Building a Sturdy House 

In this lesson, children will build houses strong enough to stand up to the huffing and puffing of the "big bad wolf."

Learning Goals:

This lesson will help children meet the following educational standards:

  • Develop beginning skills in the use of science and engineering practices such as observing, asking questions, solving problems, and drawing conclusions
  • Develop and use models to represent their ideas, observations, and explanations through approaches such as drawing, building or modeling with clay

Learning Targets:

After this lesson, children should be more proficient at:

  • Expressing wonder and curiosity about their world by asking questions, solving problems and designing things
  • Developing and using models to represent their ideas, observations and explanations through approaches such as drawing, building or modeling with clay

Step 1: Gather materials.

  • Assorted building materials (popsicle sticks, straws, tape, LEGO bricks)
  • The book: The Three Little Pigs by Kidsbook Publishing (or the version of your choice)  
  • Fan
  • Paper 
  • Pencils

Step 2: Introduce activity.

  1. Gather the children in a large group and ask them to share what they know about building houses.
  2. After the children have shared, read “The Three Little Pigs.”
  3. Ask the children to recall the materials the pigs in the story used to build their houses. Then ask what happened when the big bad wolf came around.
  4. Ask the children why they think the house of bricks was not blown away. 
  5. Discuss some of the possible reasons why the house was not blown away (a strong base, the materials used, how much of the material was used, etc.)
  6. Explain that it is the children's turn to design and build a house that cannot be blown down.

Step 3: Engage children in lesson activities.

  1. Organize the children into small groups and invite them to design and draw houses that can be built with the available assorted materials.
  2. Ask the children to consider the building materials they would like to use and then incorporate these materials into their drawings.
  3. After the children draw their houses, invite them to start building them using popsicle sticks, straws, LEGO bricks, and other materials.
  4. As the children are building, ask if their houses look like their original designs. If not, why did they choose to build them differently?
  5. After the children are done building, ask them to predict if their houses will be blown away or will stand up to the huffing and puffing of the "big bad wolf" (represented by the fan).
  6. Turn on the fan to test the strength of the houses. Which ones will be blown away, and which ones will remain standing?
  7. After all of the houses have been tested, discuss and analyze why some stood strong and some got blown away.
  8. Invite the children to redesign their houses and try out other materials and building techniques until they solve the problem of building a windproof house.

Step 4: Engineering vocabulary

  • Analyze: To examine information to draw conclusions
  • Base: The part of a building that sits on the ground
  • Conclude: To make statements about what was learned after an observation or experiment
  • Design: To create a plan for something that will be built
  • Predict: To guess what might happen next
  • Test: To try out an idea to see if it works or not

Suggested Books
  • Building a House  by Byron Barton
  • How a House is Built  by Gail Gibbons
  • If I Built a House  by Chris Van Dusen
Music and Movement

Outdoor Connections
  • Go on a neighborhood walk to compare the different houses and buildings in the neighborhood.
Web Resources

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