Looking for new creative activities to do with your preschooler? These 8 science experiments are…
For preschoolers, following a STEM curriculum does not have to feel like a lesson. STEM activities can be as simple as watching where rainwater flows, figuring out why a block tower keeps tipping over, or counting leaves on a walk. These everyday moments support early STEM learning by giving children space to notice what is happening, wonder why, and test their own ideas.
Primary Beginnings is a 5-star preschool in Raleigh where young children learn by exploring, asking questions, moving, building, and trying things for themselves. These 12 outdoor STEM activities give families easy ways to turn everyday time outside into meaningful learning through nature, observation, problem-solving, and play.
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How Outdoor STEM Supports Early Learning
Toddlers learn a lot by getting their hands on what they are curious about. Outside, that might mean feeling the wind against their face, watching water move in a creek, digging in soil in their backyard, noticing insects crawling on a rock, or comparing the texture of grass and leaves in their hands.
Head Start identifies that outdoor play gives young children opportunities to explore natural materials, make predictions, experiment, and observe changes in the natural world around them. These everyday experiences give children plenty of natural materials to observe, sort, test, and talk about.
Why Easter Activities Are So Much Fun for Toddlers
Easter offers a unique opportunity to blend learning with seasonal celebration. For preschoolers, participating in Easter crafts, games, and sensory play supports a wide range of early development goals in a fun, interactive way.
Top Outdoor STEM Activities and Engineering Challenges
Most of these outdoor STEM activities use supplies families already have or objects children can easily find outside. The list includes everything from outdoor science experiments to engineering challenges and other fun STEM activities. Adjust the level of difficulty based on the child's age, attention span, and motor skills.
1. Nature Walk Scavenger Hunt & Data Collection
Take a familiar nature walk, but give it a purpose. Children might look for three kinds of leaves, count birds, compare rocks, or find objects that are rough, smooth, large, or small. It is a simple way to explore nature while giving children something specific to look for.
Preschoolers can sort what they find by color or shape. Older children can record totals and make a simple bar chart to compare results.
A walk can also open the door to bigger science ideas. Tree rings on an already-cut stump can introduce dendrochronology. Creek life can lead to a conversation about bio-indicators. Hills, slopes, and streambanks provide an easy introduction to how land changes over time and other scientific concepts.
2. DIY Weather Station & Anemometer
Choose a spot outside where children can record the temperature, cloud cover, rainfall, or wind each day. Older students create a simple anemometer using paper cups, straws, and basic craft materials.
Young children do not need an exact wind speed reading. The goal at this age is not necessarily to measure wind speed precisely, but to observe whether the cups move slowly, quickly, or not at all. That data is enough to begin comparing weather from one day to the next.
3. Insect Hotel Engineering Challenge
An insect hotel combines building with a close look at the tiny animals that share our outdoor spaces. Use twigs, bark, hollow stems, pinecones, and other natural materials to fill sections of a small shelter. Children can decide where different materials should go and explain their choices.
For preschool aged children, an adult can prepare the basic frame ahead of time, while children handle the arranging, filling, and later observations.
4. Sun Shelter & UV Ray Shield Challenge
Give children a small problem to solve: How can we make shade?
Using cardboard, fabric, construction paper, aluminum foil, and other recycled materials, children can build a shelter for a small toy or set of UV-sensitive beads. Place it in the sun and see how well the design works.
If sunlight still reaches the object, resist the urge to fix it for them, as that is where the learning happens. Ask what they might change and let them test another version.
5. Pizza Box Solar Oven Cooking
A pizza box solar oven helps children see that sunlight can produce heat.
With adult help, line parts of a pizza box with aluminum foil, add a dark surface inside, and use plastic wrap to help trap warm air. Children can predict whether the inside will become warmer and check the temperature over time.
Adults should handle any cutting for younger children, but kids can still help put the safe parts together, add the food, and watch for changes as the oven heats up. They might notice chocolate starting to soften, a marshmallow getting warm, or the temperature inside the box gradually rising.
6. Rain Garden & Runoff Experiment
This simple experiment gives children a close-up look at what happens when rain hits different types of ground.
Fill two shallow containers with soil. Leave one mostly bare, then add grass, small plants, mulch, or stones to the other. Pour the same amount of water into each and ask children to watch where the water goes.
Kids can observe how one container drains faster, holds more water, or loses more soil compared to the other. Those differences provide transition into learning about runoff, erosion, roots, and how soil conditions affect the cycle of plant growth.
7. Egg Drop Challenge
The egg drop challenge works because there is no single right design to follow, opening the opportunity for creative exploration.
Provide cardboard, tape, fabric, popsicle sticks, paper plates, and other lightweight materials. Then, have children create something they think will protect an egg during a short drop. The final step is to observe what happens.
This experiment introduces impact and air resistance, but the real value for young children is the redesign. What would they change before trying the challenge again?
8. Soap Bubble Science & Surface Tension
Playing with bubbles is already popular with young children, so it does not take much to turn it into an investigation.
Try different bubble wands and compare the results. Do large loops always make large bubbles? Does a triangle-shaped wand make a triangle bubble? What happens when a little glycerin or corn syrup is added to the mixture?
These observations help children connect cause and effect, compare results, and build early science skills while learning about surface tension through something they can see and test for themselves.
9. Outdoor Maze Design & Path Efficiency
Draw a maze with sidewalk chalk or create one using sticks, cones, or blocks.
Let one child create the path and have another try it out. If they get stuck or run into too many dead ends, they can go back and make changes together. You can also turn the maze into a simple coding game where one child gives directions like “take two steps forward” or “turn left,” while the other follows the instructions. This adds an early technology connection without changing the hands-on nature of the activity.
This helps children practice sequencing, listening, and logical thinking while also learning how to adjust a plan when the first idea does not work.
10. Math Racers & Active Relays
Set up a few stations around the yard or playground, with one simple math challenge at each stop. Preschoolers can count pinecones, match shapes, find a certain number of objects, or compare which stick is longer. Older children can work with estimation, measurement, or simple equations.
Keep the focus on thinking, not speed. Give children time to work through each challenge and talk about how they found the answer.
11. Nature Sculpting & Weight Balance Challenge
Sticks, bark, rocks, pinecones, and leaves make excellent building materials.
Ask children to build something that can stand on its own. Once they have a stable structure, make the challenge a little harder. Can it hold a small rock? What happens if they make the base wider? How much weight can it support before it starts to tip?
Young children learn a great deal about balance and gravity simply by building, watching something fall, and trying again.
12. Longest Paper Chain STEM Bin Challenge
Give each child or small team the same amount of paper and tape. The goal is to make the longest paper chain possible without getting any extra supplies.
Children have to make choices. Should the links be large or small? How much tape should they use? Are thinner strips better?
At the end, use simple measuring tools to compare the chains. Preschoolers can work with wide, pre-cut strips so the focus stays on linking, counting, and comparing.
Bringing STEM Learning to Life at Primary Beginnings
At Primary Beginnings, our three 5-star Raleigh preschool programs give children regular opportunities to investigate, build, move, create, and solve problems through age-appropriate play. These experiences help children build early STEM skills through activities they can participate in and understand.
Our early education programs are designed around the way young children actually learn: by doing.
To learn more about our early education programs or to schedule a tour of one of our campuses, fill out the form below or call us today at 919-790-6888 for or Spring Forest location, 919-615-0752 for our Falls Of Neuse location, and 919-785-0303 for our North Hills location.