Activities That Nurture Curiosity at Home
Each activity below is low-prep, hands-on, and designed to spark curiosity by encouraging children to ask questions, make discoveries, and have fun. Perfect for grades K–5. Happy exploring!
Mystery Bag Challenge
🛠 Materials: Brown paper bag, a mystery object
👀 How it works: Place an unusual object in a bag. Have kids reach in (no peeking!) and use their senses to describe what they feel. Then they draw or guess what it is before revealing it.
💬 Encourage: “What do you notice? What else could it be?”
Invent a Toy
🎲 Materials: Cereal boxes, tape, scissors, markers, rubber bands
🤖 Task: Challenge kids to invent a toy using only scrap materials.
💬 Prompt: “What can this piece be? What would make your toy more fun?”
Sink or Float?
🌊 Materials: Bowl of water, small household/food items
🧪 Task: Make predictions, then test whether each item sinks or floats.
✍️ Add-on: Create a chart to track results.
💬 Ask: “Why do you think this one floats but that one sinks?”
Guess the Sound
👂 Materials: Household items in containers (shaking rice, paper crinkling, tapping spoon)
🧠 Task: Kids listen and guess what made each sound.
💬 Ask: “What clues did you hear? Could it be something else?”