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Playful And Mindful STEM At Home And In Nature
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Tag Archives: stem activities for kids

STEM Nature Box: Sort, Categorize, And Learn

We live in an apartment in the city but are lucky enough to have a terrace we fill with green! Our home is full of easy-to-care for plants and even random beans and lentils that sprout because our daughter plays with them outside. We make sure to bring nature into our life even when living in the city because it is so important for children (and us adults too). Tending to plants is a lovely way to connect with nature with your children. We water the plants together, deadhead them too (work on scissor skills), we even repot plants together, try to grow cuttings and plant lentils and beans. These last ones are great! They grow really fast and you can use them in nature activities like the one I will explain below. It is the perfect activity to learn about plants and to sneak in some STEM skills through play! So read on to find out how to create your own STEM Nature Box.

nature stem activity

Easy STEM Nature Box Activity

You can separate this activity into two so that you can have your kids happy and entertained twice! 

Preparation

If you live close to nature go for a nature walk and collect all sorts of plants and flowers. Pull some out with the roots if you can. If your kids are into it don’t limit it to gathering plants, include sticks, pinecones, stones… The activity will focus on plants but it can include other things too! 

If you live in the city and don’t have a chance to get to nature easily don’t worry! You will have to do some planting first, wait for it to grow, and then go ahead with the activity. Even if you have nature close by, gardening and planting seeds is great to do with children. You can use this later in the activity to remind them of how plants grow and they will love seeing that little green sprout coming out of the soil. So go ahead and plant beans or lentils as soon as you can so you can eventually do the activity. You won’t get any flowers but you will be able to pull the plant out and check the roots out!! 

STEM Nature Box

The idea behind this activity is that you are preparing food for animals in a STEM Nature box. You can stick to just plants in the box or you can add anything to it. We added lentils and oats and even shells that we had collected from the beach.

nature stem activity

Materials

  • Plants
  • Tray to put the plants before sorting them (optional)
  • Additional “food”: sticks, stones, dry food such as lentils or oats
  • Box (we used an old wine box but any shoe box will do)
  • Scissors
  • Animals, dolls or toys that will be “fed”

Once you have collected all the wonderful natural materials lay them all out on a tray and see if your kid is interested in preparing food for the animals. My daughter loves farm animals and feeding them so this was a perfect activity for her and it kept her entertained for a long time! At this point you can do two things:

  • Invite them to feed the animals and let them do it their own way
  • Guide the activity

It’s really up to you and kids really learn through playing and exploring. Check out The Do’s And Don’ts of Free Play: A STEM Perspective for more information. With my 3-year-old, I just let her organize and separate with minimal guidance. As she separated we talked about what she was doing and I showed her the different parts of the plants and that was enough. Having said this, if you want to guide the activity a bit more here are my suggestions:

stem nature box

Sneak in some STEM:

  • Get your kids to separate the different parts of the plants into leaves, stems, roots, flowers and make different piles in your box for different animals. By doing this your kids are practicing sorting, organizing and categorizing and learning the different parts of the plant. 
  • Have some nature talks: Remind them how you planted the beans/lentils and you watered them and they eventually grew into plants. You can ask them things like  “which part of the plant do you think was in charge of taking in the water?” “How long was the stem before the leaves started to grow?” 
  • Once you see the activity is coming to an end you can ask them again what they fed each animal (stems, leaves, flowers, roots?) 

By handling the plants with their hands, having planted them beforehand, you are giving your child the chance to really experience the world they live in. And by turning it into a game of “feeding the animals” they are learning through play. Talking and asking questions while they play, or once they are done will get them to reflect on how plants grow and will reinforce a way to look at things (by categories).

nature stem activity

We talked about the different parts of the plants. We observed how some leaves were brown and talked about why. She even referred to the roots later on and said “the doggie likes roots” and picked some out for the toy dog. Once the sorting was done, my daughter decided she wanted to put food in a bowl so she brought out some plastic containers and we made a soup together by adding water! Creating a wonderful messy and sensory experience!! Let them guide the playtime now and just enjoy and explore with them.

More Fun Activities and Games:

  • String Rainbow Art Project: Explore Shapes With String
  • Water Use Experiment: Teach Kids About Saving Water
  • Movement and 5 Senses Scavenger Hunt
  • Stay At Home Discover: Fun Ways To Use Straws
  • Stay At Home Math: Fun Games For Movement And Learning
  • STEM challenge: The Tower of Random Things
  • Sensory STEM jello experiment 

Happy STEM learning!

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STEM Experiment: Scientific Method Float or Sink Activity

Oh the scientific method! Such a structured way to exploration but so helpful when taking on a big scientific project. Scientists and researchers use this method when trying to answer questions about our world. Following the scientific method allows researchers to have a guide that helps them organize all the information. Because let’s face it, nowadays the information at our fingertips is so huge! With this STEM experiment, you can help your children get an understanding of using the scientific method in a fun and educational way.

**Check out our Simple Science Project For Kids: Float or Sink for a simple play-based version of the Float or Sink experiment! Perfect for younger kids or if you are looking for a less structured activity.**

STEM experiment Scientific Method

Having a tool like the scientific method is very useful. And introducing it to your kids will help them with problem-solving and analytical skills. It will give them a way to structure their thoughts when problems arise. It also shows them to take their time to think about the problem and analyze different perspectives before choosing the best solutions.

Some Background Information

The scientific method is used by scientists to structure their research and make the process of discovering something more efficient and effective.

The steps to the scientific method are the following:

  1. Question
  2. Research
  3. Hypothesis
  4. Experiment
  5. Analyze
  6. Conclusion

As you can see, there are many steps before starting any experiment. By researching and writing down your hypothesis first you will be able to set up the perfect experiment to answer the question. You will also have some background knowledge that will help you when doing the experiment.

STEM experiment Scientific Method

STEM Experiment: Let’s find out the Answer to…

The Question

So here is a question for your children:

Why do you think things float or sink?

They probably have some ideas and answers for this. Encourage them to write down their original thoughts so that you can compare them once you are done with the STEM experiment.

Here you can find a free printable to fill out as the experiment goes on.

Time to Research

Research is usually done by reading and reading and more reading of scientific papers, journals and relevant material. We are not going to do this 🙂 We will move the research along by asking our kids some questions. So let’s get your kids brain to work a bit:

  • Think of objects that float/don’t float, what are they made of? How big are they?
  • Do you float in water? Can you make yourself float more or less? (By filling your lungs with air and holding your breath you will float more)
  • Show them a list of materials, do you think materials matter?
  • Show them different sized objects or images of objects, do you think size matters?
  • What other things do you think affect the ability of an object to float or sink?

Write down a Hypothesis you want to test

Now that you have brainstormed about why an object floats or not you can make a hypothesis or more than one! But first, what is a hypothesis?

  • A hypothesis is an idea or explanation for something that needs to be proved
  • A hypothesis tries to answer the question of your research (in this case, why do things float or sink?)
  • A hypothesis is proved through experiments and testing

Some ways you can express your hypothesis:

  • Things made out of _______ float/sink
  • Things that are ___________ float/sink
  • Floating depends on ______________

Time to test those Hypotheses

Once you’ve made a hypothesis, ask your child how you could test it. Here are a few examples of experiments you could do with them but feel free to come up with your own!

First step in any experiment is to gather the materials you are going to test and any tools you might need. For any experiment you are going to need:

  • Objects to test (different sizes, materials and shape)
  • Water, in a bucket, in the sink, in the bathtub, in a small outdoor pool
  • Paper and pencil to write down your findings

Ways you can experiment and make your children think about the hypotheses:

  • Categorize the objects you have collected and test their floating ability by pairs:

           ○ same material, different size

           ○ same material, different shape

           ○ same size, different weight

  • Get plastic containers and fill them with different materials and test the floating capabilities, for example:

          ○ empty container

          ○ container filled with cotton (what happens when cotton gets wet?)

          ○ container filled with sand

          ○ container filled with water

          ○ container filled with sticks

          ○ container filled with coins

          ○ container filled with stones

  • Do the same with a glass container

There is a list of materials and object ideas in the guide for inspiration. Let them experiment and play 🙂 there is no rush to finish the activity! Don’t forget to write down your findings so you can analyze them later!

Let’s analyze those Resultats

Now it’s time to look back on your STEM experiment and the results to see if your hypothesis was correct. You can ask the hypothesis back in question form and see if the results support it! Other questions you can ask to discover why certain objects float:

  • Does wood/plastic/metal/stone float?
  • Does shape or weight matter?
  • What containers could float? Which ones would sink? What was inside of them?

Conclusion Time

So did you find out why things float? Did you test your hypothesis? Did you get some fun ideas about other things you could test with this method? Did more questions pop up as you experimented? Welcome to the STEM world! The questions never end 🙂 and this is oh so important for your children to experience. How to answer questions using the scientific method is a must in the STEM world. If you want a more detailed answer to why things float you can download the printable guide, there is an explanation at the end. But I’m sure that you will have a pretty good idea about the answer from all that scientific experimenting you will do 😉

So to finish up the activity you can talk about what you discovered and if there are more things you would like to research together. If you have any topics you would like me to cover just comment below and I’d be happy to write a post about it in the future. I hope you enjoyed this activity and had fun experimenting and discovering how our world works.

For more information about STEM and how to transform your STEM activities at home, check out these posts:

  • 5 tips to transform STEM activities at home
  • What is STEM and why is STEM learning important?

Check out other fun STEM activities to sneak in some STEM learning:

  • STEM activity: Build a pyramid and learn about shapes
  • STEM project: Engineer a house out of natural materials
  • STEM challenge: The Tower of Random Things
  • STEM water play: 8 fun activities to try this summer
  • STEM Road Trip Experiment

Happy STEM learning!

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Hi! We are Anni and Stefan, a mix of engineering with a dash of education and a pinch of social work, blended together and turned into parents who have a passion for creating lightbulb moments. We want to help you bring STEM learning into your home in a way that is fun, educational and challenging enough so that children can develop their thinking skills. ♥

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astemfulmind

Anni | STEM + Nature Learning
Where will the marble roads take you? 🚗🚦🚧 Where will the marble roads take you? 🚗🚦🚧 🧱
One day we set out to make some mazes or marble runs with clay. I thought my kids would each want to do their own but it ended up being a team project and I'm so glad it went that way! Our project turned into Marble city, with roads and many more fun things along the way. 
I drew a road with a start and a finish, a few loops here and there and some intersections so that they could cover it with clay. And then I just let their imagination take the lead. The beauty of open-ended activities and resources is you never know where it will take you. There were trees, mountains, tunnels, bridges and even stop lights! And after it was created there was imaginative play, role play and a lot of marble traffic!
It was fascinating to observe my kids build a world from clay and other resources we had around the house. The process of building it was play and then that play was extended and transformed by actually playing in the world they created 🧡
It is also definitely something that can be done outside. We did it out on our terrace but I'm excited to try it out in nature where there are even more open-ended resources!! 🌿🌰🍂🌸🪨
Learning new things ✨🥰 I have started a new Learning new things ✨🥰
I have started a new journey, training to be a Forest School Leader. I am not exactly sure in which direction it will take me but it was something that felt right. 
The ethos of Forest school and the role of the reflective practitioner just resonates with me, the outdoor, simple and slow child-led playful learning community. It is what I try to do with my own children and it's wonderful to extend and consolidate everything that I have learned over the last years into something that will serve me and my family as well as other families with children. 
I am very excited to show you how I adapt the Forest School practice to my parenting. We have already created some pretty cool indoor shelters, hammocks for dolls with ropes and cloth, and continue to use our natural materials for child-led experiments and activities. I am also learning to observe my children better and reflect on their needs and interests, which is key to their holistic growth and development.
Hope you find this as inspiring as I do and follow along for some reflections and of course for the nature play and wonder 💚🧡
The wonder of simple experimentation ✨ When you The wonder of simple experimentation ✨
When you let the child lead you never know what will happen. Sometimes nothing really happens, and that's ok too. But then there are times when you bring out some materials and "tools", add a bit of water and you suddenly have a full on experiment station on your hands!
I saved some pumpkin seeds from a pumpkin I had baked, thinking they might come in handy some time. I didn't have anything in mind, but when my 5-year-old said she wanted to do an experiment I offered them to her. 
She directly asked for water to check if pumpkin seeds sink or float. So we gathered water, some containers and a few extra tools (just some kitchen utensils). Turns out some actually sink and others float! We discussed why this might be happening and then I asked her if she thought she could find a way to separate them with the tools we had… this led to some critical thinking, some trial and error and a lot of experimentation and conversations. She was engaged, on a mission, and she had initiated the experiment herself. 
💜 I love watching these moments unfold and they just further convince me that experiments don't need to come with flashy reactions, or bright colors. They can be simple, like this one. Experiments should make us think, tickle our minds with questions about what we see and drive us to test possibilities that will reveal answers, solutions or rethink our questions. And childhood is full of moments like these if you look close enough.
The art of noticing the small details 🐚✨ A s The art of noticing the small details 🐚✨
A simple activity with natural materials and a magnifying glass. I just set this up on the table and we started looking at each material and paying attention to what we could see. It made us think and wonder about patterns, irregularities and just other things we might not notice otherwise. 
We learned to pay attention to details and that things might look different depending on how close you look. And these observations lead to questions and these questions lead to a search for answers, discovery, learning. 
And all it takes is a magnifying glass and some nature 🤎🧡
DIY OOBLECK BLOCKS 🧱🌽💧 These Oobleck blo DIY OOBLECK BLOCKS 🧱🌽💧
These Oobleck blocks are so easy to make and were a perfect addition to our dry Oobleck play as it gave us the chance to build structures and create small worlds. 
Materials you'll need:
🌽Cornstarch
💧Water
🧊Ice trays
🧘‍♀️Patience
To prepare the Oobleck you mix 2 parts cornstarch to 1 part water. If you have never tried Oobleck you are in for a fun treat! It is a great sensory experience for kids and really engaging as it behaves both like a solid or fluid depending on the pressure it's under. 
Once you are done experimenting with Oobleck try filling some ice cube trays with it and then let it dry (it can take some days, which can be tricky for little kids but is also a great opportunity to practice patience).
❗A lot of ours cracked and broke so make sure you prepare enough. We made 3 trays.
🧱 That's it! We crushed some of the broken blocks and used the other ones to create, nurturing some STEM skills through play. 
For more ideas for STEM and nature play follow along!
"If children are to keep alive their inborn sense "If children are to keep alive their inborn sense of wonder… they need the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in." Rachel Carson
These words truly resonate with me.
Sharing the path of learning and discovery with our children is so beneficial and not only for our kids. It is so positive for us too! It reawakens our inner child, our own sense of wonder. It allows us to slow down, to play. 
We explore together, we seek out the answers to our questions, we experiment and play, we struggle to find solutions, we persevere and through these experiences we learn. About the world, about each other, about ourselves, giving us the chance to bond over something beautiful.
👉 Follow along for inspiration on family activities that nurture curiosity and drive learning
Have you ever let Oobleck dry? ☀️ Letting Oob Have you ever let Oobleck dry? ☀️
Letting Oobleck dry is the best way to clean it up but it also gives you the chance to use it again in a different way. 
I like to leave it in a tray or cooking pan so it spreads out and dries faster. Once it's dry you can just poke it and scrape it out.
It crumbles and cracks nicely between your fingers and has a lovely texture that my kids (and I) really enjoy.
You can keep it dry or combine it again with water to get the gooey, slimy, and fascinating Oobleck back.
👉 I'm also testing a different way to use dry Oobleck so make sure you stay tuned!
DIY STONE STACKING GAME 🌈🪨 Stone stacking h DIY STONE STACKING GAME 🌈🪨
Stone stacking has many benefits, for both kids and adults. It encourages patience, creative processing, concentration, focus, and hand-eye coordination. We love doing this when we are outdoors and in nature, it gives us a moment to stop and relax. 
This simple DIY is inspired by all those stone stacking moments and adds a bit of a challenge to nurture those skills even more. 
👉 This is how we prepared it:
We collected stones and selected 6 of them for the game, we painted them using acrylic paints, and borrowed a color dice from one of our board games. If you don’t have a color dice just add stickers to a normal one.
👉 How we played:
Players take turns to roll the dice, find the stone that matches the color and place it on the stack. 
🌈 It’s pretty simple, but it adds a new layer to simple stacking, as you navigate having to put bigger and heavier stones on top. It also encourages problem solving, conversations and observations which are key drivers of learning. 
💫 For more simple nature and STEM play you can take outdoors and that nurtures learning make sure to follow along
Motherhood is definitely reawakening my childlike Motherhood is definitely reawakening my childlike curiosity and wonder 💫🌱🦴 
As we were on one of our nature walks one day we found some animal bones in the forest and our reaction was… wow!! Let’s take them home! After packing them in a bag, we decided it would be a good idea to clean them before examining them.
A quick google research revealed that we could use hydrogen peroxide to clean and whiten the bones. Gloves on and to work!
With great care we handled the bones and the hydrogen peroxide, saw the fizzy bubbles come out and observed the reaction (a bit of chemistry at play here!) We talked about what was happening and about the bones themselves, how they are different from ours, what type of animal they could be from according to their teeth (herbivore?) and a lot more.
This process of curiosity, hands-on exploration and discovery is a key part of childhood. Children are naturals at this, and if we follow along and support this process who knows what amazing things we might discover together. What is certain is that by exploring together like this we are nurturing their natural curiosity, cultivating a love for discovering new things and giving them the tools to drive their own learning. 
Never would I have thought that cleaning bones would turn into a great hands-on learning experience. But I have learned that following my children usually leads to moments of discovery like this.
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