This egg-cellent play idea is sure to hatch some serious fun while building important STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) skills. Using playdough as mortar, children can stack plastic eggs into towers, castles, creatures—or anything their imaginations cook up! Make it a family competition and you’ll really be cracking smiles!

Supplies:

• Plastic eggs
• Playdough (any color works!)

Directions:

1. First, try stacking plastic eggs on a plate or solid table. Can you build a tower? How high can you go before it wobbles or falls?
2. Add playdough as “mortar” between eggs to help them stick together. Roll small balls or coils of playdough to use between each egg.
3. Keep experimenting! Try building different shapes or stacking patterns. See what works best and have fun designing your own egg-cellent structure.

Ways to expand it:

• Try using different sizes or shapes of eggs. Does that make your structure more or less stable?
• What happens when you try building on different surfaces—like a cookie sheet, cardboard, or carpet?
• Challenge: Can you build an egg bridge? What about a house or a creature?
• Add decorations to turn your creation into a character or sculpture.

How do kids benefit?

• Engineering basics. Kids learn about balance, structure, and what makes things stable or unstable.
• Experimentation! Trial and error is a great way to learn. If a tower falls—crack a smile and try again.
• Fine motor skills. Rolling playdough and balancing eggs helps develop hand strength and control.
• Interactions between materials. Children notice how the smooth plastic and sticky dough work together—or don’t!
• Creative play. Open-ended play invites kids to imagine, invent, and problem-solve while having fun.

Vocabulary

• Mortar. A material (like playdough in this case!) used to hold building pieces together.
• Balance. The ability to stay steady and not fall over.
• Foundation. The base that supports everything built on top of it.