The relevance of the study is associated, on the one hand, with the need to develop research skills in primary school students as a meta-subject outcome of primary general education, and on the other hand, with the insufficient development of extracurricular activity programs that combine the development of these skills with reliance on ethnocultural traditions. The aim of the article is to theoretically substantiate, develop and experimentally verify the effectiveness of an extracurricular activity program aimed at developing research skills of primary school students through the ethnocultural traditions of the Yakut people. The leading method was a pedagogical experiment (October 2021 – May 2022), which involved 82 students in grades 3–4 from the Municipal Budgetary Educational Institutions "Sylanskaya Secondary School named after Professor G.P. Basharin" and "Arylakhskaya Secondary School named after T.M. Kazhenkin" of the Churapchinsky Ulus of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The experimental group (EG) consisted of 42 students, the control group (CG) – 40 students. The diagnostics of the levels of research skills development was carried out according to five criteria (need-motivational, cognitive, emotional-sensory, behavioral, reflexive) using diagnostic tools based on the material of ethnocultural traditions. The main results: in the EG, the proportion of students with a high level of research skills increased from 11.9% to 30.9% (an increase of 19.0%), the proportion with a low level decreased from 40.5% to 16.7% (a decrease of 23.8%). In the CG, the dynamics were insignificant. The differences are statistically significant (Mann-Whitney U-test, p<0.01). The theoretical significance lies in clarifying the structure of research skills of primary school students and identifying the pedagogical potential of extracurricular activities as an organizational and pedagogical condition for their development. The practical significance consists in the development and testing of diagnostic tools and the extracurricular activity program "Ethno-laboratory: Törüt eyge", which can be adapted for schools in other regions of the Russian Federation with an ethnocultural component of educational content.