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Team tower

Having fun building and taking turns.

Download a fully illustrated pdf, or print this webpage.

You will need

  • A Baseplate or flat surface.

  • As many bricks as you like.

  • Something to measure the height of the tower; measuring tape, a chair or YOU!

Skills we will be engaging

  • SOCIAL - sharing, turn taking, laughing together.

  • EMOTIONAL - excitement, anticipation, resilience.

  • COGNITIVE - iterative building, measuring.

  • CREATIVE - using bricks in different ways.

  • PHYSICAL- movement, pushing the tower over.

How to play

  1. Place a shared pile of bricks on a flat surface.

  2. Explain “Let's take turns adding bricks to build a tower.”

  3. Ask your child “You choose a brick to start our tower.”

  4. You then say “now it’s my turn to choose a brick.”

  5. Keeping going for as long as your child wants to or until you run out of bricks!

  6. If it falls over, “that’s okay, how can we make it stronger?”

  7. When you have finished measure how tall the tower is.

  8. Take a photo or show your tower to someone else.

  9. Make a noise! Let your child knock the tower over and build again!

Talk while you play

Take a few moments to watch what your child is doing. Notice and comment on what is happening, "Wow! look how tall the tower is!"

You might like to ask your child some questions while you play. "Shall we build it again?"

Adapt the activity

Feel free to adapt the activity to meet your child's individual needs. The important thing is that everyone is relaxed and having fun, don't worry if you don't follow the instructions perfectly.

Make it easier

  • Use a single colour or size of brick.

  • Start with just 4 or 5 bricks.

Let’s do a challenge

  • Count how many bricks high you have built.

  • Start your build with the biggest/longest bricks you have and gradually add smaller and smaller bricks.

  • Build the tower using bricks end on end instead of stacking the usual way.

  • How high can you build in 10 minutes?

  • Only use one hand to build with.

Including others

  • Build in teams – Adults vs Kids. The adults can only build with one hand.

  • Add in more players and take it in turns to add bricks.