Get your elementary students buzzing with excitement to learn about science from day one! Our selection of back-to-school science activities and experiments (plus free downloadables) can help you build essential skills, such as collaboration, problem-solving, and critical thinking. These skills are vital for success in the classroom and beyond.
First-day-of-school science activities
Try these 9 first-day-of-school science activities and experiments with your elementary students. Some of these activities can be done over a whole day or broken up over multiple days.
Activity 1: Make shade on a sunny day (Grade K)
Key standard: Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
Key standard: Use tools and materials provided to design and build a structure that will reduce the warming effect of sunlight on Earth’s surface.
Summer vacation might be over, but fall hasn’t yet arrived. In some places, temperatures are still high in August and September. Ask your students: Where can you find shade on a hot, sunny day? Before students investigate this phenomenon further, explain how trees, buildings, and other structures can protect us from the sun’s heat and light. Then, have them work together to plan a way to make shade and build it using construction paper, tape or glue, craft sticks, safety scissors, and crayons. Students will understand how shade provides protection by placing one rock under the shade and another directly in the sun.
Activity 2: Brainstorm inventions (Grades K–2)
Key standard: Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
Key standard: Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.
Brainstorming is a great way to inspire creativity. Here’s an activity that allows students to brainstorm pet inventions. Your students can let their imaginations fly as they think of ways to make their pets’ lives easier or more fun. Don’t worry—they don’t need a family pet to participate. Only imagination!
What you need
- Paper (lined and unlined)
- Markers or crayons
What to do
- Give your students an example of a real pet invention, such as the “doggie door,” a small door in the bottom of a larger door that allows a pet to go outside and come back in freely.
- Brainstorm with them a list of inventions. Here’s one to get started: There’s no telling how far your pet frog will leap when it bounces off the Froggy Trampoline. And Mom will love that it’s small enough to fit in your closet when your frog is sleeping.
- Divide your students into groups of three. Ask each group to come up with one invention. One student in the group writes a paragraph describing the invention, another draws a picture to go with the description, and the third student presents the group’s invention to the rest of the class.
If your students enjoy participating in this science activity, consider taking it a step further by holding an invention convention at your school to allow them to share their ideas beyond the classroom. What will your students invent?
Activity 3: Explore change (Grade 3)
Key standard: Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
Students will experience so much change throughout the year. Why not connect that theme to science? In this activity, students investigate the following phenomenon: Organisms change throughout their lives. By studying the growth of the multiple types of seeds, students will discover how organisms change in different ways.
The seeds should sprout in approximately 7–10 days, and each week after that, as the plants grow taller and leaves form, students observe them. Students should note their observations of the plants’ growth, including the different ways the various types of seeds grow. Observing the growth of the plants also acts as an ideal opportunity for students to reflect on the growth they’ve experienced so far.
Activity 4: Go on a science scavenger hunt (Grades K–5)
Key standard: Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties.
A scavenger hunt can help familiarize students with science. For this activity, you can have students list items in and outside of the classroom that relate to science and share what they find with one another. Here are examples of what students can include on their list.
Find something:
- That has a pattern in the natural world
- That’s solid
- That’s liquid
- That’s opaque
- That’s transparent
- That sinks in water
- That floats on water
- That’s recyclable
- That doesn’t decompose
- That melts at room temperature
Activity 5: Use shapebook pattern worksheets (Grade K–5)
Key standard: Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
Older students use evidence notebooks in the science classroom; however, it’s never too early to prepare younger students to do the same. Evidence notebooks allow students to record observations and predictions, write new vocabulary, make sketches to express what they see and think, and write questions. Our shapebook pattern worksheets allow students to write their science observations and questions as they explore the world around them. Students can use these worksheets as they complete science activities or experiments throughout the school year.
Here’s a take-home assignment you could give your students to encourage them to use their worksheets:
What you need
- Shapebook pattern worksheets
What to do
- Introduce your students to the following sentence starters in class:
- When I look up, I see . . .
- When I look down, I see . . .
- When I look left, I see . . .
- When I look right, I see . . .
- Tell them they should go outside and look in those directions and observe what they can see of the natural world outside of class hours. To complete the sentence starters, they should write what they saw (for example, a bird, a tree, a bug, and weeds).
Activity 6: Conduct a milk soap rainbow experiment (Grades K–5)
Key standard: Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties.
Key standard: Conduct an investigation to determine whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances.
Here’s an exciting 90-second science experiment to prepare students that learning sometimes gets a little messy. Before starting this activity, ask students: How does soap change the properties of milk? Using milk, food coloring, and dish soap, students experiment with surface tension and chemical change. This lesson is an excellent way to teach states of matter, properties of matter, attractive forces, and surface tension. Watch the video below to get started.
Activity 7: Do a water sketching activity (Grades K–5)
Key standard: Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties.
Key standard: Make observations and measurements to identify materials based on their properties.
For this 90-second science experiment, ask students: How can you draw on the surface of a liquid? Using dry-erase markers, glass, and water, students experiment with the properties of cohesion and adhesion. This hands-on experiment is a great way for students to explore the properties of matter. Watch the video below to get started.
Explore all our 90-second science activities to use throughout the year!
Activity 8: Design a listening device (Grade 4)
Key standard: Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
Key standard: Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
Have students think about a computer or another technology they use every day. Ask: What problems does it solve? How has it been improved over time? Tell students the work of an engineer is to develop technical solutions to meet people’s needs.
In this first-day-of-science-class activity, students investigate how engineers design solutions to problems that meet criteria and constraints. Using everyday items like paper cups, string, and tape, they’ll design and test a nonelectric listening device that might enhance a nature walk. This activity could inspire students to create their own variation of the device—another potential candidate for an invention convention!
Activity 9: Discover plants’ needs for growth (Grade 5)
Key standard: Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.
Just like us, plants don’t just grow on their own and need a bit of support. In this two-part science activity, students explore the investigative phenomena that plants gain weight and grow when they can produce food, and that plants need water, nutrients, and air to grow. Not only do students learn more about growing plants, but by the end of the process, you’ll potentially have plants to display in your classroom throughout the year.
More back-to-school science experiments and activities
Another way to prepare your students for the rest of the year is by discussing what scientists do, the skills scientists use, and the ways we use science in our daily lives. We hope you enjoy these ideas, whether you complete them on the first day of class or any other day. Share your back-to-school science experiments and activities with us via email at shaped@hmhco.com or reach out on Instagram.
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Looking for hands-on science lessons and activities for Grades K–5? Explore HMH Into Science, a phenomena-based science solution.
This blog, originally published in 2021, has been updated for 2025.
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