STEM Building Blocks Challenge for Kids

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STEM Building Blocks Challenge for Kids

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Kids love to build and create. A bunch of blocks can quickly become a work of art. My children have shown an interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Technology) activities and hands-on building and constructing.

They love building with their wooden building blocks, and this activity kept them creating and thinking all afternoon.

All you need is a handful of blocks for this STEM building blocks challenge and you are ready to begin! Check out the building blocks ideas below. We used a wooden person when we created, but it is not necessary when building.

I have created a set of over 50 STEM building challenges to compliment this activity and keep kids busy, while learning and problem solving, as they build and create at home or school.

These printable cards are available through My Shop. (Link at bottom).

When I am coming up with activities to do in the classroom I love when I find something that does not require a lot of prep. It is also a bonus if the activity requires materials that I already have available to me.

If you like this activity, you’ll love the 10 STEM sessions with 10 materials program. You only need to set aside ten building materials to complete ten separate STEM challenges.

stem shows two structures made from wooden blocks.

This STEM activity does both!

STEM activity shows a little house made from wooden blocks.

When in school, I teach over 100 kids aged 3-6 every day. Everyone enjoyed this STEM building challenge and it is easy prepare. I have also used the activity with older children, and at home.

stem activity for kids shows a shelter for a wooden person made from wooden blocks.

One of the great things about STEM challenges is that they are a great way to encourage children to problem solve in a hands-on way.

The other thing that I love about STEM activities is that the same activity and challenge can be used with young children or older.

Younger children who are being introduced to STEM challenges are typically excited to build and learn from the trial and error.

Older children will begin to consider the design and engineering in their creations and make them much more complex.

stem activity shows a tall tower made from wooden blocks.

The STEM Building Block Ideas

All you really need for this activity are a collection of wooden blocks. It doesn’t matter if they are colourful or just plain wood.

The blocks that I used were all the same rectangular shape. However, you can certainly use wooden blocks that are different shapes.

For all STEM challenges, simply use what you have.

The mini building blocks that I used I found at a local dollar store. I purchased them years ago for my classroom and they have been well used over the years.

To start, I gave each student one set of the blocks (36 blocks). I gave everyone 5 minutes to build and explore with their blocks. They had no restrictions or specific tasks that they had to do with the blocks.

I try to do this free exploration any time I introduce new materials because once children have had a chance to play freely with the materials, they are then more ready to learn and follow directions.

I have given a few examples of some building challenges below. There are also activity cards available and a set of 100 STEM building challenges available. Use any combination that works for you.

wooden building blocks shows blocks and an activity card saying to build a staircase.

Wooden Block Building Ideas STEM Challenge #1

After the 5 minutes, our challenge began! I started simple and challenged children to build a house using their blocks.

A simple ideas like this is important to start. It makes all children feel that they can be successful with the materials.

stem shows a wooden structure and a little wooden figure sitting on it.

Any house works. Some children will build something with 5 blocks and call it a house. Other children will go further and have a three story house with a backyard and garage! Either creation is okay to start.

I gave students roughly 5 minutes for each STEM building challenge. If you have more time, or are doing the challenges at home, you can allow children to build at their own pace.

STEM Building Blocks Challenge #2

The next challenge was my favourite. I asked everyone to create a staircase. At first, some children were a bit discouraged. They could picture a staircase in their mind, but not build one.

However, once they started putting blocks together and trying different things out, they came up with a variety of staircases.

stem shows a staircase made from wooden blocks.

This is what I love about STEM activities! After doing STEM challenges children learn that their first attempt is not always going to work. They have to try and try again. As long as they don’t give up then they are successful.

STEM challenges are not about getting it perfect. They are about trying and learning from each try.

For the staircase, some were almost flat to the table (shown above) but it still resembled a staircase. I was amazed how I ended up with over 20 different staircase designs – yet with each one you could tell it was a staircase!

stem shows a staircase made from wooden blocks.

STEM Building Blocks Challenge #3

The next challenge we did, was to build a boat. It is interesting to see how different each child’s creations are. They each have their own vision of what a boat looks like and they use that image to create with 3d shapes.

STEM shows a boat made from wooden building blocks.

I continued to give different challenges, including building a tower with exactly 16 blocks and even to build something with their eyes closed for 2 minutes.

This activity easily filled an hour, but children were ready to do many more STEM building challenges.

stem shows a structure made from wooden blocks.

We continued on with lots of different challenges. Some were harder then others. We moved through the challenges fairly quickly so that everyone kept creating.

After doing several challenges, children were keen to keep creating. I made up a bunch of activity cards (link below) that I placed with the blocks at a building centre in our classroom and given to my own kids at home.

Since this activity was such a success, I have repeated it several times. On days that you have some extra time for a STEM challenge, giving children a longer period to build each structure is also beneficial. You will be amazed with what they can come up with.

STEM Building Toys Extension Activity

Since students were so eager to build and create with the blocks, the next day I incorporated the blocks into our activity again. I began by reading the popular book “The Three Billy Goats Gruff”.

After I finished, I challenged students to build a bridge for the goat. I handed out a bag of blocks to everyone and also gave them a small wooden figure.

This was the represent the troll. The only rule was that the troll had to be able to fit under the bridge.

STEM activity shows a collage of nine wooden towers made from wooden building blocks.

Their creations were very impressive! All of the bridges looked different, but they all worked as a bridge for their troll.

It was a great learning activity and children really enjoyed building and working to create something.

Free Printable Building Block Challenge Card

To get you started with some creative building activities, you can print a FREE activity card with 4 building block challenges on it. This printable is available to subscribers.

Click the image below and subscribe to Hands-On Teaching Ideas. By subscribing, you have access to the escape room printables as well as access to my Free Resource Library, filled with free printable activities and educational products.

You will also receive emails with my latest blog posts, freebies and sales.

STEM shows a subscribe button.

For eight activity cards for this STEM challenge you can also download them from the library. These activity cards can go with the set of STEM activity cards.

These challenges are an example of the activities in the full collection of 52 activity cards.

For the full collection of over 50 STEM building block challenges click the link below for printable cards to compliment this activity at home or school.

Looking for more STEM Challenges?

Looking for more STEM Building Challenge ideas? I’ve created a collection of over 45 STEM challenge ideas that you can do at home with simple materials!

Try out some other STEM building challenges:

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