Ice Castle Building Challenge: A Preschool STEM Activity

After the rush of Christmas, we still have the entire winter to face. You can make the dull days of winter a bit more fun by participating in icy STEM challenges. This ice castle building challenge is the perfect STEM activity to try with preschoolers and toddlers. They will love building ice castles and you’ll love the easy set-up.

This fun preschool STEM challenge lets preschoolers and toddlers make their very own castles in the ice castle building challenge.

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Before you do this activity, freeze your ice the day in advance so you don’t have to spend hours waiting on this fun project!

Ice Castle Building Challenge: Winter Preschool STEM

This fun preschool STEM challenge lets preschoolers and toddlers make their very own castles in the ice castle building challenge.

What you’ll need to set up the ice castle building challenge:

  • Silicone muffin cups
  • A large tray
  • Salt

We froze our ice in silicone muffin cups. This allowed us to make fun shapes like stars and hearts. However, you can also use a regular ice tray for making your ice castle bricks. It doesn’t really matter what shape of mold you use. Make sure you freeze enough blocks to make large towers. 20 ice blocks will provide enough bricks to build a satisfying ice castle.

This fun preschool STEM challenge lets preschoolers and toddlers make their very own castles in the ice castle building challenge.

Show the kids how the salt will melt the ice just a bit so that the ice blocks will stick together. This is the secret of the ice castle building challenge!

This fun preschool STEM challenge lets preschoolers and toddlers make their very own castles in the ice castle building challenge.

Let your kids make their own castle designs. They may prefer to make large single tower castles or create elaborate designs with walls, a moat, and several towers. Part of what makes this a STEM challenge is allowing kids to come up with their own designs.

This fun preschool STEM challenge lets preschoolers and toddlers make their very own castles in the ice castle building challenge.

First my preschooler build a single tower stack, but she soon became interested in creating more elaborate ice castles.

What Kids Learn with the Ice Castle Building Challenge

During this STEM challenge, you can discuss how ice forms and the different forms that water can take (solid, liquid, or gas). You can also discuss how salt helps ice melt faster, which helps the ice blocks stick together. Kids will also learn that they have to be careful stacking their ice castle towers or the whole thing will come tumbling down!

This fun preschool STEM challenge lets preschoolers and toddlers make their very own castles in the ice castle building challenge.

Looking for more STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) projects and inspiration?

Check out my new book STEAM Kids Christmas and get a FREE STEAM Kids Coloring book if you buy during launch week! You can get both books (eBook PDF format) for only $9.99! But the sale and bonus book offer ends November 21, so grab your copy now and don’t miss out!

STEAM Kids Christmas Steam projects

Get more information on STEAM Kids Christmas by clicking here.
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You can also get a bundle with our best selling STEAM Kids book, STEAM Christmas and STEAM Kids Coloring book for one low price: Click here to get your bundle today!

Not quite ready to jump in, don’t worry… you can hop over and grab a FREE Preview which includes 2 sample activities, 6 sample challenge cards, and the table of contents of the book! 

For More Winter STEM Activities, Check Out:

25 Awesome STEAM Christmas Projects for Kids

Totally Awesome Kid-Made Ornaments!

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Discover how to get siblings to get along even when all they do is annoy each other with the Sibling “Get Along” Poster Pack!

2 thoughts on “Ice Castle Building Challenge: A Preschool STEM Activity”

  1. Pingback: 20 Must-Try Winter Science Experiments for Kids

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