BRIGHT SPARKS PLAY LAB
Toddler Science Play
for tiny scientists ages 1-5 and their people
📍Mountain View, CA
UPCOMING EVENT:
FREE COMMUNITY PLAY LAB
Simple Machines Lab
Sunday, August 16 · Sylvan Park
9:30-10 AM
Sensory-Friendly Start
10–11:30 AM
Higher-Energy Toddler Engineering Lab
A hands-on engineering play lab where tiny scientists can experiment with simple machines, build their own creations, and see what happens. Toddlers can explore pulleys, levers, wheels, and ramps through movement, problem-solving, and plenty of open-ended play.
Building challenges will be available for children who want them, but there’s no single right way to do science play. Toddlers are welcome to build, test, repeat, observe, or simply follow whatever catches their curiosity. Is it the bubbles? It’s usually the bubbles.
Designed by Bright Sparks Fellow Sarina as her fellowship project, with the sensory science experience led by Fabi, our STEM educator.
This event is free, thanks to support from First 5 Santa Clara County. Optional take-home science kits and Bright Sparks shirts will be available for purchase, with proceeds supporting future sensory experiences in our community.
WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?
Lab Fuel
Real coffee and muffins, because parenting a toddler requires actual fuel.
OT-Designed for Regulation
High-energy kids MOVE, sensory-seking kids go all in, and kids who need a little more time and space have sensory-friendly ways to explore science.
Children Learn to Think Like Scientists
Curiosity.
“What is your hypothesis?”
Discovery through their senses.
“What do you feel?”
Resilience.
“Scientists try again.”
Your Living Room Survives
Kinetic sand, water pouring, rainbow rice, and all the messy chaos live here instead of in your couch.
Actual Community 🩷
Because sometimes the real chemistry is finding your people who get it.
TWO VERY IMPORTANT LAB RULES
Follow your child’s curiosity.
There is no right way to play.
We don’t eat the science.
Tempting? Sometimes. Still science. 🧪
REAL WORLD PARENTING WINS ⚡
“My son’s favorite lab is whichever one we did last. He was in the bath telling me that bubbles are made of soap and water.”
“The parents were PLAYING! They might have been having more fun than the kids today.”
“By letting my son play in ways I never would have chosen for him, he learned to trust himself. And his trust me deepened.”
SPARK NOTES
Bite-sized, OT-backed notes about playful science, big feelings, and life with tiny humans.
Be among the first to hear about community events, seasonal play labs, and science play to try at home.
COMMUNITY IS BETTER WITH COFFEE AND MUFFINS.
You got your tiny scientist.
And we got you.
