Arduino projects for kids are a fun, engaging way to get involved in the world of electronics. Arduino Uno is a popular open-source development board used to develop electronic projects and prototypes in an easy way, so it's a great place to begin.
Today, we're going to reveal some of the easiest do-it-yourself Arduino Uno projects for beginners to educate and inspire your child to make awesome things! These projects will help you grasp fundamentals about the Arduino microcontroller, and may inspire you to learn more about this versatile platform.
There are a lot of beginner kits that include an Arduino board and some basic components such as sensors, breadboard, potentiometer, push-button, LEDs, Jumper Wires, and motors. All the projects mentioned below use most of these basic components.
Discover the best Arduino children’s projects
Let's learn how to create some simple Arduino for kids projects that are perfect for beginners. These projects will help you understand a way to connect the Arduino with the basic components to perform certain actions.
Let's start with Arduino projects for beginners
But first, some basics to keep in mind: A circuit is basically an electronics loop with a starting point and an endpoint, with different external components in between. In order to make electrons flow, we need closed circuits. When electrons are unable to flow throughout the circuit, we call them open circuits. Here are 7 fun projects with circuits.
1. Blinking an LED
Overview: This project is a great very first Arduino project. Because this simple project uses only one LED, and makes it blink. You can find this program in pre-built examples in the software.
Why it’s unique: This project is a pretty simple way to learn about circuits.
Pros: If you are new to Arduino this is a great project to start with.
Cons: You need to remember the digital pin number where you have connected your LED.
What’s needed:
- 1 × Breadboard
- 1 × Arduino Uno R3
- 1 × LED
- 1 × 330Ω Resistor
- 2 × Jumper wire
Get started: For this project, you need a simple LED (light-emitting diode). Just keep one thing in mind when you are using LED: the short leg of a LED is a negative terminal.
2. LED with switch
Overview: This project has one LED that can be operated using a switch, with the help of an Arduino microcontroller. Also it gives you an idea of how Arduino works with external components.
Why it’s unique: This project will help you learn how to use digital inputs with an Arduino microcontroller.
Pros: While doing this project, you can learn to use digital inputs.
Cons: The LED will glow only for the time till you press the button. When you leave the button the LED will go off.
What’s needed:
- 1 × Breadboard
- 1 × Arduino Uno R3
- 1 × LED
- 1 × PUSH BUTTON
- 1 × 1k-10kΩ Resistor
- 5 × Jumper wire
Get started: This project is about the programming of GPIO (general purpose input/output) pins. You will explore how you can use LED and Switch with Arduino Uno.
3. A sound control system is a fun Arduino project for kids
Overview: Setup an I/O system on Arduino to read sensor data from the potentiometer, and convert it into output using the Piezo element.
Why it’s unique: In this project, we will study analog inputs/outputs.
Pros: This can be the prototype of a sound control system. So it helps you learn how things work in reality.
Cons: You have to be careful with the sound, as Piezo sound is a bit loud and annoying.
What’s needed:
- 1 × Breadboard
- 1 × Arduino Uno R3
- 1 × LED
- 1 × Piezo(buzzer)
- 1 × Potentiometer
- 1 × 220Ω Resistor
- 5 × Jumper wire
Get started: In this project, you will use a potentiometer that can read analog values, rather than passing for some specific frequency. Also, there's an LED in the circuit which activates when the buzzer is on, and turns off when the buzzer is off.
4. Automatic street lamp
Overview: This is an amazing project using an Arduino and LED, which will automatically turn on when an LDR sensor detects darkness.
Why it’s unique: The LDR gives out an analog value which will then convert to the digital output and pass it to the LED to glow, when the sensor detects the darkness. The weather is bright or dark, and is sensed through an LDR sensor. If the weather is bright, the system will be OFF otherwise the system will be ON.
Pros: Through this project, you will learn to save electricity and how sensors work in reality
Cons: You have to be very careful with the LDR sensor. It has to be used in proper lighting conditions.
What’s needed:
- 1 × Breadboard
- 1 × Arduino Uno R3
- 1 × LED
- 1 × LDR
- 1 × Potentiometer
- 1-1 × 220Ω and 10kΩ Resistor
- 7 × Jumper wire
Get started: In order to detect the intensity of light or darkness, you'll use a sensor called an LDR (light-dependent resistor). The LDR is a special type of resistor that allows low voltage (high resistance) whenever it is dark(less intensity) and higher voltages to pass through it (low resistance) whenever there is a high intensity of light.
5. Safety alarm
Overview: Use an Arduino and an ultrasonic sensor to prototype a safety alarm that sounds when someone comes near to the ultrasonic sensor.
Why it’s unique: In this project, you will learn about ultrasonic sensors that will read analog values and send them to piezo (buzzer) with the help of Arduino Uno.
Pros: Security has always been a major concern for all of us, and this is a prototype of an actual security system.
Cons: Sometimes the system will show false result or the sensor will throw false values.
What’s needed:
- 1 × Breadboard
- 1 × Arduino Uno R3
- 1 × HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor
- 1 × Piezo(buzzer)
- 1 × 220Ω Resistor
- 6-8 × Jumper wire
Get started: This project is a simple alarm system made with the help of a buzzer, LED and an Ultrasonic sensor also known as the Proximity/Distance Sensor (HC-SR04).
6. Arduino stopwatch
Overview: Make a simple stopwatch using Arduino & LCD Display. The stopwatch will have 2 buttons or modes: a start and a stop mode.
Why it’s unique: Easily learn to operate the LCD with the help of a pushbutton.
Pros: This is a prototype of a real-time project.
Cons: You have to be very careful with all the connections. The more components you use, the lower the possibility of finding the problem.
What’s needed:
- 1 × Breadboard
- 1 × Arduino Uno
- 2 × Push button
- 162 LCD Display
- 6-8 × Jumper wire
Get started: This project is all about a time counter. You will be able to use 2 buttons to start, stop, and reset the stopwatch.
7. Line follower robot car
Overview: In this project, your robot car will follow the black line with the help of IR sensors.
Why it’s unique: Through this project, you will learn to read analog values from IR sensors and pass them to an output device(motor).
Pros: Because you use multiple conditions in one program, you will learn more complex programming.
Cons: Sometimes the system will behave abnormally because the sensor will throw false values.
What’s needed:
- 1 × Arduino Uno
- 1x L298N motor driver
- 2x IR sensor
- 14x Jumper Wires
- 1x Plexi 10cmx17cm
- 4x TT motor
- 6x battery AA
- 1x Battery holder
- 8x metal distance 10mm
Get started: This project is super fun to do. You will use 2 IR sensors to detect the color and follow the line. Each sensor will have 1 transmitter and 1 receiver. The concept of working of a line follower robot is based on the phenomenon of light. As you know, black color absorbs most of the light that falls on it, whereas white color reflects almost all of the light.
Best Arduino to start with
The entry-level Arduino UNO R3 is the best board to get started with. This board and module is easy to use and ready to power your first creative projects. t has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz ceramic resonator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header and a reset button. In short, it has everything you need, so you can just connect it to a computer with a USB cable or power it with a AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started. Also you could upgrade to the StarterKit which includes a book with 15 tutorials that will walk you through the basics up to complex projects.
Create the best Arduino children’s projects
Now you are all set to begin building your own Arduino projects. Using Arduino you can do nearly everything. Do you want to learn more about electronics and circuits?
At Create & Learn, we have an Arduino programming course that will help you learn more about electronics using an Arduino simulator. An Arduino simulator is a virtual representation of a real-world Arduino platform that makes it easy to get started!
Up next, learn more about Arduino programming for kids.
Written by Apoorva Rastogi, a Create & Learn instructor who has worked as a coding instructor for more than 6 years. Apoorva has a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics and a Master's Degree in Computer Applications.
