10 Free Stem Activities For 1st Graders

Are you looking for fun and exciting STEM activities for 1st graders?

Beginning first grade is a significant milestone for our children and sometimes an emotional one for us as parents.

We might at times feel overwhelmed by emotions, especially when these educational milestones for our kids highlight challenges they have already overcome successfully. Our kids are growing up, and it is happening fast.

Elementary school is starting and there is no doubt that first grade plays a fundamental role in our children’s educational journey. The foundation for academic achievement begins as early as first grade, making it our responsibility to assist our children in transitioning successfully from the playful environment of preschool to the more structured learning of formal schooling. 

But who said this transition needs to be boring?

So, you may be wondering how we can best support our children as they embark on this ‘new’ academic adventure. A simple and exciting answer is STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) activities and projects.

As parents, we should first and foremost prioritize understanding our children’s feelings toward learning. Once we grasp their sentiments, it’s crucial for us to shift into a supportive role, ensuring they reach their fullest academic potential based on their capabilities.

Now, this is where STEM enters the picture for your 1^st Grader.

STEM is an approach to learning that integrates the four domains of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This method offers a comprehensive educational experience and will ensure that young students engage fully in their learning.

STEM activities emphasize hands-on learning with real-world relevance. This will help your child acquire the essential skills they will need for the 21st century.

The best part is that your 1^st grader will genuinely enjoy learning, eagerly awaiting school each day. Making education enjoyable for them guarantees that your child maintains a positive attitude toward learning, fostering a lifelong love for knowledge. And as Thomas Jefferson loved saying, “Knowledge is power.”

Why Include 1^st Grade STEM Activities in Your Lesson Plans?

First Grade might already appear to be scary to your child. Why should the process of learning new subjects and vocabulary add to that intimidation? 

STEM education goes beyond school subjects.  It focuses on building curiosity and developing essential skills. This is exactly what a 1^st Grader needs at the beginning of their school journey. A ton of reasons to love and enjoy learning.   

These Science activities and experiments are designed with you the parent or teacher in mind.  They are easy to arrange, swift to execute, and incredibly enjoyable. 

Many materials required for these 1st grade STEM activities are either freely available or inexpensive items you can easily find at home.  So there is really no excuse not to use these activities to expand children’s perspectives and to encourage them to explore beyond their everyday curriculum.

These little curious young minds will absorb every word and lesson. Ensure you make the best of each teaching opportunity by incorporating it into your lesson plans.

What are the Benefits of Incorporating STEM Education Into Your First Grader’s Learning?

How much time can you spare? Kidding, of course! But there are so many incredible advantages to using these first grade STEM activities and projects that I could truly go on and on.

For me, a cherished highlight is the quality bonding time with my child as we delve into his learning. Moreover, the complete enjoyment of STEM activities can spark a child’s curiosity, encouraging their creativity and innovative spirit.

STEM education will also greatly benefit your child as it covers critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, curiosity, decision-making, leadership, entrepreneurial skills, and understanding and accepting failure as a way to improve and move forward.

As mentioned already, another one of the benefits of STEM education is it will prepare your child for real life and the ever-changing world we live in.  They will learn the skill of teamwork which they most likely will encounter in their chosen career one day.

Speaking of careers, STEM education also offers a platform to promote equality in education as it instills a lifelong passion and interest in subjects that they can pursue as a career eventually.

Before we get started with our favorite STEM activities for 1^st Graders, don’t forget to check out our STEM Made Easy Digital Subscription where you can get exclusive project guides and resources delivered right to your email inbox every month!

10 Free Fantastically Fun STEM Activities For 1^st Graders

Here are some of our absolute favorite first grade STEM activities…

1. Gratifying Smoking Dragon STEM Activity for Kids

Blowing smoke, o’ yes, we are! Find me a child who isn’t captivated by dragons and the allure of magic. Doing this super fun and easy STEM activity with your 1^st Grader will truly feel like MAGIC!

Dry ice has always been a wonder, captivating me even as a child. This engaging STEM activity enlightens children about the states of matter and teaches them about the chemical process of sublimation. Constructing this fire-breathing dragon not only incorporates various STEM disciplines, but it’s also an excellent way to introduce the engineering design process and get the arty kids excited while also stimulating their critical thinking skills.

Don’t like dragons?  Not a problem.  This activity can also easily be modified into an old car that blows out smoke, a house with a smoking chimney, a smoking volcano, or anything that you think is smokingly cool.

Read more: Gratifying Smoking Dragon STEM activity

2. Fizzy Lemonade Edible Science Experiment

What is more delicious than a cold refreshing lemonade on a scorching summer day? A cold bubbly and fizzing lemonade.

Introduce your child to the basics of ‘acids and bases’ with this simple chemistry lesson while letting them explore taste as a tool for understanding chemical reactions.  Now, we’re not saying it is going to taste spectacular (unless you really love a bitter taste in your mouth), but it certainly will look fantastic.  The best part of course is that you can rest assured that nothing bad will happen when your 1^st Grader eats up the experiment. Wink, Wink.

So next time life gives you lemons, think STEM and make lemonade with this edible science experiment.

Read more:  How to Make Fizzy Lemonade

3. Soda Mentos Rocket

Physics and Math are often two words that will make a child of any age sigh deeply, especially a 1^st Grader, as they are only getting to grasp these concepts.

That is if they don’t have awesome parents like you that expose them to fun STEM activities to make learning extremely enjoyable.

In one of our all-time favorite explosive experiments, your child will construct their very own Soda Mentos Rocket resulting in a huge BANG when chemicals react to one another.  No better excuse than to get the kids outdoors, and, as a bonus, spares you any indoor clean-up afterward. It’s a win-win situation.

Read more:   How to Build a Soda Mentos Rocket

4. Elephant Toothpaste

Did you know that an elephant goes through six sets of four molars in its lifetime?  Given all the digging, lifting objects, gathering food, and bark stripping they do, they probably need a substantial amount of toothpaste to maintain those teeth in good health.

I am pretty sure that is the perfect reason for your 1^st Grader to jump right in and start making the ultimate toothpaste for elephants. This STEM activity is so easy and fun. Your child will see how the chemical reaction of hydrogen peroxide combined with soap and food coloring creates a big foamy substance that resembles toothpaste shooting out of a tube.

Read more:    Elephant Toothpaste

5. DIY Spectroscope

A Spectro what? I know, Science can be daunting with these big words but as we embark on our STEM journey your 1^st Grader will in no time have a Science vocabulary that will impress even the GP.

With this brilliant STEM activity, your child will learn about light and enjoy beautifully colored rainbows.  They will be able to easily make this scientific instrument to study the properties of light of an object, and how it is broken down into different wavelengths (the different colors of a rainbow).

Read more:  STEM Homemade Spectroscope

6. Floating Boats

What I cherish most about integrating STEM into my lessons is the flexibility of the activities and the consistent inclusion of diverse disciplines in my child’s educational journey. This experiment is the perfect example of an all-season activity, bounded only by the limits of one’s imagination

Letting your child experiment with different materials to craft their own boat will in turn teach them about buoyancy and gravity. This diverse Science activity can be jazzed up in several ways.

My child and his friends particularly enjoy it when I place a few coins in each boat, challenging them to see whose boat remains afloat and earns them the money. A sneaky way to get those problem-solving skills working.

Read more:   Floating Boats

7. Edible Slime

Ah, slime! It’s that one thing most parents aren’t too thrilled about, given its messy nature. It always ends up in places it shouldn’t, like Dad’s sofa, the fancy carpet, or the back of my favorite jeans.

Some house rules may say “No playing with food.” And some households may have banned their kids from having slime but luckily rules are meant to be broken, or at least bended a bit. Food is one of the things that makes most of us happy.  How convenient for your child that this fun STEM activity where they make their own slime is totally edible.  It’s a winning combination with so many variations for you to explore.

Read more:  STEM Edible Slime Activity

8. Dancing Corn STEM Activity

Whether you want to teach your child about state of matter or density, this activity is guaranteed to leave your 1^st Grader completely mesmerized with the continual up and down motion of the corn.

By adding baking soda to vinegar a chemical reaction forms and creates a wow moment for your child. It is such a great way to build on children’s natural curiosity and encourage critical thinking.

Read more:  Dancing Corn STEM activity

9. Walking Water Science Experiment

“Never stop chasing rainbows.” What a beautiful quote, and it resonated deeply with many of our wonderful STEM endeavours, including this particular one.  This STEM activity is bound to be a hit as it bursts with vibrant colors.  It’s sure to enchant your 1st Grader and the entire family, serving as both an educational tool and a visual delight.

Your child will explore ‘Capillary Action’, an occurrence where a liquid moves up through a solid medium. The water moves upward seemingly defying gravity thanks to the water and the fibers in the paper towel attraction to one another.

Read more:  Walking Water Science Project

10. The 100 Cup Challenge

Fascinated by skyscrapers and high buildings? Does stacking objects spark your enthusiasm?  Does your child thrive on competition, or do they prefer to work through a project at their own pace? No matter the answer, there is no right or wrong with this activity.  This wonderful STEM activity is perfect for every 1st Grader.  It is so simple that it will boost their confidence as they explore and play independently with their cups.

This STEM project is appropriate for every child and undeniably taps into critical thinking, math, and engineering skills for its completion. With its massive adaptability, this straightforward activity can be tailored to suit the diverse cognitive levels of your children.  It is also fun to redo this challenge throughout the year to observe how your 1^st Graders thinking and STEM abilities improved.

Read more:  100 Cup STEM Activity Challenge

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For more exciting experiments and fascinating STEM activities for kids of all ages, sign up for our STEM Made Easy Digital Subscription. Every month, you’ll get an email with a collection of curated hands-on STEM project blueprints along with some accompanying resources and worksheets, helping you create fun-filled learning tasks in no time at all.

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