18 STEAM Books with Crafts & Experiments

When my library re-opened after the COVID shutdown, we looked for ways to provide programming for kids without having too many people together in the same area. We started providing Grab-and-Go kits for families – simple crafts and science experiments with most of the materials needed to complete the project. For families looking for even more great activities, you can check out 16 Activity Books for Summer Vacation or check out these 18 STEAM books with crafts & experiments. Whether you’re looking for crafts, cooking, or science experiments, you’ll be sure to find something of interest here!

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18 STEAM Books with Crafts & Experiments

The 2023 Almanac of Fun by Highlights

Get ready for a year of fun in 2023 with favorite Highlights puzzles and activities that celebrate traditional and wacky holidays, historical anniversaries, world events, and everything in between. Kids can puzzle their way through each month while learning lots of interesting facts and documenting their own occasions!

365 Things to Do with Lego Bricks by Simon Hugo and Alice Finch

Go on a LEGO treasure hunt. Create and perform LEGO magic tricks. Make a LEGO stop-motion movie. Build your own LEGO pet. Challenge your family to build the tallest LEGO tower—and much, much more!

Featuring imaginative play and building ideas—from LEGO games that take just a few minutes and require a handful of bricks, to inspirational build ideas and activities to keep you occupied for hours.

Disney Ideas Book: More than 100 Disney Crafts, Activities, and Games by Elizabeth Dowsett

The perfect rainy-day gift for kids who love Disney and enjoy crafting. Let their imaginations run wild with more than 100 enchanting Disney-inspired arts and crafts, party games, puzzles, papercraft and many more fun and practical activities. With stunning photography and clear step-by-step instructions, the Disney Ideas Book guides you through each exciting project, from growing grass hair on Frozen trolls and creating The Lion King animal masks to crafting festive Mickey Mouse hanging decorations and Winnie the Pooh party hats. There are top tips on every page to help make your creations a success, with handy templates provided at the back of the book. Featuring family favorite characters from animation and live-action movies and TV, including Frozen, Toy Story, Moana, Inside Out, and Cinderella.

Creating Really Awesome Free Things: 100 Seriously Fun, Super Easy Projects for Kids by Jamie Dorobek

Get ready for some serious family fun! Filled with 100 fun crafts, Creating Really Awesome Free Things helps you develop your child’s creativity, imagination, and fine motor skills–all while using common household items. Each budget-friendly project features step-by-step instructions and keeps kids entertained, engaged, and learning all day long. You and your children will love recreating one-of-a-kind crafts like:

• Memory Game
• Egg Carton Flowers
• Key Wind Chime
• Ring Toss
• Lion Mask

Complete with photographs for every project, Creating Really Awesome Free Things promotes hours of playtime fun with the entire family!

Origami Made Simple by Russell Wood

Discover the art of paper folding with Origami Made Simple. Featuring 40 classic and original origami models, complete with detailed diagrams and written instructions for every step, it’s the fastest way for you to start creating eye-catching paper sculptures.

If you’re new to origami, the iconic yet approachable designs in this book are a great way to hone your skills—and have a blast doing it. Start with straightforward models that take 10 steps or less and work your way up to more complex creations. No matter the level of difficulty, every model is diagrammed for ease of use, with tricky folds highlighted and broken down into multiple steps.

The Big, Fun Kids Cookbook by Food Network

The Big, Fun Kids Cookbook from Food Network Magazine gives young food lovers everything they need to succeed in the kitchen. Each recipe is totally foolproof and easy to follow, with color photos and tips to help beginners get excited about cooking. The book includes recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and dessert—all from the trusted chefs in Food Network’s test kitchen.

Super Simple Science Experiments for Kids by Andrea Scalzo Yi

Turn your home into your laboratory as you explore and experiment through dozens of science projects with Andrea Scalzo Yi, bestselling author and the creative mastermind behind Raising Dragons. With just a few common household items you’ll learn creative problem-solving skills, nurture your curiosity and experiment just like a real scientist.

Jam-packed with 100 exciting experiments, you’ll never run out of projects to amaze and astound. Create colorful reactions with a Lemon Volcano, investigate surface tension using Magic Milk and explore centripetal force with your own Tornado in a Bottle. You can even unlock your inner artist with beautiful Sun Print artwork; all you need is the sun and some paper―no paint required! Each engaging experiment includes a simple explanation of the science behind it, as well as variations on the project, so you and your family can make the most of each activity.

Low-Mess Crafts for Kids: 72 Projects to Create Your Own Magical Worlds by Debbie Chapman

When craft time rolls around, parents usually cringe at the thought of a creativity storm’s aftermath. Glue, glitter, globs of paint―it all adds up to Mom and Dad assisting (let’s be honest, doing everything) with cleanup. But Debbie Chapman―the supermom behind One Little Project ―keeps that freshly cleaned kitchen table in mind with tips to keep these tutorials as mess-free as possible. With tricks like twisting pipe cleaners into fun shapes to avoid glue and using brightly colored cups and patterned paper to avoid paint, Debbie shows that keeping it simple doesn’t mean play time has to be less fun.

Low-Mess Crafts for Kids brings parents and caretakers solutions to the craft time conundrum. As well as being low-mess, all 72 of these awesome projects feature everyday items like pipe cleaners, pom poms and clothespins, which make playtime a cinch. And with step-by-step pictures, kids of any age can create something they can be proud of.

Watch as little ones create their own enchanting worlds―whether they want to explore outer space with a Paper Plate Flying Saucer, race cars on a Poster Board Road Track, or create a whimsical fairy city with Paper Roll Fairy Houses, each craft promises to spark your child’s imagination while leaving you stress free and ready to play along.

101 Kids Simple Science Experiments That Are the Bestest, Funnest Ever! by Holly Homer, Rachel Miller, and Jamie Harrington

You’ll have the time of your life conducting these incredible, wacky and fun experiments with your parents, teachers, babysitters and other adults. You’ll investigate, answer your questions and expand your knowledge using everyday household items.

The Quirky Mommas from the wildly popular Kids Activities Blog and authors of the bestselling 101 Kids Activities That Are the Bestest, Funnest Ever! have done it again with this book of ridiculously amazing, simple science experiments. You can do things both indoors and outdoors. The handy mess meter, preparation times and notes on the level of supervision will keep your parents happy, and you safe. Experimenting is really fun, and you will have a blast being a scientist! You will be so entertained, you might not notice you’re also learning important things about the world around you. Some experiments to master:

Craft Lab for Kids by Stephanie Corfee

With Craft Lab for Kids, help your kids tap into the fun and empowerment of creating their own custom designs to wear, decorate with, and give.

• Spruce Up Your Stuff. Learn fun ways to personalize with a variety of embellishment techniques
• Express Yourself! Add your personality to all kinds of homemade projects
• Take Care of YOU. Self-care DIY projects to benefit their well-being
• Kids Just Wanna Have Fun. Just-for-fun projects to make everyone smile
• Classic Crafts with a Twist. Tried-and-true crafts updated for today’s kids
• 15-Minute Makes. Quickie crafts to make in a flash
• Kindness Crafts. Crafty creations to brighten someone’s day

Sewing for Kids by Alexa Ward

From an adorable Needle House to an awesome Pizza Pencil Case, there are so many awesome things that can be sewn with just a needle and thread. Packed with beginner techniques for hand and machine sewing, Sewing for Kids takes you stitch-by-stitch from threading a needle to making your own Fingerless Gloves.

Get started with the ins and outs of hand-sewing, like how to tie a knot or sew a whipstitch, and before you know it, you’ll be sewing on a sewing machine! Wow your friends with your own handmade Fruit Purse—then, take your sewing up a notch with magical machine-sewing projects, like a Winter Beanie and Shark Tail Blanket.

Kids Crochet: Projects for Kids of All Ages by Kelli Ronci

Demonstrates fifteen crochet projects that can be accomplished by young crafters, sharing step-by-step, illustrated instructions for such items as an earflap hat, a patchwork poncho, and a cupcake-shaped pincushion, in a guide complemented by sidebar information on crochet history and cultural customs. 15,000 first printing.

Never Get Bored: Cut, Fold, and Stick

Find out how to build with old newspapers and turn them into trees that grow before your eyes. Then, transform junk mail into jewels and coil strips of paper into creepy crawlies. You can fold origami frogs for a race, test paper planes and parachutes and design your own board game. There are amazing tricks you can do with just a pair of scissors and a piece of paper and tips for making your own cabinet of curiosities. This treasure trove of a book has so many rewarding ideas for cutting, folding and sticking that you’ll never be bored again.

Kitchen Science Lab for Kids: Edible Edition by Liz Lee Heinecke

Physics and chemistry come into play each time you simmer, steam, bake, freeze, boil, puree, saute, or ferment food. Kitchen Science Lab for Kids: EDIBLE EDITION guides you through the physics, biology, and chemistry of food to give you the basic tools you need to be a great chef.

STEAM Play and Learn by Ana Dziengel

The acronym STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. At the preschool level, this doesn’t mean trying to teach your kids robotics and engineering, but rather presenting them with open-ended projects that allow them to problem-solve, make mistakes, get creative, and most of all, have fun.

While most preschool-age children are not yet reading, STEAM Play & Learn is meant to be child-driven. The images, illustrations, and projects are meant to appeal to kids of their age and abilities. Let them be the guide as you explore the projects in this book. Topics include symmetry and how light bounces to create reflections with mirror mandalas, diffusion and capillary action with tie dye towels, structural framing and bracing with marshmallow structures, and electrical currents with salty circuits.

Busy Little Hands: Science Play!: Learning Activities for Preschoolers by Susan Edwards Richmond

Preschoolers wonder and explore with 20 hands-on experiments using everyday household objects and making daily activities such as snack time and play time into learning opportunities. Each play activity demonstrates a simple principle of physics, earth science, chemistry, or biology, including the Kitchen Sink or Float (demonstrating density), the Vinegar Volcano (pressure) and Blooming Colors (chromatography). Featuring bright, easy-to-follow photos specially designed for pre-readers, this book is packed with learning fun, plus it sets the groundwork for science success in kindergarten and beyond.

Busy Little Hands: Art Play!: Activities for Preschoolers by Meredith Magee Donnelly

Get ready for an art adventure! Using paint, colored paper, clay, and other basic art supplies, preschoolers learn to tap into their natural artistic abilities with fun-filled projects shown through easy-to-follow, colorful photos. From making bubble prints and color collages to turning a T-shirt into a Super Kid cape, every activity is designed to spark imagination, learning, and creativity.

Awesome Science Experiments for Kids by Crystal Chatterton

As kids grow older, they become more curious about the world around them, often asking, “How does this work?” Awesome Science Experiments for Kids teaches young brains the nuts and bolts of the scientific method using fun, hands-on experiments designed to show kids how to hypothesize, experiment, and then record their findings.