- camera or cell phone with camera (optional)
- cardboard sheet
- clipboards
- markers
- paper
- pieces of flat cardboard
- plastic or paper cups
- strong
MA Standards:
English Language Arts/Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners during daily routines and play.
MA Draft Standards:
Physical Sciences/Motion and Stability; Forces and Interaction /PS2.C Explore the strength and stability of buildings as they build structures with different materials. [Cause and Effect, Stability and Change]
Head Start Outcomes:
Logic and Reasoning/Reasoning and Problem Solving Seeks multiple solutions to a question, task, or problem.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 2 Participate actively in discussions, listen to the ideas of others, and ask and answer relevant questions.
Explore Together (indoors): Build a Cup Tower
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
STEM Key Concepts: How you design and build a structure helps determine how strong it will be; Different materials are useful for making different kinds of structures and different parts of structures
ELA Focus Skills: Listening and Speaking, Vocabulary
Educator Prep: This activity can be set up on a tabletop or on the floor. Clear a large, flat space beforehand for children to work.
Have children continue to build towers using different materials. Say, Think about how you will use these materials to build a tower? How are these materials different from the wooden blocks? Review with children what they have learned so far about building a tower. Talk about how towers are high buildings.
As children work, guide them to explore how to build the towers so that they are strong. Ask questions such as,
- What might you do to make sure your tower doesn’t wiggle? (add more cups for support)
- What happens when you add more floors to your tower? What can you do to make sure your tower is strong and doesn’t fall over?
After children have freely explored the materials and constructed a tower, you may want to have them test how stable/strong their tower is. Ask a group to try one of the stability tests below. If their tower is still standing, have them proceed to the next test. If the tower falls down, move to the next group and have them test their tower.
- Test #1: Fan a sheet of cardboard at the tower. Say, Let’s pretend the air from the cardboard fan is wind. Wind can knock over things that are not strong.
- Test #2: Hop up and down next to their tower. Say, When you hop, the ground shakes or vibrates and can shake the tower and knock it down. Explain that architects and builders think about this when they build in areas where earthquakes occur.
- Test #3: Place a book or toy on the top of a tower. Say, If the tower isn’t strong enough to hold the weight of the book, it will fall down.
Reflect and Share
Talk with children about what they noticed. Ask,
- What happened when you used only a few cups to support the floor?
- What other things helped to make the tower stronger?
Adaptation: Make sure that children test their own buildings for strength to avoid having children upset each other.