Some of the best learning happens right at your kitchen table with a cardboard box, a few toilet paper rolls, and a big imagination.
STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. While those words might sound like they belong in a high school classroom, the truth is that STEM learning starts long before school. Every time your preschooler builds a block tower, pours water between cups, or asks “why does it rain?”, they’re already thinking like a little scientist.
Here’s why STEM activities matter for your child’s development, and some simple STEM activities for preschoolers you can easily create at home.
Why STEM Matters for Preschoolers
Young children are natural explorers. They want to touch, test, pull apart, and put back together. STEM activities give them a safe and structured way to do that while building skills they’ll use for the rest of their lives.
Through STEM play, preschoolers develop:
- Critical thinking and problem solving. When a tower falls down, your child figures out why and tries again with a different approach.
- Curiosity and confidence. Experimenting freely teaches children to take initiative, trust their own ideas, and embrace the joy of discovery.
- Language and communication skills. Describing what they see, predicting what might happen, and explaining their thinking builds rich vocabulary and conversation skills.
- Fine motor coordination. Cutting, threading, stacking, and pouring all strengthen the small muscles needed for writing and drawing.
- Early mathematical thinking. Sorting, counting, measuring, comparing sizes, and recognising patterns lay the groundwork for more complex maths concepts later on.
These are the foundations of lifelong learning, and the earlier children start building them, the more confident and capable they become as they grow.
How STEM Connects to the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF)
In Australia, early childhood education is guided by the Early Years Learning Framework, which outlines five key learning outcomes for children from birth to five years. STEM activities touch on almost all of them.
Outcome 1: Children Have a Strong Sense of Identity
When a child successfully builds a ramp that makes a ball roll faster, or mixes colours to create a new one, they feel a sense of achievement. STEM activities help children see themselves as capable learners who can make things happen. That confidence becomes part of how they see themselves in the world.
Outcome 2: Children Are Connected With and Contribute to Their World
STEM encourages children to observe the natural environment around them. Collecting leaves to sort by size, watching ice melt in the sun, or planting seeds in a recycled container all help children feel connected to the world they live in and develop a sense of responsibility for it.
Outcome 3: Children Have a Strong Sense of Wellbeing
Working through a challenge, whether it’s figuring out how to balance blocks or how to stop water from leaking out of a container, builds perseverance and emotional resilience. Children learn that it’s okay to try, fail, and try again.
Outcome 4: Children Are Confident and Involved Learners
This is the outcome most closely linked to STEM. It covers curiosity, problem solving, experimentation, and the transfer of learning from one situation to another. When your child discovers that a heavy object sinks in the bath, then tests other objects to see if they do the same, that’s scientific inquiry in action.
Outcome 5: Children Are Effective Communicators
STEM activities are rich with opportunities for language. Children learn to describe, question, predict, explain, and reflect. Whether they’re telling you what they think will happen when you add vinegar to baking soda, or drawing a picture of the bridge they built, they’re practising communication skills across multiple forms.
10 Easy STEM Activities for Preschoolers Using Everyday Items
Everything you need for these activities is already in your home. Raid your recycling bin, open a kitchen cupboard, and you’re ready to go.
1. Cardboard Box Challenge
You’ll need: A cardboard box (any size), tape, scissors, small toys or figurines
What to do: Give your child a box and challenge them to turn it into something. A house for their toys? A car? A tunnel? Let them lead the design and help with cutting if needed.
What they’re learning: Engineering and design thinking. Children plan, build, test, and modify their creation. They also work through spatial awareness as they figure out how things fit together.
EYLF link: Outcome 4 (problem solving and creativity) and Outcome 1 (building confidence through achievement).
2. Toilet Roll Marble Run
You’ll need: Toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, tape, a wall or large piece of cardboard, marbles or small balls
What to do: Cut the rolls in half lengthways to make channels. Help your child tape them to the wall or a propped up piece of cardboard at different angles. Drop a marble at the top and see if it reaches the bottom.
What they’re learning: Physics and engineering. Children experiment with angles, gravity, speed, and cause and effect. They’ll quickly figure out that changing the angle changes how fast the marble moves.
EYLF link: Outcome 4 (testing ideas through trial and error) and Outcome 5 (describing what happens and predicting results).
3. Kitchen Sink or Float
You’ll need: A large bowl or sink filled with water, a collection of household items (spoon, cork, coin, leaf, plastic lid, small rock, piece of fruit)
What to do: Before placing each item in the water, ask your child to guess whether it will sink or float. Then test it together.
What they’re learning: Scientific observation and prediction. This introduces the concept of density in a hands-on way and builds the habit of forming hypotheses and testing them.
EYLF link: Outcome 4 (inquiry and experimentation) and Outcome 5 (using language to predict and describe).
4. Rainbow Walking Water
You’ll need: Six glasses or jars, water, red/yellow/blue food colouring, paper towels
What to do: Fill three glasses with water and add a different primary colour to each. Arrange all six glasses in a circle, alternating full and empty. Fold paper towels into strips and place one end in a full glass and the other in the empty glass next to it. Wait and watch as the coloured water “walks” up the paper towels and mixes in the empty glasses.
What they’re learning: Absorption, capillary action, and colour mixing. This is a slow experiment that also teaches patience and observation.
EYLF link: Outcome 2 (understanding how the physical world works) and Outcome 4 (observing cause and effect over time).
5. Egg Carton Sorting and Counting
You’ll need: An empty egg carton, small items to sort (buttons, pasta shapes, pebbles, dried beans), a marker
What to do: Write numbers in the bottom of each egg carton cup. Ask your child to place the correct number of items in each section. You can also sort by colour, size, or type.
What they’re learning: Counting, number recognition, classification, and one to one correspondence. This is foundational maths in a format that’s easy for small hands.
EYLF link: Outcome 4 (mathematical thinking) and Outcome 5 (using symbols and numerals to communicate).
6. Build the Tallest Tower
You’ll need: Recycled materials like boxes, toilet rolls, plastic cups, egg cartons, tape
What to do: Challenge your child to build the tallest tower they can. Talk about what makes it strong or wobbly. What happens if they use a big box at the bottom instead of the top?
What they’re learning: Structural engineering and balance. Children experiment with stability, weight distribution, and height while developing persistence.
EYLF link: Outcome 3 (perseverance and resilience) and Outcome 4 (testing ideas and solving problems).
7. Shadow Drawing
You’ll need: Small toys or figurines, a sunny spot, paper, pencils or crayons
What to do: Place a toy in the sun so it casts a shadow onto the paper. Have your child trace the shadow. Come back an hour later and trace it again. Talk about why the shadow moved and changed shape.
What they’re learning: Science concepts around light, shadow, and the movement of the sun. This also introduces early ideas about time and measurement.
EYLF link: Outcome 2 (connecting with the natural world) and Outcome 4 (exploring and investigating).
8. Bi-Carb Soda Volcano
You’ll need: Bi-carb soda, vinegar, a container (cup, bottle, or moulded playdough volcano), food colouring (optional), a tray to catch the mess
What to do: Place the container on the tray. Add a few tablespoons of bi-carb soda and a drop of food colouring. Let your child pour in the vinegar and watch it erupt.
What they’re learning: Chemical reactions and cause and effect. Children see that combining two ingredients creates something entirely new, which is a powerful introduction to scientific thinking.
EYLF link: Outcome 4 (curiosity and enthusiasm for learning) and Outcome 5 (expressing wonder and excitement verbally).
9. Nature Scavenger Hunt and Sort
You’ll need: A bag or basket, items found in your garden or local park (leaves, sticks, flowers, rocks, seed pods)
What to do: Go on a walk and collect natural items. Back at home, sort them by colour, size, texture, or type. Count how many of each you found. Arrange them into patterns.
What they’re learning: Classification, observation, patterning, and counting. This also nurtures an appreciation for the natural environment.
EYLF link: Outcome 2 (exploring and caring for the environment) and Outcome 4 (sorting, comparing, and patterning).
10. Cardboard Tube Binoculars and Backyard Safari
You’ll need: Two toilet paper rolls, tape or a stapler, string (optional), stickers or paint for decorating
What to do: Tape or staple two rolls together side by side. Decorate them, then head outside for a backyard safari. What can your child spot? Encourage them to describe what they see, count how many insects or birds they find, and talk about where the animals might live.
What they’re learning: Observation, descriptive language, counting, and an understanding of living things and habitats. This blends science with outdoor play and storytelling.
EYLF link: Outcome 2 (connecting with nature) and Outcome 5 (using language to describe and share discoveries).
Tips for Keeping STEM Play Easy and Enjoyable
If you’re new to STEM play at home, keep these things in mind.
Follow your child’s lead. If they want to use the marble run pieces to build a robot instead, let them. The learning is in the process, and wherever their imagination takes them is exactly where they need to be.
Ask open ended questions. Instead of “that’s a nice tower,” try “what do you think would happen if we added another block to the top?” or “why do you think that one fell down?”
Embrace the mess. Water play, baking soda explosions, and paint mixing are messy by nature. Lay down a towel or take it outside and let your child explore freely.
Celebrate every attempt. Every answer is a good answer in STEM play at this age. A tower that falls is just as valuable as one that stays up because your child learns something from both.
Keep sessions short and playful. Preschoolers have short attention spans. Ten to fifteen minutes of focused play is plenty. If they’re still engaged, keep going. If they’ve lost interest, wrap it up and come back to it another day.
How We Bring STEM to Life at Kiddie Garden
At Kiddie Garden in Parramatta, STEM is woven into everyday play and learning. Our educators draw on the Reggio Emilia approach, which sees children as capable, curious learners who thrive when they’re given the freedom to explore, experiment, and express their ideas in their own way.
That means STEM at Kiddie Garden looks like children building structures with recycled materials, investigating how water moves through sand, mixing colours to see what happens, and asking endless “what if” questions that our educators love to explore alongside them. Every experience is guided by the Early Years Learning Framework, so whether your child is counting seed pods in the garden, experimenting with ramps and wheels, or figuring out how to make a bridge strong enough to hold a toy car, they’re building skills across all five EYLF learning outcomes.
We believe children learn best when they feel supported, inspired, and free to follow their curiosity, and that’s exactly the environment we create every day.
Want to see STEM play in action? Book a tour of our Parramatta centre and see how your child’s love of learning comes to life at Kiddie Garden.