Building Activities for Kids

DIY Alphabet Road Construction Kit

March 8, 2025May 16, 2016 by Stephanie Oswald

For the longest time, I have been wanting an alphabet construction set for the kids. But, I just haven’t been able to talk myself into spending what these cost…$40 for a toy is just a bit out of my comfort zone. While I haven’t yet figured out how to create a set that would work … Read more

Word Families Lego Sort

March 6, 2025January 12, 2016 by Stephanie Oswald

This year my daughter has been working her way through a spelling development program called Words Their Way. If you are not familiar with Words Their Way I highly suggest you check it out. It is an awesome program for helping kids work on their phonics, vocabulary, and spelling in a way that goes further than just memorization. This game of Word Families Lego Sort is one of the many activities that we do to work on her Words Their Way weekly spelling list.

This game of word families lego sort is an awesome way to work on a Words Their Way spelling list!

When children sort words in games such as this they are engaged in the process of searching, analyzing, comparing, and contrasting. These problem solving skills help teach children how to form generalizations that can be applied when they come across new words that they may not know.

Invitation to Invent: Can You Build a Catapult?

March 6, 2025August 21, 2015 by Stephanie Oswald

Hey, Diddle Diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle, the Cow jumped over the Moon….

This classic poem by Mother Goose has for years been a favorite of my kids. There are many days that Livia sings it to Roo as he swings back and forth and smiles. Or days when at lunch Meatballs’ dish runs away with his spoon. I have never figured out what it is about that silly rhyme, but my kids love it. So when my kids pulled out their Horizon Snack Grahams while packing their lunches and saw that they were shaped like cows, it was of no surprise to watch them start playing the Cow jumped over the Moon!

invitation to Invent: Can you Build a Catapult?

Watching their imaginations at play so the next day during homework snacks I presented them with an invitation to invent a machine to help their cows jump over the moon.

Foam Block Building Sensory Bin

March 8, 2025April 28, 2015 by Stephanie Oswald

Foam Block Building Sensory Bin: Kids will love building silly structures made from foam blocks and shaving cream while practicing their fine motor skills of stacking, sorting, and spreading.

Yesterday we played around with a simple sensory bin made of shaving cream and water beads which the kids absolutely adored. When it came time to clean up this sensory bin, both kids were ready for nap so I ended up just placing a lid on it with a “to clean up” later mental note. Luckily for us not cleaning up our sensory bin right then and there worked out beautifully and with the addition of foam blocks we had another fun afternoon activity! We absolutely love this idea for teaching spreading skills that we found on Happy Hooligans!

Rainbow Building: All Construction Should Be This Sweet!

February 25, 2025February 26, 2015 by Stephanie Oswald

Tooth-pick Marshmallow Engineering: Building structures with tooth-picks and marshmallows is one of those classic kid activities that should be a part of every childhood! Construction play is such a fantastic way to learn for kids of all ages (and easily adaptable to fit your child’s stage)!

Rainbow Marshmallow Toothpick Engineering One thing I really LOVED about this activity was that it got the entire family involved. It was so much fun to see everyone sitting down and collaborating as they built their rainbow cities. Dad and Meatball created the tallest tooth-pick tower while Livia created a castle for Cinderella — she even built her own marshmallow Cinderella using the various colored marshmallows!