Science Explorers Play Lab
Free Science-Themed Sessions for Nurseries in 2025. These sessions have now ended.
Please note these sessions are no longer available to book.
Exciting, hands-on learning delivered right to your setting – at no cost to you!
In 2025 we were thrilled to offer Science Explorers Play Lab – a series of fun, creative, and curiosity-sparking science sessions designed especially for early years settings.
Each session was around 1 hour long and delivered to one full class or group. Sessions were completely free to your nursery, with all costs covered by Bradford 2025.
These interactive sessions bring science to life through play, nature-based activities, and hands-on discovery.
Nature Pictures
Children ventured outside on a ‘mini nature adventure’ to collect leaves, sticks, flowers, and other natural treasures. Back indoors, they used their findings to create beautiful collages and nature prints.
While creating, they explored:
- Shapes, colours, textures, and patterns
- Counting, symmetry and reflection
- Curiosity about the natural world: Who lives here? What do plants need to grow?
These sessions immersed children in nature – from leaf collecting to paint printing, they explored their environment and expressed it creatively!
Junk Modelling
This creative session explored recycling through play. Children learned about different materials, why we recycle, and how they can help protect the environment – all while building their own sculptures from recycled items.
They investigated:
- Materials: hard/soft, shiny/dull, bendy/stiff
- Sorting and identifying recyclable items
- Simple concepts around climate change and environmental care
Children gained an understanding of why recycling is important, how and why we recycle, all while turning junk into masterpieces!
Forces & Motion
An energetic, messy, and fun-filled session! Children used cars, marbles, pendulums, and even balloons filled with paint to create dynamic, large-scale artwork – all while exploring the science of movement.
They discovered:
- Push, pull, gravity, speed and direction
- Scientific vocabulary in action: fast, slow, spin, bang!
- Cause and effect through experimentation
Children gained an understanding of why the paint falls, and how we can make it move faster, exploring the science of motion in the most creative way – by making art!