Building blocks are a classic STEM toy for kids of all ages. But have you tried building Animal Towers? This is a fun new STEM challenge for children who love animals.
Do your kids love STEM activities? Grab your copy of the Free STEM eBook for Toddlers and Preschoolers. It’s filled with fun and easy STEM activities that will delight children in the early years.
Disclosure: Adult supervision is required for all activities at all times. Some of the links provided in this blog are affiliate links. I will be paid a commission if you use this link to make a purchase.
More STEM Activities for Kids
Do your kids love building and making? Try some of these other engineering activities for toddlers and preschoolers.
- Floating City – STEM activity for Kids
- Building Shapes – STEM for Kids
- How to Make A Pom Pom Shooter
- Building Bridges
- PVC Pipe House Building – STEM Challenge
For more ideas, take a look at these 34 STEM Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers.
Materials Needed
- Several animal toy figures, in different sizes.
How to Build Animal Towers
This activity is as simple as stacking the toys on top of each other.
While the concept is easy to understand, being able to physically achieve it, is another story.
Different Ways to Play
Experiment with different sized bases
Which animal you place at the bottom of your tower will have an overall effect on the stability of the tower.
Try building a tower with large, medium and small animals at the bottom. What differences did you notice between the different sized bases?
Most likely, your children will discover that larger animals at the bottom, and smaller ones on the top, make for the most steady tower. But why?
What preschoolers will understand: You’ve essentially built a pyramid, and pyramid shapes are more steady that long rectangular ones.
Experiment with the total number of animals in your tower
How many animals can you get to balance together in a single tower? Were the shorter towers more stable than the taller ones? Why do you think that is?
What preschoolers will understand: Shorter towers are more steady than taller ones.
Experiment with the number of legs
Toy animals will have anywhere from 0 (like a snake) to 6 (like an insect) legs. Do you find that the animals with more legs are easier to balance? Why do you think this is?
What preschoolers will understand: Animals with more points of contact (legs touching the ground) are more steady because they can rock back and forth in more directions without falling over. Eg. People can rock left and right and be quite steady, but if we rock frontwards and backwards we will need to move one of our legs to stop us from falling over. 4 legged animals don’t have this problem.
What You’re Learning
STEM
Science – This is a great opportunity to talk to your kids about the different animals you have. You can give your children a small science lesson by discussing:
- What the animal is called.
- What does it eat?
- Where does it live?
- How does it move?
- What sound does it make?
Engineering – Your kids are going through the engineering process of design, build, test and analyze.
Each time their tower falls down they have to figure out why, and then go through the entire process again.
By experimenting with the different aspects of building animal towers, you’re learning:
- Pyramids are more steady than rectangular towers.
- Shorter towers are more steady than taller ones.
- Animals with more legs are (generally) more steady. This is with the exception of 0 legged animals (like snakes).
Math – There are a few different math concepts to learn in this STEM activity.
Counting – Count how many animals you have or how many legs each animal has.
Positional Words – “Above”,”below” and “in front of” are all examples of positional words. These are words that describe the location of an object.
Sorting – Take a look at your animals and sort them by their various characteristics. This could be:
- By size (eg largest to smallest)
- Where they live (ocean, land or sky)
- What they eat (carnivore, herbivore or omnivore)
Fine Motor Skills
Picking up and balancing the animals will require kids to work on their hand-eye coordination, palmar grasp and dexterity. All of which are essential for developing strong fine motor skills.
Are you going to try Building Animal Towers with your kids?
Don’t forget to pin the idea for later.
