1st and 2nd Grade Life Science Activities

Create a three-dimensional X-ray of your child's hand in this simple modeling activity. All you need to get started are black paper and drinking straws

Roasting pumpkin seeds makes for a great Halloween activity, and a healthy snack!

Teach your child about healthy foods and how to make a meal that is good for them with this fun activity that you both can do together.

Make some easy homemade yogurt with your young scientist, and see what a few 'live' bacteria can do in the right conditions!

In this design thinking activity, your child will choose an animal to research, learn about the animal’s habitat, and then replicate the animal's habitat using household items.

The concept of metamorphosis is fascinating to children of all ages. Help your child's creativity take flight as she makes her very own butterfly life cycle.

This snowman's not abominable, he's adorable! Your child can bring her very own snowman to life while practicing how to create texture.

This recipe makes bubbles that not only blow up nice and big, but do tricks and experiments! How do you do it? It's not a secret, it's science!

This second grade arts and crafts activity is all about caterpillars emerging from their cocoons as butterflies.

Create a soda bottle garden that defies gravity! This hanging terrarium is housed in a soda bottle and perfect for crafty kids with a growing green thumb.

Children are imaginative story-builders. Create a shoebox habitat with your child to put those budding creative instincts to good use.

Use simple items to create a kindergarten "grow box" that lets a kid see just how salad plants send down their roots and grow underground.

Learning about how plants grow is a building block in the early grades science curriculum. Put a fun twist on this life science concept with these cup monster friends!

Inspire your child to learn about an amazing animal as she creates her very own polar bear habitat.

Make edible amber fossils with your second grader to explore the fascinating world of science!

Check out this silly game that will put your kid's animal habitat knowledge (and acting skills) to the test.

Create a habitat for a butterfly right in your own backyard, and build your first grader's science knowledge while you're at it.

Create a mini plant habitat with your kid to help teach him what it takes to make an ecosystem work.

This experiment works due to a simple principle: plants need light. Build a shoebox maze and watch the plant work though the obstacle course, searching for sun.

Introduce your child to the importance of preserving the world's biodiversity by turning a lesson on endangered species into a fun game for the whole family.

This activity works well with a group or just with a parent and child, and it can make a great party game since it's both fun and inexpensive.

Here's a fun math and science activity: help your child explore four different kinds of measurement, using their hand and a few simple household tools.

Give your local birds a treat — and your young birdwatcher some fun — with this simple DIY bird feeder.

Here's a first grade ladybug game that explores how air can move solid objects, and adds some measurement practice, too. Play, learn, and enjoy!

This activity provides a solution to all those leaves on your doorstep, while also giving your child a fun science lesson.

This science fair project idea demonstrates that plants give off water.

Forget store-bought dyes this Easter: color your Easter eggs with natural dyes made with ingredients from your own kitchen in this 1st grade activity.

Help your young learner discover why the insects that a spider eats stick to its web but the spider doesn't.

The fish most kids see is usually filleted, and it's hard to see how it came from a lake or sea. This cool gyotaku activity blends life science with art!

Grow a garden with an environmentally-friendly twist by using plant scraps that usually get thrown away.