STEM for Preschoolers: Activities to Try at Home

A career in the STEM field may seem like a long time off for your preschooler. It is never too early to start developing your child’s interest in math, science and technology. Here are some ways to kickstart your preschooler’s love of science.

Fun Exploring

Preschoolers love to explore. Plant a garden, fill water glasses with food coloring and mix to learn about colors, count and sort items, talk about and chart the weather or play with magnets and a cookie sheet.

Set up a sensory bin using dried beans, water beads or rice, then hide items inside. Ask your child to find the red dinosaur, count the green items or close their eyes and guess what items they feel.

Sharpen math skills with colored cereal. Ask your child to sort the pieces by color and count them. Then have them string the cereal on yarn to make a necklace.

DIY Science Lab

Create your own science lab mixing station with several see-through plastic containers of any shape and size. Fill some containers with dry ingredients, such as baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar or cornstarch, and fill others with wet ingredients, such as water, white vinegar, lemon juice or ice. Lay towels down or set the ingredients up outside, so you can have fun without worrying about cleaning up. Supervise your preschoolers experimenting with what happens when different ingredients are mixed.

In the Kitchen

While baking cookies, have your children help measure the ingredients, count the scoops of flour and discuss what different ingredients do or what happens if you don’t use the correct measurements.

– Sarah Lyons