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History

This STEAM activity is part chalk art and part scientific model! All you need is two different colors of chalk and a cotton ball. Draw different color chalk flowers, and then use the cotton balls as your pollinator, feeding from both color flowers. Notice how your pollinator picks up the “pollen” as it feeds! 


If you’re a teacher and going outside won’t work for your class, you can try this activity with paint on paper and cotton balls. Or here’s another indoor classroom activity that uses Cheetos as the “pollen”. 


(Teachers, all of these pollination models support K-ESS3-1.)


Build a Beehouse! from SciShow Kids 

Ready to go beyond learning about pollinators to helping pollinators? All you need is a tin can, 2 toilet paper rolls, paper and glue. This activity is to build a beehouse for mason bees, which do not sting like other bee species do. Building pollinator homes is good for the environment, and supports K-ESS3-3 in your science curriculum!


Kindergarten Life Science Activities: Animal Migration

Diagram of a salmon migration obstacle course, including an ocean area with fishing nets, a migration path with predators, dams, and waterfalls, and a spawning ground at the finish line.

Make a migration obstacle course! DIY version from Science World 

Printable version from Survive the sound

Migrate like salmon through an obstacle course filled with waterfalls, dams, predators, and fishers. 


I love this activity because it gets kids active and moving, and can easily turn into independent pretend play! Plus it’s easy to modify for your circumstances. You could play this indoor with string or jump ropes to outline the migration corridor, and stuffies and furniture as the obstacles.  Or you can play this outside with chalk to draw the migration corridor and obstacles. I can see this working for just one kid or groups of kids as well. I love the idea of migrating multiple times, each time adding a new obstacle for your kids to navigate.If you’re a teacher with a whole classroom of kids, the printable version breaks this activity up into several interactive migration stations for kids to rotate through. (And teachers, this activity is all about interactive relationships in ecosystems, supporting NGSS K-LS1-1, K-ESS3-1, and K-ESS3-3!)


Add your headline here

Click here for fun migration science picture books to share with your kindergarteners!

Cover illustration of a caterpillar with white, yellow, and black stripes crawling determinedly off the cover. The title reads "Gotta Go! Gotta Go!"

Kindergarten Life Science Activities: Animal Traits


Printable illustration of a red panda’s face, with its eyes cut out to make a mask. The face is outlined by a dotted line for cutting out the mask. The title is “Cut and Create Your Own Animal Mask”, and the Woodland Park Zoo logo is in the top left corner. 

from Woodland Park Zoo


Instead of just talking about animal traits, how about adding some pretend play? What kind of animal traits can you pretend? Maybe these printable masks from the Woodland Park Zoo will help inspire some play ideas! 


If you want to extend this further, have your kindergartener observe some traits from each other’s masks, and wonder aloud how those traits might help that animal survive! (NGSS K-LS1-1)


Watch Alaskan brown bears catching salmon live on Katmai National Park’s webcams, or in the off season you can watch the highlight reel above. These bears are eating as much salmon as they can before the winter.


These webcams provide a great opportunity for your kindergarteners to observe patterns of what brown bears need to survive! (K-LS1-1).


Starting in September, your kindergarten class can vote for their favorite bear too. 



Next, add these animal science picture books to your science lesson too!

Cover illustration of a great variety of animals circling around the title: "Fur, Feather, Fin, All of us are Kin."

Kindergarten Life Science Experiments: Seeds Growing Into Plants


Collage of photos of popcorn seeds growing inside a plastic baggie. The photos are labeled “Day 1, Day 5, and Day 10.

Grow Popcorn Seeds in a Bag  from Special Treat Friday This must be the absolute easiest version of experimenting with growing seeds! You can probably do this literally right now with supplies you have in your kitchen - popcorn kernels, paper towels, and plastic baggies. I would have never thought to grow in plastic baggies, but it really makes the whole process so much more visible to kids. And you might even be able to transfer your corn plants into the garden later to become full grown. 

With enough popcorn baggies and kernels, you can easily experiment with giving seeds lots of sunlight, no sunlight at all, or something in between, and observe the differences! (Teachers, that makes this experiment an easy way to support NGSS K-LS1-1.)



Photo of seven beans laid out on a paper towel, some with and some without seed coats, some that are sprouting and some that aren’t. Text overlay reads “Do seeds need their seed coat to grow? An experiment from Gift of Curiosity.”

Even more Seed Experiments with Temperature, Liquids, Air, and More! from Gift of Curiosity If you are up for growing even more seeds and running multiple experiments at once, these are relatively simple to set up as well! Grow seeds at different temperatures, water with different liquids, grow seeds without access to air, and even grow seeds without their seed coat. (All of these experiments support NGSS K-LS1-1.)



Pair these seed experiments with these great STEM read alouds for kindergarteners!


Cover illustration of a red apple overlaid on an illustration of a suitcase. The suitcase is surrounded by smaller illustrations of animals and fruits. The title reads "A Fruit is a Suitcase for Seeds."

Kindergarten Earth Science Experiments: Water Cycle


from Plum Landing on PBS Kids


What a super easy STEAM (science + art) activity that also demonstrates water evaporation! All you need is water, a paint brush, and a spot of sidewalk in the sun. Plus more evaporation activities with construction paper and plastic baggies.  (For teachers, this aligns with NGSS standard K-PS3-1.)


Your kindergarteners might have heard the words water cycle, precipitation, and condensation before. But they probably won’t really know what those words mean until they see it with their own eyes, in a little model they can hold in their hands! Help your kindergarten kids see the whole water cycle, all inside a plastic baggie. (For teachers, this activity supports NGSS standards K-PS3-1.)



And check out more water cycle books and videos to read with your kindergarteners here!


Cover illustration of a smiling water drop. Title reads "Drop: An Adventure Through the Water Cycle."


I hope you have found something to spark curiosity in your kindergarten classroom! 


Amy Wung Tsao


P.S. If you enjoyed this post, sign up here with your email for exciting STEM ideas every month for your classroom, or to share with your kindergarteners’ parents!


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