Science Activities for Two-Year-Olds

Grouping Objects

• Two-year-olds are interested in sorting and grouping items or stacking different sizes of things. Stacking rings or nesting cups are a good activity for 2-year-olds. They may struggle to figure out how to put them in order, but they will eventually get it---and learn about sizes and shapes in the process. You also can give them an assortment of objects (not so small that they can choke on them) and show them how to group them. For example, they could sort toy animals by color or put all the square blocks and circle blocks in different baskets. Do this with four or five objects at the most, so the children don't lose interest from overload. You can make your own fun science activity for 2-year-olds by cutting animal and plant shapes from foam or cardboard and playing with them to help the children differentiate between plants and animals.

Properties

• Observation is a cornerstone of science, and 2-year-olds are just beginning to observe their world and understand the things around them. They are unlikely to be able to describe their observations in detail, but you can help them learn words to describe physical properties, such as wet, dry, hot, cold, dark, bright, loud, quiet, hard, soft, heavy and light. Do this through activities like playing with water, using a light switch, holding and lifting objects, and making noises with them. Two-year-olds learn through repeated actions, so doing these things over and over will yield understanding. One activity always popular with toddlers is to securely tape Bubble Wrap to a hard floor and let them walk, roll and dance on it to pop the bubbles. This helps them learn about correlating actions with consequences---and is fun besides.

The World

• A 2-year-old is usually interested in household and other animals and will start to learn their parts, such as nose, tail, legs and ears. Simple wooden puzzles of animals labeled with parts are a good activity to help with this concept. Children can do the same with plants, learning that leaves are different from flowers and trunks are different from branches. They can also learn their own body parts, which can be taught with a fun game like singing "Head and shoulders, knees and toes." See the Resources section for a description and lyrics if you don't know them. Two-year-olds also begin to learn about the weather, noticing when it is raining or snowing and making connections with it, such as lightning happening when it rains or needing snow boots when it has snowed. You can help them learn more about these observations with a daily routine of looking out the window together and having them say what the weather is like today. Or, take a picnic blanket outdoors on a partly cloudy day and lie on your backs describing the clouds and identifying shapes in them. Include the other things you see, too, like birds or trees.