This is part of my Fifteen Minute Focus series. Children learn some key concepts about how to build a more stable tower.

Objective: children can demonstrate a way to make a wobbly tower more stable.

Supplies

Wood blocks. And, for free play time, a variety of other building supplies at several stations. Examples: large cardboard blocks, cups, TP tubes and cardboard squares (more ideas here)

Intro:

Use 4 or 5 wooden blocks to stack a tower – but don’t stack it well – stack it so they are NOT all nicely lined up, and so it’s likely to topple at any moment. Ask them if this is a stable tower. (You’ll need to explain that “stable” means it will stay standing strong, unstable means it’s all wibbly wobbly and might fall down easily if bumped.)

Ask them how to make it better. One of them may tell you / show you that you have to stack the blocks perfectly on top of each other so the sides line up. If they don’t tell you, show them. And then do some “experiments” where you don’t stack things well, and see what happens. Reiterate that lining things up perfectly helps the tower stay standing.

Song

The words are from Preschool Express. They say the lyrics were adapted from a poem by Peggy Sloan. We do it to the tune of the Jeopardy theme song.

Pick a block to put on top.
Careful now, don’t let it dro-o-o-o-op!
Higher, higher – up you go.
Take your time, just do it slow.
Balance one block, two blocks, three
See how tall your stack can be-e-e.
Pick a block to put on top.
Careful now – don’t let it drop!

Demo 2 – Wide Bases

Have them stand on one foot. “Are you stable or wobbly? Would it be easy to knock you over?”

Have them stand on two feet, but with their feet very close together. “Are you stable or wobbly? Would it be easy to knock you over?”

Have them stand with their feet spread apart. “Are you stable or wobbly? Would it be easy to knock you over?”

Explain that the wider the base the more stable something is – the less likely it is to get knocked over. Have them sit back down, and demo how the same is true with blocks. A wide base helps them to be more stable. (FYI, 10 Duplos work really well for this demo – build a ten block tall tower – easy to knock over. Then build a two dimensional pyramid – stable if bumped some ways, but falls right over if bumped just right. Build a three dimensional tower – much harder to knock over.

Free Build

Tell them we get to spend the rest of the time building with the supplies we have, to see who can make the tallest and most stable towers. Explain building day rule # 1 – if someone else is building a tower, don’t knock it down without asking them. You need permission to knock down someone else’s tower.

You can wander around, giving more tips, such as “if you have different sizes of blocks, you want the biggest block on the bottom and the smallest block on the top of the tower.”

More Ideas

For LOTS more ideas about building towers, books to read, videos to watch, tower crafts, and more, check out my lesson plan for our two hour session on Towers.