Construction crafts for kids leads future engineers, architects and builders into the world of STEM as they experiment with different shapes and techniques. By introducing these kinds of activities to your kids, you can open their minds to a whole world of creative 3D modelling.
Our series of construction activities for kids offers more than an afternoon’s worth of play – these projects are multi-day, epic adventures in three dimensions and, as an added extra, can teach children about our world.
Kids will relish creating an architectural wonder like the Leaning Tower of Pisa (instructions below). Once they’ve conquered this, they can move onto the rest of our construction projects, which are perfect for school holidays or spreading over several weekends. Included are the Golden Gate Bridge, a Mayan temple and a Japanese pagoda. As a grand finale, our popsicle and matchstick Eiffel Tower will challenge older kids (and perhaps their parents, too).
The best part is the confidence and sense of accomplishment your kids will feel after creating something with their own two hands. Happy building!
Cardboard Roll Leaning Tower of Pisa
Children will adore this building project. It’s fun to re-create a building that’s not so perfect, and there’s also the challenge of making it lean far enough but not so far that the tower topples over. Once they’ve established the structure, they can have fun decorating. We’ve done ours with white paint and a black marker, but if kids want to create a blue, purple, yellow or red Tower of Pisa, there’s nothing stopping them. Imagination and creativity are both an intrinsic part of STEM learning!
Did You Know?
The famous Leaning Tower of Pisa stands some 56m high and has more than 270 steps to the top. Construction of the marble bell tower began in the Italian city of Pisa in 1173, but as builders started on the third storey, shifting soil caused it to start to lean. In 1990, the tower was closed to tourists as it was in danger of toppling over.
Happily, a restoration project has stabilised the tower and the consensus of experts is that it should stand for at least a few more hundred years.
What You’ll Need
- Pieces of cardboard from a cardboard box
- Quill A4 125gsm Paper White 25 Pack
- J.Burrows Comfort Grip Scissors 8"/203mm
- Studymate Stainless Steel Ruler 30cm
- Kadink PVA Glue 120mL
- Studymate Compass
- Studymate Coloured Markers 12 Pack
- Educational Colours Hygienic Craft Rolls 110 Pack
- Kadink Low Temperature Glue Sticks 12 Pack
- Kadink Low Temperature Glue Gun
- J.Burrows Recycled Clear Tape with Dispenser 18mmX25m
- Kadink Jumbo Craft Sticks Natural 50 Pack
How to Make It – The Main Tower
Step 1: Take 10 cardboard rolls and join them together in pairs, end to end, with sticky tape, so you have five long tubes.
Step 2: Stand the tubes up and group them together in a circular shape.
Step 3: Wrap sticky tape around the circle of cardboard rolls to secure them together. (This doesn’t have to be particularly neat, as this tape is just to hold the tubes together temporarily.)
Step 4: Using a glue gun, squeeze small amounts of glue between the cardboard rolls to join them together. Once dry you can remove the tape holding the five tubes together.
Step 5: Sticky tape two pieces of A4 paper together along the long edge then turn it over and glue down the overlap.
Step 6: Mark 1.5cm from the right edge of the long side at the top, middle and bottom and use these marks to draw a line parallel to the edge. Repeat on the other side.
Step 7: Using the pencil lines as guides for how deep to go, make evenly spaced cuts along either length of the paper. Cut off every second square, as shown above. You will have gappy “teeth” at the top and bottom of the paper.
Step 8: Across the width of the page, mark 4cm from the left edge, then 1cm, then 4cm and continue with 1cm and 4cm spacing across the page. Make the same marks in the middle and at the bottom, then use your ruler to join up the marks, creating a stripy page of parallel pencil lines, as shown above.
Step 9: Go over the pencil lines with a black marker.
Step 10: Now, in the first larger space, use a pencil and the ruler to mark 1cm from the edge, then 2cm, and continue alternating the measurements from one edge to the other as shown. Do this for each of the larger spaces.
Step 11: Position the jumbo popsicle stick in the first 2cm gap on the bottom row and draw around the popsicle stick with the black marker to create an arch. Repeat along the line and then in each wide row, until they all have arches in them. This will be the outside of the main section of the tower.
Step 12: Use a compass or a large vase to make two big circles on a piece of paper. The circles need to be large enough to cover the top and bottom of the cardboard roll tower.
Step 13: Place your paper with the arches face down on your work area. Bend up all the tabs. Roll the cardboard roll tower in the paper and, where the edges meet, glue down the overlap.
Hot Tip: Try and line up the rows of arches while the glue is still wet and you can slide the paper a bit.
Step 14: When the glue is dry, fold down the paper tabs onto the top of the cardboard roll tower. Add a dab of craft glue to each tab then stick on a paper circle for the top of the tower. Repeat to attach the other circle to the bottom of the tower.
How to Make It – the Top Part
Step 15: Take another piece of paper and use the compass to make another two circles, smaller in size than the top of the tower.
Step 16: Cut out these new paper circles then trace them onto the pieces of cardboard. Cut out the cardboard circles.
Step 17: Now make the outside of the top part of the tower, in a similar way to Steps 5 to 11. With a pencil on an A4 piece of paper, draw a horizontal line along the length of the page, 1cm from the top. Draw another line, 1cm below that, another line 4cm below that, and one last line 1cm below that.
Step 18: Cut along the bottom line and discard the rest of that paper.
Step 19: Make regular cuts along the length of the paper at both the top and bottom, using the 1cm lines as a guide for how deep to cut. Then cut off every second square to create the gappy “teeth” like before.
Step 20: Go over the middle line with black marker.
Step 21: At the bottom of the big space, make marks every 1cm, then 2cm, and keep alternating the space between the marks along the length of the paper as before.
Step 22: Again use the black marker to trace around the jumbo popsicle stick in the 2cm spaces to create arches along the length of the paper.
Step 23: Attach the paper circles to their matching cardboard pieces with craft glue. Leave to dry.
Step 24: Turn them over so the cardboard side is up and apply a very thin line of glue around the edge of one of the circles. Fold the tabs down on the paper strip with arches and, standing it up, curve it around the bottom cardboard circle, then attach it by securing the folded tabs to the glue circle, one by one, until the length of the paper wraps around the cardboard circle.
Step 25: Apply a very thin layer of glue around the edge of the other circle and press it on to the top, so that the paper tabs at the top of the paper strip attach to the glue on the top circle, creating a cylinder.
How to Make It – Put It Together
Step 26: Glue the smaller top piece to the top of the main tower.
Step 27: To create the famous lean, cut a small square of cardboard to make a little wedge. Place under one side of the tower.
Well done! You’ve just built the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
