Activity

Experimenting

Experimenting is how young children find out what happens when they change something: pour water from one cup to another, roll a ball down a steeper ramp, mix two colours and see what appears. A calm, well-made series about experimenting shows that trying, failing and trying again is normal, and it gives children words for what they are noticing. It can turn ordinary moments at the kitchen table into something worth looking at more closely.

For 3-year-olds

At three, experimenting is mostly hands and repetition. A child fills and empties the same cup a dozen times because the result still surprises them, and the idea of a question with an answer is only just forming. Look for a series that stays with one simple wonder at a time, shows the trying-out step by step, and lets a mistake pass without drama. Slow pacing matters here: a child of this age needs time to watch what happens before the next thing starts.

S01 E10

Work It Out Wombats

Make It Snow

Stimulating

recommended age co-watching from 3

Three wombat siblings, Zadie, Malik and Zeke, want to play in snow, so after getting a small snow globe from Mr. E's Everything Emporium they set out to build a giant one. They borrow a greenhouse for the see-through top and a pool for the base, then test yarn, marshmallows and ping pong balls to find something that floats like snow. When each material fails, they keep adjusting until white tissue paper confetti finally swirls just right. The episode ends with the whole group, and a friend's stuffy birthday party, playing inside the finished snow globe, followed by closing credits and channel branding.

S01 E06

Ada Twist Scientist

The Great Stink

Stimulating

recommended age co-watching from 3

Ada Twist and her friends Rosie and Iggy track down the source of a powerful smell drifting through the house, which they call the great stink. They observe clues, suggest where it might come from and test their ideas until they find the culprit. The final minutes leave the animation behind for a real scientist who studies cheese in a laboratory, linking the story to how smells work in real life. The mystery is solved through teamwork and careful thinking.

See all Experimenting shows for 3-year-olds

For 4-year-olds

By four, a child can hold a small prediction in their head and check it. They start asking why things fall, float or stick, and they notice when the outcome does not match what they expected. Look for a series that makes the question audible before the trying begins, so the child can guess along, and that shows a plan changing after something fails rather than working the first time. Stories where children work out an idea together fit this age well, since sharing and comparing ideas is part of the thinking now.

S01 E01

Zerby Derby

Speed Boat

Balanced

recommended age co-watching from 3

Zack and Lily realise their friend Bob the boat has no garage, so they build him one, watch it sink and then drift away, and finally set it on rocks so it stays above the water while Bob settles in to sleep. In the second story, Zack and Axle keep flying off a sharp forest turn, and after trying brakes and a stop wall they shape a banked turn that lets them round the corner at speed. Both stories unfold in a real forest with a lake and trails, using sticks, rocks and leaves found on site. Each problem is solved through repeated attempts under the friends' 'try try again' approach.

See all Experimenting shows for 4-year-olds

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Experimenting

For 3-year-olds

Work It Out Wombats

Ada Twist Scientist

For 4-year-olds

Zerby Derby

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