Today our preschoolers explored STEM through a hands-on building challenge using spaghetti and marshmallows to create their own structures! The children planned, tested ideas, solved problems and adapted their designs as they built, showing great perseverance and creativity.

Learning intent: to develop early engineering skills, encourage critical thinking, and support teamwork.

This activity links to the EYFS by promoting Understanding the World (exploring how things work), Mathematics(shape, balance, and size), and Physical Development (fine motor control), while also nurturing the Characteristics of Effective Learning as children played, explored, and kept trying even when their structures wobbled.

Next step: introduce simple challenges such as building the tallest structure or one that can hold a small object, encouraging children to predict outcomes, talk about what worked well, and make improvements to their designs.