Kindergarten STEM Early Finishers | 36 Picture Activities | No Reading Required
Turn extra classroom minutes into meaningful, hands-on STEM learning with 36 picture-based early finisher activities designed for Kindergarten students ages 5–6. No independent reading is required. Instead of filler work, students build, count, sort, draw, test, improve, and collaborate through simple challenges that take approximately five minutes.
The resource pairs with the Kindergarten STEM Full-Year Curriculum and can also be used independently.
What’s Included- 36 picture-based STEM activities
- 6 Build Something activities
- 6 Count Something activities
- 6 Sort Something activities
- 6 Draw Something activities
- 6 Try Again activities
- 6 Help Someone activities
- Picture choice menu
- Six labeled categories for organization
- Clear visual finish lines
- Approximately 5-minute activities
Students follow a simple routine:
Finish your work → Pick a card → Do the activity → Put everything back.
The picture menu can be displayed at child height, while the cards are organized into six labeled tubs. The categories provide different types of purposeful activities:
- Build Something: Towers, bridges, chairs, houses, and rolling paths
- Count Something: Blocks, steps, cups, towers, and classroom objects
- Sort Something: Objects by properties such as floating/sinking, magnetic/non-magnetic, or shape
- Draw Something: Plans, inventions, animals, weather, and classroom creations
- Try Again: Fixing, strengthening, improving, and retesting designs
- Help Someone: Cooperating, listening, sharing, solving problems, and encouraging classmates
Students develop foundational STEM and classroom skills through:
- Building and engineering with familiar materials
- Purposeful counting and comparison
- Sorting and classifying by properties
- Observing and testing materials
- Making simple predictions
- Planning through drawing
- Designing simple inventions
- Improving designs after testing
- Problem solving and persistence
- Collaboration and communication
- Sharing materials and following routines
The activities are accessible, hands-on, independent, and meaningful for young learners. Picture-based directions make the resource suitable for children who are not yet independent readers, while short activities provide realistic opportunities for independent work.
The Try Again category develops persistence and encourages children to view mistakes as part of the design process. Help Someone also supports cooperation, listening, sharing, problem solving, and positive peer interactions.
With a child-friendly picture menu, six labeled categories, and short five-minute challenges, this resource provides a simple classroom system for turning early finisher time into purposeful STEM exploration all year.
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A bundle is a package of resources grouped together to teach a particular topic, or a series of lessons, in one place.
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K - 5 STEM for Early Finishers Bundle | Full-Year Engineering Activities
K–5 STEM for Early Finishers Bundle | 236 No-Prep Activities + a Complete Early Finisher System for Every Grade 236 hands-on STEM activities across Kindergarten through 5th Grade, each with a clear finish line — plus the choice boards, bin labels, recording booklets, and class trackers that turn "I'm done, what now?" into a routine students run themselves. Every activity uses materials already in your classroom and ends with something visible: a number, a measurement, a graph, a drawing, or a structure that works. Set-up takes about 20 minutes per grade. After that, the routine is four steps — choose a card, do it, record the result, put the card back — and it runs all year. What's Included Six grade-level early finisher systems (158 pages, 236 activities): Kindergarten STEM Early Finishers (36 activities, 28 pages) — six picture-based categories with no reading required: Build Something, Count Something, Sort Something, Draw Something, Try Again, Help Someone. Child-height picture choice menu and six tub labels. 1st Grade STEM Early Finishers (40 activities, 26 pages) — Build It, Measure It, Data It, Think It, Draw It. Choice board, recording booklet, My Best Build and My Best Data reflection pages, class tracker, five bin labels. 2nd Grade STEM Early Finishers (40 activities, 26 pages) — Build It, Measure It, Data It, Investigate It, Explain It. Same system; adds fair tests, controls, and claims from evidence. 3rd Grade STEM Early Finishers (40 activities, 26 pages) — Build It, Measure It, Analyse It, Investigate It, Argue It. Adds variables, outliers, replication, and claim–evidence–reasoning. 4th Grade STEM Early Finishers (40 activities, 26 pages) — Build It, Measure It, Cost It, Compare It, Argue It. Adds budgets, percentage change, and untested assumptions. 5th Grade STEM Early Finishers (40 activities, 26 pages) — Build It, Measure It, Optimise It, Interpret It, Communicate It. Adds trade-offs, decision matrices, diminishing returns, flowcharts, and pseudocode. How the System Works Each grade includes four ready-made setups — pick the one that fits your room: Finished Shelf: one bin per category, cards on rings Choice Board: students tick off activities and work toward a row Category of the Week: open the one category that matches your current unit Must-Do, May-Do: assign one targeted card, then allow free choice One management rule holds the whole thing together: the card goes back on the ring before another one comes off. Every card from 1st Grade up carries a "You're Done When" line, so students know what finished looks like without asking. Kindergarten uses picture cards and a picture menu instead. What Students Practice, K–5 Building, counting, sorting, drawing, and helping a friend (K) → measuring in cm and m, simple graphs, sequencing and debugging (1st) → fair tests, controls, multiple trials, claims from evidence (2nd) → variables, typical values, outliers, replication, CER (3rd) → costing, budgets, percentage change, measurable criteria, untested assumptions (4th) → optimization, trade-offs, decision matrices, ratios, procedures another person could follow (5th). The Kindergarten set also has a Help Someone category — build together, listen, share, tidy, say something kind — so early finisher time builds classroom habits as well as STEM ones. Format 6 PDF files, 158 pages total Print once on cardstock, laminate, and organize on rings or in bins Choice board, recording booklet, two reflection pages, class tracker, and bin labels at every grade from 1st up; picture menu and tub labels at K Materials are everyday classroom supplies Teaching duration: 1 full school year per grade Early Finishers vs. Task Cards — Which One? Both are short. The K–5 STEM Task Cards Bundle is skill practice with answer keys — 80 cards per grade in eight skill sets, good for centers, small groups, and homework where you want to check the work. This bundle is an independent-time system — fewer cards, a self-managing routine, recording built in, and a finish line on every card so students can decide for themselves when they're done. Many classrooms use both: task cards in the center, early finishers on the shelf. The weekly engineering challenges are in the K–5 STEM Challenge Cards Bundle, the student recording pages in the K–5 STEM Journal Bundle, and the unit capstones in the K–5 STEM Projects Bundle. Teacher lesson plans are in the K–5 STEM Curriculum Bundle, and everything together is the K–5 STEM Mega Bundle. Every early finisher set works on its own — no other purchase needed. Why Buy the Bundle Six sets bought separately cost $23.94. This bundle is $16.76 — and gives a STEM specialist or a whole elementary building one early finisher routine that looks the same in every classroom from K to 5. Choose a card. Do it. Write the number. Put it back.
$16.76
Bundle
Kindergarten STEM Bundle | Full-Year Engineering Activities
Kindergarten STEM Bundle | Full-Year STEM Curriculum | Engineering Activities, Projects, Task Cards & More Make STEM learning fun, hands-on, and easy to plan all year long with this comprehensive Kindergarten STEM Curriculum Bundle! This collection gives young learners multiple opportunities to explore engineering, solve problems, build ideas, and develop creative thinking through age-appropriate STEM activities. With a full-year STEM curriculum, picture cards, STEM journals, projects, task cards, early-finisher activities, and substitute plans included, this Kindergarten STEM Bundle gives teachers flexible resources for STEM instruction, enrichment, independent learning, and classroom coverage. What's Included This bundle includes 7 kindergarten STEM resources: • Kindergarten STEM Curriculum — 36 weekly challenges across 6 units • Kindergarten STEM Picture Cards — 60 picture-based cards for pre-readers • Kindergarten STEM Journal — 108 drawing-and-labeling recording pages • Kindergarten STEM Projects — 18 hands-on build projects • Kindergarten STEM Task Cards — 60 picture-supported skill cards • Kindergarten STEM for Early Finishers — 36 no-prep challenges with choice board • Kindergarten STEM Sub Plans — 12 emergency lessons with substitute scripts Together, these resources provide multiple ways to introduce, explore, practice, document, and extend STEM and engineering learning throughout the school year. How It Works in the Classroom Use this Kindergarten STEM Curriculum Bundle for: • Daily or weekly STEM instruction • Whole-group STEM lessons • Small-group activities • STEM centers and stations • Engineering challenges • Hands-on projects • Picture-supported STEM learning • STEM journals and reflection • Task card activities • Early-finisher enrichment • Substitute teacher plans • Flexible STEM exploration Use the curriculum for structured STEM learning, picture cards to support visual learning and discussion, projects for hands-on exploration, task cards for shorter activities, and journals for recording student thinking. Standards & Learning Goals Students develop foundational STEM and engineering skills through age-appropriate exploration, including: Engineering Design • Identifying simple problems • Brainstorming possible solutions • Designing and building • Testing ideas • Observing results • Making improvements Problem-Solving • Exploring different solutions • Thinking creatively • Making choices • Trying new strategies • Learning through hands-on discovery STEM Thinking • Observing and investigating • Asking questions • Making predictions • Exploring materials and designs • Connecting STEM concepts to everyday experiences Communication & Reflection • Sharing ideas • Describing designs • Explaining solutions • Recording learning through pictures and writing • Reflecting on STEM experiences Why Teachers Love It * Uses common classroom and recycled materials — full materials list included * Journals use drawing, labeling, and dictation, not written responses. * Complete kindergarten STEM resource collection * Seven complementary STEM resources in one bundle * Full-year engineering activities * Multiple formats for flexible STEM instruction * Picture cards support visual and language-rich learning * Encourages creativity and problem-solving * Includes hands-on projects and engineering activities * Provides meaningful early-finisher options * Includes substitute teacher plans * Works for whole-group, small-group, centers, and independent activities * Saves valuable planning time Instead of searching for different STEM resources throughout the year, teachers can use this Kindergarten STEM Bundle as a flexible resource library. Pull out a picture card for discussion, use a task card for a quick challenge, complete a hands-on project, or use the curriculum for structured STEM instruction. Download Today Add this Kindergarten STEM Curriculum Bundle to your classroom and give young learners a full year of opportunities to explore, create, build, test, and problem-solve! Whether you need a structured STEM lesson, a visual learning activity, a hands-on project, an independent task, an early-finisher activity, or a substitute plan, this bundle gives you flexible STEM resources for the school year.
$42.00
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