Coin Structures is an easy tower building activity for kids that is novel and supremely fun. While most of the building activities for kids revolve around supplies that you need to get from the supermarket, this one has everything it needs in your home – Coins!
Lots of coins is all you need for these exciting coin tower activities for kids. And of course, creativity and patience.
What we really love about this fun STEM activity for kids at home is that it requires absolutely no set-up and is perfect for kids of all ages above 5 years. Though the younger kids can engage in it too, they will need help and supervision.
Coin Structures Building Activity for Kids
A great way to work on creativity, fine motor skills, visual-spatial skills along with observation and patience, Coin structures building activity is a great way to introduce kids to the world of construction.
1. Coin Tower
This is the simplest building activity for kids and will warm them up for more tricky structures.
Begin with simply stacking the coins on top of each other to build the longest coin tower possible. Turn it into a fun challenge between kids if you are working in a classroom setting or if they company to make the tallest coin tower in a minute without any tumbling!
2. Leaning Tower of Pisa
It is always more fun if you can integrate activities across disciplines. We integrated this engineering activity for kids with world geography & history to teach them about the famous monuments and landmarks.
Start with a picture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and discuss with your kids how they can make it using coins.
To make our Leaning Tower of Pisa, we came up with the idea of sliding coins by a small margin atop each other to make a coin structure that is leaning on one side, just like the Tower of Pisa.
This model will explore the principles gravity, weight and balance making it a perfect STEM activity for kids.
If you are working with students, turn it into a team building activity by dividing students into teams and encouraging them to brainstorm. Brainstorming is great for kids as it helps them explore different ideas and test their viability.
3. Roman Colosseum
How about building the Roman Colosseum with coins? This massive amphitheater, built of stone, was commissioned to play games. As a part of our structure building activity for school age kids, we decided to make this iconic Roman structure using coins.
We made pillars using coins and then connected them at the top to resemble the ancient marvel.
4. Arch Bridge
If your kids or students are learning about bridges, this is one STEM building activity they must do. It is an easy construction activity for kids and is sure to give your budding young engineers a hands-on lesson on building their very own arch bridge.
5. Eiffel Tower
Here is another historical landmark that attracts millions of visitors every year. It was so much fun reading about the Eiffel Tower with kids and no wonder they were all excited to make their versions of the landmark.
To make the activity more inclusive, encourage kids to describe the Eiffel Tower using one advective and find its synonym in French language as well.
6. Basilica of Sacre Coeur
As we were already discussing the Persian landmark, we decided why not try our hands at a more complex structure – The Basilica of Sacre Coeur.
Such building challenges for kids really expand their minds & imagination and challenge their creativity. We recommend this as a group activity to promote cooperation.
7. Christ of Redeemer
The last one on our structure building activities for kids was a real test! Perfect for elementary and middle school, this building activity will force kids to think out of the box and come up with their own version of the Brazilian landmark.
Building landmarks is a great way to sneak in STEM skills while soaking up history. Such activities allow students who are shy of usual STEM activities or construction activities but are interested in World History to take part and find a common point of interest.
Coin Structures Free Printable
Make sure to let the creativity flow and allow good time for discussions to make these building activities for kids even more exciting.
