20 EYFS science experiments and activities

With so many EYFS science activities to choose from out there, it can be hard to find the right activities for your children and your early years setting.

You need activities that are open-ended enough to follow child interests, while still provoking fascination, curiosity and wonder about the big wide world.

That’s why we’ve scoured the internet to find the perfect EYFS science experiments for young children. These activities are particularly stimulating because they’re short, they provide a dramatic reaction, and the children are able to grow their understanding of the world by learning through play.

The activities are also designed to be cost-effective, drawing on common household items as the key ingredients. They’re also simple to demonstrate and perfectly safe under supervision.

Done right, these experiments should come with lots of discussion during the activity to help your children think about what’s happening, why it happens this way, and how it can help us. With any luck, the fascination children experience will also provoke plenty of questions and new interests which you can follow up on in your continuous provision to keep it child-focused.

1. Have fun with physics with this float-or-sink investigation.

Float or Sink by Happy Hooligans

This simple science experiment:

This classic experiment is a boat-ally interesting investigation into buoyancy, with just a few simple supplies. Bring out a tray of water and a mix of different items (some that you know will float and some that you know will sink). Hold up each item in turn and have the children share their ideas about whether the item will float or sink. Then pop it in the water and talk to the children about what's happening. Don't forget to introduce science vocabulary as you go.

To mix things up, why not try different liquids?

What you need:

• A bucket of water (preferably transparent)
• A variety of items, some of which may sink and which will float

2. Make collaborative chemical reactions with this magical milk science activity

Magic Dancing Milk by Mess For Less

This simple science activity:

Turn milk into dancing, colourful art! You’ll need a shallow dish, such as an empty pie dish or baking tray. Submerge the bottom by pouring room-temperature milk into it. Add a few blobs of food colouring (the children can do this part) and then hand each child a toothpick dipped in dish soap (washing-up liquid). Now watch the colours dance! Scientific concepts don't have to be complicated - what's happening is a chemical reaction, but easy science experiments like this one make it simple... and so much fun!

What you need:

• A shallow dish or tray (foil trays are fine)
• Food colouring
• Milk
• Toothpicks
• Dish soap

3. Grow to love learning with this bean-based science project

Growing Beans On Cotton Balls by The Imagination Tree

This easy science experiment:

As EYFS science experiments for kids come, this one couldn't be easier. However, while science activities with instant and dramatic effects are always a winner, this one will test the children’s patience (which can help to build focus and concentration later on)! All you will need is a few balls of cotton wool, five or six beans, a jar, and a little water for each child. Place the cotton balls in the jar, moistened, with the beans resting snuggly in the wettest parts and set them somewhere with plenty of light.

Remind the children to check on their seeds every day and make sure the cotton wool is never dry. This teaches children simple scientific concepts such as plants needing water and light to grow.

After a few days, a sprout will emerge. Once there is a root, the children can carefully plant their delicate seedlings in the garden and marvel as it grows.

What you need:

• Cotton balls
• Dry beans
• A jar
• Water

4. Demonstrate capillary action with colourful celery in this STEM activity

Why Do Flowers Change Color in Food Colouring? by Go Science Girls

This colourful science activity:

Simple science activities don't come much more simple than this! You’ll need only the most basic supplies - three cups containing water with a different colour food dye in each, and some celery. Red, blue, and dark green food colouring usually gives the most visual effect. Add a celery stick or a white flower to each cup and wait for the change! The capillaries carry water up through the plant, clearly shown with the help of the food colouring - talk about real STEM activities!

What you need:

• 3 celery sticks or 3 white flowers
• 3 different shades of food colouring
• Jars with water

5.Water simple activity! A cool way to introduce the water cycle

Cloud In A Jar by Fun Learning For Kids

This simple science experiment:

Ok, it not the most accurate scientific method, but this easy experiment demonstrates very simply why it rains. Explaining that clouds are actually tiny droplets of moisture rather than solid, puffy, cushions can be a little challenging!

Using a glass of water to demonstrate “sky”, create a cloud to hover at the top by using shaving cream. Now, use a medicine dropper or a pipette to drip little droplets of food colouring into the cloud. Eventually, the food colouring will seep through the cloud to demonstrate rain.

What you need:

• A jar of water
• Blue food colouring
• Shaving cream (or shaving foam)
• A medicine dropper or pipette

6. Discover the rainbow with this explosive experiment

Rainbow Eruption by Learn, Play, Imagine

This colourful science activity:

A science experiment with simple ingredients and an impressive result is always a win when considering fun STEM activities. This is a twist on the traditional baking soda and vinegar experiment, where a 'volcano' is created by the chemical reaction between these two ingredients. Start by lining up a few paper cups, each with its own food colouring – red, yellow, green, blue and a mixture of red and blue (to make purple). Add a scoop of baking soda and then pour in a little vinegar. There you have it – it’s magic (or science)!

What you need:

• Paper cups
• Different shades of food colouring
• Baking soda
• Vinegar

7. The simple science of soap

Why We Use Soap by Life With More Babies

This Early Years science experiment:

Simple science concepts are all around us, even in daily routines like hand-washing. This easy science experiment demonstrates the cleaning power of soap and offers children a better understanding of why it’s so important. Place milk in a shallow dish, a few centimetres deep. Add a few splotches of fine glitter – you can use many colours or just one or two. Using a toothpick with soap on it, place the soap in the middle of the glitter and, like magic, the “germs” (the glitter) will disperse! This experiment demonstrates how soap cleans the germs from our hands.

What you need:

• Milk
• A shallow dish
• Fine glitter
• Toothpicks
• Soap

8. Discover a disco - a fun way to explore a chemical reaction

Dancing Worm Activity by Living Life And Learning

This simple science activity:

You’ll need a glass of warm tap water with three tbsp baking soda stirred in - this is your worm disco. You’ll also need a glass of white vinegar, gummy worms, and utensils like an empty glass, a spoon for stirring, and a knife or scissors. Carefully chop the gummy worms and add them to your glass of warm water with bicarb and stir again, then leave it to rest for 15 minutes.

After the allotted time, ask the first little scientist to take a gumy worm from the water and drop it into the glass of vinegar – there will be a dramatic pause before they start to dance around.

Top tip: tell the children that dancing worms no longer taste good – just in case there are any sneaky fingers.

What you need:

• Warm tap water
• 3 tbsp baking soda
• A glass of vinegar
• Gummy worms
• Empty glass
• Spoon

9. Calling all Early Years engineers: test this brilliant bubble machine!

Make a bubble machine by Engineering Emily

This fun science activity:

Hands on learning really is the best when it comes to simple science experiments. This is one of the easiest EYFS science experiments for you to prepare out of all the ones we’ve chosen. The paper cup bubble machine activity demonstrates how increasing air pressure in a container can have really cool effects. This experiment requires only the very basics- bendy straws, paper cups, duct tape, water, and dishwashing liquid or some other foaming liquid (like bubble bath). Place the straw through the cup somewhere near the bottom and use the duct tape to seal the hole. The soapy water should submerge the straw in the cup – and voila – it’s ready for blowing bubbles! This experiment is probably one for the older children only, as you don’t want a budding scientist to test sipping instead of blowing!

What you need:

• A bendy straw
• A paper cup
• Duct tape
• Water
• Dishwashing liquid or bubble bath

10. A real 'hands-on' engineering experiment to create a robot hand

DIY Robot Hand By Kaplan

This simple Early Years science activity:

No robot science kits needed here, just good old bendy straws and construction paper! This STEM activity is ideal for children from the age of three as it's a little more fiddly that some of the others. Trace a hand shape onto the construction paper and cut hand outline out with scissors - depending on ages and stages, the children can make their own. Cut the straws into smaller pieces and tape them onto the hand, and one onto the wrist (follow the picture for guidance). Next, cut five strands of string pieces long enough to thread all the way up each finger and knot one end of each piece. Thread one string through each finger and all the strings through the straw at the wrist. Next, have fun playing with the robot hand!

What you need:

• Paper
• Pens
• Straws
• String

11. Microwave ivory soap

Ideal for ages:
Two and up

In a nutshell:
You’re never too old to be amazed when a bar of soap expands to six times its size! Use this science experiment for toddlers to explore different sensations because the soap starts as a solid, firm object and turns into a fantastic, soft, fluffy mess.

What you’ll need:

• Bar of Ivory soap (do not try this with any other brand of soap!)
• Microwaveable dinner plate
• Microwave

How to do it:
Start by feeling the soap, ask the children if it’s hard or soft, small or big. Take the soap out of its packaging and place it on the microwave-safe dinner plate, in the microwave. Set the cooking timer for a minute or two at most. Peep through the window of your microwave if you can and watch as the soap expands and expands. Once it’s fluffy, open the microwave door and give the soap a minute to cool down before you and the children feel it and play with it. Encourage the children to find new words to describe the soap now that it’s expanded.

Image credit: Happy Hooligans

12. Sensory snow fluff

Ideal for ages:
Two and up

In a nutshell:
This experiment is great for both older and younger children. The younger children will find the sensation of the snow outrageously fun to explore, whereas older children will find it interesting to learn about how the different ingredients interact with each other to create snow.

What you’ll need:

• 1 cup of corn starch
• 1 cup of shaving cream
• Food colouring

How to do it:
Place the cornstarch in a bowl and dollop the shaving cream on top of it using a spoon. For a splash of fun, add a few drops of food colouring to the bottom and stir everything together. The mixture will feel a bit like grated cheese and at this point -get the children to help you squeeze it to mix it. It will form a ball, similar to a ball of dough. If it’s too crumbly and won’t stick together, add some shaving cream. If the doughy ball is too sticky, add some cornflour. Eventually, it will take on the exact texture of snow. Try sculpting a snowman, make a snow fort, or just enjoy the feeling between your fingers.

Experiment credit: Science Fun

13. Grapes into raisins

Ideal for ages:
Three and up

In a nutshell:
Sometimes, the greatest discoveries lie in the most basic of life’s everyday events – like a raisin becoming a grape! This is a great science experiment for toddlers. Use it to talk about time and how everything around usages. When we can control how that happens, we can create a whole new food. This experiment isn’t edible, it’s just for the sake of learning.

What you’ll need:

• Grapes
• A bowl

How to do it:
Place a few grapes on a plate and keep them somewhere that’s likely to get an even temperature. Prepare the children for a long wait – this is an experiment they can keep track of for a few weeks. Get into a habit of looking at the grapes at the same time each day, like first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Notice the grapes and how they change; they’ll change and get a few wrinkles. Also, notice their size and how they shrink away. In the end, when you have perfect raisins on the plate, celebrate by opening a packet of store-bought raisins to snack on!

Image credit: Happy Hooligans

14. Orange fizz

Ideal for ages:
Two and up

In a nutshell:
Something exciting happens when you mix something acidic, like oranges, with something alkaline, like baking soda. If your little ones are too young to understand the science behind this, the fizzing will be exciting enough for them! This science experiment is a great way to see how different compounds create an exciting effect when they’re mixed together.

What you’ll need:

• An orange or clementine
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

How to do it:
Slice the oranges or cut them into wedges. Dip the slice or wedge into the baking soda, then put it into your mouth. The fizzing bubbles will feel similar to drinking a fizzy drink. You can explain to older children that the bubbles are made when the acidity of the orange mixes with the baking soda and forms carbon dioxide bubbles. It’s completely safe and quite tasty!

Activity credit: Science Fun

15. Bubble snake

Ideal for ages:
One and up

In a nutshell:
This experiment is endless fun for the whole family. It introduces science in a fun and engaging way that doesn’t feel educational at all.

What you’ll need:

• An empty water bottle (choose one you won’t mind cutting)
• A sock (the sock will also be cut)
• Dish soap
• Water

How to do it:
Cut off the bottom of the water bottle and slide the sock over the side you’ve just cut. Pull the sock over the entire bottle so that the sock is completely stretched in its full shape it should fit snugly over the cut side. If it doesn’t, use an elastic to get it tighter over the bottle. Mix about half a cup of water with a tablespoon of dish soap (don’t worry too much about getting those exact amounts). Dip the side of the bottle that is covered with the sock into the bubble mixture and blow into the top end of the bottle-you should now have snake-shaped bubbles galore!

Image credit: One Little Project

16. Ramps and friction on the slide

Ideal for ages:
3 and up

In a nutshell:
This activity will be fun for toddlers of all ages, but toddlers from three and up will grasp the physics slightly better than the younger ones! It’s a fun way to explore one of the basic laws of science – gravity. Children love to roll things down slides, and this is the perfect opportunity to sneak some extra learning in there.

What you’ll need:

• Slide
• Various objects (pinecones, sticks, and rocks, or small toys)
• Stopwatch or timer on your phone (optional)

How to do it:
Find a few items you can safely roll down the slide, like a pinecone, some pebbles, a scarf or something you brought from inside the house. One person can climb to the top of the slide while the other stays at the bottom (accompany small children who are at risk of falling). Roll each item down the slide, one at a time, and count together to measure how long it takes to reach the bottom. You could use a stopwatch, but this is a great opportunity to practice counting too. Once all the objects have had their turn to go down the slide, talk about why some items went faster than others – it’s because of friction that creates resistance. Talk about why the smooth scarf will reach the bottom a lot faster than the objects that are chunkier and pricklier.

Image credit: Buggy and buddy

17. Storm in a glass

Ideal for ages:
2 and up

In a nutshell:
Clouds, a dark looming sky, and a clear view of it all happening; a storm in a glass is an exciting experiment for young scientists. It shows them exactly what happens when clouds get too full of water, and why that means it has to rain.

What you’ll need:

• Shaving cream
• A large glass
• Water
• Food colouring
• A spoon

How to do it:
Fill up the glass – half with water and half with shaving cream.Smooth the shaving cream using the back of the spoon so that it creates a flat layer. In a separate glass, combine 10 drops of food colouring with half a glass of water – this will be your rain. To create the storm, use a spoon to put the coloured water onto the ‘clouds’, one spoonful at a time. Slowly, the shaving cream clouds will fill up and release the rain. Explain to the children how this works: the shaving cream is the cloud and it holds onto the water perfectly. As more and more water weighs down the shaving cream, it gets heavier. After a while, it can’t take any more water and it creates rain, just like a real rainstorm.

18. Dissolving eggshells science experiment

Ideal for ages:
Two and up

In a nutshell:
This science experiment for toddlers is a great STEM exercise for a tactile and visual experience. The different liquids show just how our outcomes can change. Some of the liquids will show no change in the egg, while others will be quite dramatic. It’s a great chance to talk about what the liquid is and why it does or doesn’t break down the eggshell.

What you’ll need:

• 2-4 clear glasses
• 2-4 eggs
• Water
• White wine vinegar
• Coke
• Orange juice
• Paper towel
• Pencil and Notebook (to write down observations)

How to do it:
Add each liquid to its own glass (the coke, vinegar, water, and orange juice). There should be enough to submerge the egg once it’s in the glass. Give your little scientist the chance to place an egg gently into each glass. Now your little one can cover the glass with a small cloth (this part is optional, but some children like to “put things to bed” when there’s waiting involved) and leave it to stand for 24 hours. After 24 hours have passed, take each egg out and lay them down side-by-side for comparison. What does your scientist observe? Most likely you’ll find that the egg that was in vinegar has no more shell, just the membrane holding it together. It will also look larger than the others, this is because it has started to absorb the liquid it was submerged in because its shell was no longer sealing it. Talk about why the egg is bigger, and what they notice about the other eggs.

Image credit: Blue Bear Wood

19. Magic milk experiment

Ideal for ages:
Two and up

In a nutshell:
Learning about primary colours is exciting when you get to see the patterns and swirls of red, green and blue as they interact with each other. It’s more of a magic trick than a science experiment, but it’ll go down an absolute treat with the little ones.

What you’ll need:

• Milk
• Liquid food colouring
• Dish soap
• Q-Tip or cotton swab

How to do it:
Pour the milk into a flat, wide dish (a pie dish works well). Add a few drops of food colouring to the milk – why not try using the primary colours to make it even more educational. Make the blobs of colour far from each other so that they don’t touch. Dip a q-tip into some dishwashing soap and use it as a magic wand by swirling it in the milk where you have blobs of colour. The soap will repel the colourant, creating patterns in the milk. It won’t be long before all the colours combine with each other.

Image credit: Hands On As We Grow

20. Garden experiment

Ideal for ages:
Three and up

In a nutshell:
Each tiny seed has a story. Germination is the start of a journey that is really fun to watch. This experiment helps children to understand how important sunlight, water, and the right climate for seeds to grow, and for plants to thrive.

What you’ll need:

• 3 small jars
• Potting soil
• Water
• Ice
• Small flower seeds

How to do it:
Start by placing ice cubes in one jar, water in the second, and soil in the third. Count out your small flower seeds and divide them equally into three parts, this is a fun opportunity to practice counting carefully together. Put each equal part of seeds into each of the three cups. Place the ice cup in the freezer, the water cup in the sink away from sunlight, and the cup with soil in a window sill, remembering to water it when the soil looks dry. We checked each of our cups of seeds after a week. As you can imagine, the only cup with seeds that germinated was the cup with soil.

Image credit: Engineer to SAHM