folk tales problem solving stem kits

6 Fairy Tale STEM Ideas That’ll Empower Preschoolers to Problem-Solve

Not gonna lie: I had entirely too much fun with all of these fairy tale STEM activities. Maybe it’s the part inside of me that never wants to grow up, the wonderful magic I’ve learned from watching my grandma. We are never too old to have a foam fight, dance in the dark, sing karaoke, or get sand in our cracks at Big Mac. We are also not too old to enjoy building and creating with our little ones. Trust me, you will love immersing yourself in the simple joy of these fairy tale STEM ideas with your little ones. 

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Fairy Tale Lesson plans

Jack & the Beanstalk

Fairy tale stem ideas.

This actually works! 

I was so giddy as we sent these tissue paper parachutes to the ground. They glided beautifully to help Jack escape the giant quickly.

First, the girls picked a shape that they thought would work well as a parachute: either circle, oval, triangle, or square. Then, I drew the shape on tissue paper for them to cut out. They taped yarn pieces onto the corners and only needed help tying the strings together. Finally, they taped the little dude on the strings and we let them SOAR! 🪂

We had plenty of time and sunshine to test out all the shapes with this Jack & the Beanstalk STEM activity !

• tissue paper
• people counters

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Stem challenge for preschoolers.

As one of our STEM challenges this past week, we built rafts to help the billy goats get across the river without encountering the troll.

It was so neat to see the kiddos try one idea and modify it to make it work for all three goats! I could see the wheels turning with this one!

So go grab some simple materials (corks, straws, aluminum foil, tape, and 3 blocks) and get those kiddos experimenting with this Three Billy Goats Gruff STEM challenge!

• aluminum foil
• 3 blocks (to tape goat printouts onto)

Hansel & Gretel

Stem activity for preschoolers.

Building a flat shape around the witch: easy! Building a 3-dimensional trap: not-so-easy .

Sometimes we forget how even building with toothpicks and marshmallows can be a challenge for our kiddos. They can jump on a trampoline, ride a bike, get their own water, pretend to read a book, and make you laugh like crazy. But building 3D shapes? Nope.

That’s why it is important to present our little learners with different types of materials to explore and challenge them to try something new!

Even though this Hansel & Gretel STEM challenge was difficult at first, my little one pushed through and figured it out toward the end. Way to go!

• mini marshmallows
• 3 blocks (to tape witch printouts onto)

Rapunzel STEM Challenge

Fairy tale activity.

Can my full-time job just be trying to get out of escape rooms and writing reviews? That’s a real job, right? I’m going to have to look into that.

If I were Rapunzel, I definitely would have escaped after all those years. 

And that is exactly what our little ones are trying to help her do with this next fairy tale STEM challenge! They had to decide whether to build a ladder or a slide to help her escape from her tower! 

Using popsicle sticks, cardboard tubes, and tape (lots and lots of tape), they made this wonky ladder and pretty neat slide to help Rapunzel get out of that tower. 

• regular popsicle sticks
• mini popsicle sticks
• cardboard tubes

Three Little Pigs

Fairy tale stem ideas for preschool.

So our neighbor came over while we were doing The Three Little Pigs STEM activity. It was his first and last time over. I guess the Big Bad Wolf blowing down his house scared him off. Poor guy. 

We’ve been on a “Three Little Pigs” kick lately. You know, the one where you get to read it every single night. I will say, one the benefits of reading this over and over is that my wolf voice is top-notch.  

So my girls knew exactly what to do when I brought out the Big Bad Blow Dryer ! Apparently, our little neighbor boy didn’t. I kinda felt bad. Kinda. 

I didn’t really set any limits on using one material (toothpicks for hay, popsicle sticks for sticks, and blocks for bricks). They just used whatever they wanted, including play dough as mortar, to construct a house that couldn’t be blown down by the Big Bad Blow Dryer.

We’ve also done this activity during our construction theme , so this activity is also sold separately .

• popsicle sticks
• 3 blocks to make 3 little pigs

Gingerbread Man

Stem activity.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Take a look at that top left pic, and you will know exactly what I mean. I didn’t realize that I needed to teach the kids that bridges aren’t entirely built in water. Well, I guess it’s a learning experience for us all.

So after teaching that bridges are mostly out of the water , we looked closely at the 4 types of bridges on the sheet, which are arch, beam, truss, and suspension. The two easiest are definitely beam and then arch (in case you are wondering for your little learners). It will take some guidance to make a truss and suspension bridge, for sure.

Or they can come up with any way they want to build a bridge that will help the Gingerbread Man cross the river without getting eaten by the fox. 

• river printout (included)
• Duplo Legos
• block (to tape Gingerbread Man printout onto)

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More fairy tale activities for preschoolers.

Would you like your fairy godmother to magically have your lesson plans done ? You can bibbity-bobbity straight to putting your feet up with this Fairy Tale Activity Bundle. No more searching around to create highly engaging centers that your students will love. All of these fairy tale activities preschoolers will love are included in this discounted bundle! Plus, you get all the fairy tale STEM ideas for challenges you could want for your fairy tale theme!

Discover More themed Activities

Meet Bethany

I am a former elementary school teacher and reading specialist, now stay-at-home-mom to my two beautiful, charismatic girls, Addison and Aria.

I’ve created engaging preschool learning activities grouped into themes to make it easy for you to implement teaching with play with your little learners, too!

© Turner Tots

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Fairy Tales Problem Solving STEM Kits - Set 2

Kids use STEM skills to help Little Red Riding Hood! Perfect for building problem-solving skills, the kit includes a story card that presents a dilemma for kids to solve. Children have to plan, create and test basket designs to hold Little Red Riding Hood’s apples! The kit comes with a STEM-focused story card, 32 plastic basket builders, 10 apples, 4 figures, plus student & teacher cards with lesson plans and full support. The largest piece is 5 1/2". Develops skills in problem solving, the design process, counting, weight, volume and cause & effect.  

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Folk Tales: John Henry

Kids explore the legend of John Henry—then build a working conveyor belt to help him race a steam-powered drill!

Our kit helps kids discover the STEM in a classic folk tale—inspiring them to use hands-on materials to design, build and test a conveyor belt that really hauls rocks…then improve their design like real engineers!

This kit comes with a STEM-focused story card, student challenge cards, a detailed lesson plan and a reproducible design sheet—plus 102 pieces to build a conveyor belt, 10 rocks, a crate, a 16 1/2″ mountain facade and a ruler.

Develops skills in structure and stability, the design process, understanding gears and problem solving. (7+)

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Fairy Tales STEM

See what's inside.

Best for upper elementary-early middle school students.

• The Three Billy Goats Gruff
• The Three Little Pigs
• Goldilocks & the Three Bears
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears sequencing cards and CD
• The Billy Goats Gruff sequencing cards and CD
• The Three Little Pigs sequencing cards and CD
• Scholastic Storytime STEM Folk & Fairy Tales

Classroom Kits are designed to make research easy for students. These multi-copy and themed kits contain materials suitable for a specific grade level. Fill out the request form and bring the library into your classroom!

Fairy Tales Problem Solving Kits

Using provided materials, students design and build structures based on the storyline..

Suggested Grade Level Use : K-2

Standards: Develops skills in using the design process, exploring cause and effect, and experimenting with gravity and force.

Recommended Use : 2-3 students per Kit

Amount: 10 of each kit, implementation ideas: problem solving. engineering design, implementation difficulty: easy.

Goldilocks and The 3 Bears

The 3 Billy Goat Gruff

Three Little Pigs and The Big Bad Wolf

• Lessons & Ideas
• Resources & References
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• STEM & Fairy Tales

Once upon a time, fairy tales were for the very young. They were read at bedtime or watched in Disney movies.But in a true to life “happily ever after” scenario, fairy tale literature is experiencing a revival these days. Recently, some of the most popular movies and television series and Broadway shows are inhabited by the fabulous characters straight from our childhood fairy tales. And we, at Get Caught Engineering, have been inspired by them to create engineering lessons that incorporate these well-loved tales that appeal to young and old alike.

Why Combine Fairy Tales and STEM?

As educators, we understand the time crunch teachers experience every day and are big believers in integrating STEM lessons into other subjects. Fairy tales provide a wonderful springboard for developing an engineering lesson for several reasons:

• Fairy tales are already part of the elementary school curriculum; therefore it is not an add-on.
• Anything is possible in a fairy tale! The ideas for an engineering connection is limitless.
• Fairy Tales encourage students to begin to problem solve and generate design ideas.
• Children already know most of the fairy tales so time isn’t spent on reading or reviewing a story .
• Fairy Tales are short and the format makes it easy to discuss the plot and a problem. 

Begin with a “What if?” Question

Trigger the creativity of children by asking them to imagine possibilities beyond the story that they know.

• What if we create a tool, or system to help the characters solve their problem or escape the Giant ?
• What if we redesign or improve a tool that is already used in the story? Could Rapunzel have a different way to raise and lower people coming to her tower?
• What if we save the princess, beat the dragon or overcome the Ogre or Troll in a new and different way? Could the three Billy Goats go around the Troll?

With fiction, we are only limited by our own imagination! And remember…engineers often think out of the box to solve problems.

 Think Beyond “Happily Ever After” and “Once Upon a Time”

Think about what might have happened before the fairy tale started. Could a problem even be avoided by looking at the past?

*If the Three Pigs built an alarm before their unfortunate encounter with the Wolf, all would be safe.

*If Cinderella’s father had a more secure saddle, he possibly would never have fallen off of his horse.

What about what may happen after the fairy tale ends?

*Where are Cinderella and Prince Charming going to live? Certainly not with the in-laws!

*What happened when Goldilocks told her mother about her encounter with the Three Bears? Someone needs to design and build some new furniture.

Engage the Engineering

  We have found that every fairy tale presents a problem in the plot that needs to be solved. Some ideas that we developed into engineering design process challenges include:

• Rapunzel  – Create an elevator for the tower
• Goldilocks – Engineer a new chair for Baby Bear
• Jack and the Beanstalk – Develop a grabber for the golden egg
• Cinderella – Design a castle to live in after the wedding

Or, rather than presenting the problem that needs to be solved to the students, make a list of possible problems that need solving from a particular tale.

Let the students choose which problem they would like to solve. Not everyone need solve the same problem! And it is always interesting to watch two or three groups solve the same problem in different ways.

Need some prepared STEM and fairy tale lessons? Our Teacher Pay Teachers store has ten individual fairy tale lessons available to download. In addition, we have three fairy tale bundles of activities that explore many aspects of engineering.

A Charming Bundle of Enchanted Engineering

Want to try one of the Enchanted Enchanted lessons? We have a FREEBIE to get you started!

Sleeping Beauty with Enchanted Engineering

Happily Ever After...in STEM Class

Once your students engineer solutions to a few fairy tale challenges, we’re sure that these will be some of their favorite STEM activities.

We hope you and your students Get Caught Engineering with fairy tales !

Wendy and Cheryl

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FAIRY TALES PROBLEM SOLVING STEM KITS

R 7,302.50

Kids engineer happier endings to fairy tales as they design a house that can’t be blown down, construct a bridge that keeps 3 goats safe from the troll and build a chair even Goldilocks can’t break! Our kits help children discover the STEM in their favorite fairy tales and naturally inspire them to explore each challenging situation until they find a solution! Each kit comes with a STEM-focused story card, building materials, a guide, plus student and teacher cards with lesson plans and full support. You get all 3 kits shown, for a total of 165 building pieces.

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