If you haven’t pulled out the toothpicks and marshmallows with your kids, now’s the time! These building challenges are the perfect way to spend an indoor day. The best building activities do not need fancy or expensive supplies. You CAN easily do these activities at home or school, and are fun and challenging which makes building structures an awesome STEM activity for kids of all ages.
AWESOME STEM BUILDING ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS!
SIMPLE ENGINEERING FOR KIDS
My son loves when I get out the toothpicks and some sort of squishy candy or cut-up fruit. He knows it is building time! Here’s our list of best building activities for kids.
Why is building structures amazing STEM play? To build a solid structure you need a good design, the right amount of pieces, a solid base, and basic engineering skills. All important aspects of STEM!
CHECK OUT: Your STEM Resources Guide
We like to set up fun building challenges using easy and inexpensive supplies. STEM is all about the world around us so let’s encourage kids to use what they have and get creative with their engineering skills!
BUILDING ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS
Below you will find a list of materials and links to specific building projects. Click on the links highlighted in red to learn more about these different building activities
1. Toothpicks and Food
Common snack foods such as apples, cheese, and marshmallows (for fun) are good for building with. We added some crackers to use as bases or platforms. Although this is what we used, the possibilities are endless!
2. Toothpicks and Candy
You can use any gummy sort of candy such as and for building elaborate structures including bridges. Tasty too!
- Gum Drops Bridge Building Challenge
- Gum Drop Structures
- Jelly Bean Challenge
- Valentine’s Day Candy Buildings
3. Toothpicks and Pool Noodles
If you want to use toothpicks and something other than candy or food items, try pool noodles or any other styrofoam that is chunky. We sliced up a pool noodle to make our pool noodle structures.
4. Shaving Cream And Pool Noodles
Yes, we really did try this! We took our pool noodle chunks from above and added a different kind of building challenge, shaving cream! Pretty fun and pretty messy, but it cleans up quickly too! Our structures were a little different, but we still tested out quite a few skills.
Building with shaving cream and pool noodles
5. Pool Noodle Marble Run
Can you make a marble run from pool noodles and tape? Try out this fun building challenge on a blank wall.
6. Playdough and Skewers
We put playdough and skewers together for a fun building activity. Skewers are like really long toothpicks and are a challenge all in themselves! You probably already have the two things you need to get started.
7. Playdough and Straws
Straws and play dough go together like marshmallows and toothpicks! You need a slightly different building technique since you have to mold the play dough, but the building challenge is similar.
8. Popsicle Sticks
Who knew STEM building activities could be so much fun? We did! Want to learn how to make a catapult with Popsicle sticks? Take the challenge!
9. PVC Pipe
PVC pipes are awesome for STEM projects! Plus, our new PVC Pipe Kit is an easy, frugal alternative to the pricey toy alternatives. My son loves using “real” household items for play rather than toys.
10. Plastic Cups
Plastic cups are a valuable and cheap resource to have on hand! Have you ever built a 100 cup tower? It makes for a great afternoon building activity.
11. Recycled Cardboard
Grab a bunch of cardboard and cut out some simple shapes as we have for our cardboard building activities. We always keep a bunch of recyclable materials on hand for structure building activities!
12. LEGO
Can you build a LEGO tower as tall as you are? We are definitely trying to do this over the weekend. We have tons of LEGO, so I bet we can pull it off.
Some of our favorite LEGO building ideas…
13. Cards and Cups
Combine index cards or cardboard and cups for variety. Who can build the tallest tower?
Looking for easy to print activities, and inexpensive problem-based challenges?
We have you covered…
—>>> FREE STEM challenges
BEST BUILDING ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS
Click on the image below or on the link for more awesome STEM activities for kids.
Water Displacement For Kids
Cynthia
I clicked on the 2D/3D Structure Building cards TWICE and filled out the forms TWICE and I still haven’t received the free cards. You said it would take 14 minutes? I’ve been waiting for 2 hours!
littlebins
I can get those for you! I will email you in just a bit.