Traditional building blocks are no longer the only way for young learners to build masterpieces. Building projects come in all shapes and sizes. Read on for 20 activities to help your preschoolers develop an interest in building and engineering their own creations!
1. Building Letters
This is a fun activity to incorporate construction into literacy. Name a letter and have your students scavenge for small rocks and pebbles. Then have them build the letters with the rocks! This will help students build letter recognition and letter sounds.
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2. Magic Math Box
Want to use construction as a way to develop math skills? Look no further than this construction activity! You’ll need a box, paper towel roll, and pom-poms. Watch the whole tutorial to see how you can build a device to help students love construction and math.
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3. Building Shapes
Grab some colored craft sticks and check out this simple building activity! Students can build shapes by placing the craft sticks down (print a reference sheet if necessary). This math activity will also help build hand-eye coordination.
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4. Edible Structures
Time to finally play with your food! All you will need are food items that are around the house or classroom and toothpicks. While marshmallows are the most common, apples and cheddar cheese would work great for this building project as well. Show your kids that simple items can make a fun craft!
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5. Marble Run
This activity is not only a building project but also a game for preschoolers. Students use basic engineering skills to create this giant marble run. Take a piece of a paper town roll and a piece of tape. Attach the paper towel roll pieces and repeat to create a marble run. Kids will have so much fun building and using this marble run.
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6. Egg Carton Pyramids
If you’re looking for a fun building activity, look no further than the materials in your house. Cut up an egg carton into each individual egg hole. Then have your students paint each one a different color. Lastly, you can create fun building challenges with your egg carton creations. This is a great way to make a DIY non-LEGO building kit.
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7. Cardboard Cars
Ready to race? Your kiddos will love this cardboard-building activity where they’ll get to make their very own car! Grab some old cardboard boxes for them to use as the base of their car, then add wheels using some paper plates and let them decorate as they wish! Finally, add some straps or string so that they can wear their cars and then race around! Beep beep!
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8. Eiffel Tower
Your students can replicate an architectural wonder. For building supplies, your students will need newspaper, tape, and a stapler. You can discuss different building structures and how unique the Eiffel Tower is!
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9. Building Bridges
Invite your little learners to investigate the building process behind bridges with these simple materials. Using two markers as their foundation, you’ll task them with folding construction paper in various ways to come up with bridge designs that they can then test with coins to see whose bridge holds up the best.
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10. Homemade Catapult
If you’re looking for an activity that could best be used outside on a field day, try this DIY catapult. Students will use critical thinking skills once that catapult has been built to see which catapult will fling the ball the furthest.
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11. Three Little Pigs Building Project
Bring this favorite nursery rhyme to life! With straws, wood, and brick, students can test out the three little pigs’ houses to see which one would outstand a big huff and puff!
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12. LEGO Wall
The most popular building block can be used in a new way! With the purchase of LEGO tape, you can create a portion of your wall that is perfect for sticking LEGOs on and building outwards instead of upwards, allowing students to use creative thinking skills for a new creation!
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13. Blueprint Making
Introduce students to blueprints and help them to design their own buildings. Afterward, students can even create building names!
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14. Pendulum Play
Pendulums are necessary for construction and can be used to show how buildings are knocked out. Whether you have a tennis ball or a golf ball, this is a fun way to use household items to show how real engineers create space for new buildings.
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15. Building Christmas Trees
This is the perfect, calming construction activity for the holiday season. Use washers and bolts to build tiny homemade Christmas trees.
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16. Stick Cabin Engineering
For this cute outdoorsy craft, grab some sticks and play dough to create a wooden home. With very few building materials necessary, this is an easy at-home or at-school craft.
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17. Construction Hat
Students can get ready for any construction activity by making their very own construction hat first. Once finished, students can even decorate a one-of-a-kind construction masterpiece!
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18. Pipe Cleaner Longhouse
Pipe cleaner crafts are a favorite activity of preschoolers! Learn about different architectural styles of history such as the longhouse and have students build their own.
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19. Paper Mache Earth
Paper mache is a unique building material for students to use! You can even create an Earth-themed center in your classroom and have this activity be the main event.
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20. Construction Playdough
Whether you want to make the color more realistic to construction materials or want to add actual sand or dirt to your playdough, this activity is for you. Follow these step-by-step instructions on how to customize your playdough for construction.
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