DIY “Frozen” Building Activities for Preschoolers

We recently turned our building center into a Frozen-inspired wonderland. Okay, that might be overstating it a bit, but we did make into a place for the students to build “ice castles”. These Frozen-inspired building activities for preschoolers were a huge hit in my classroom! Even better, the kiddos were instrumental in planning everything.

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Related: Frozen Activities Kids Will Love

building activities for preschoolers inspired by the movie Frozen

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Materials
Wooden blocks
Acrylic paint – we used white, light blue, light purple, and pink.
Glitter – we used silver, pink, and purple.
White fabric – a sheet or shower curtain are great options.
Cotton balls
Glittery pompoms
Plastic cups

Planning
Like I said previously, the children took on a huge role in planning this activity. One of my lovely coworkers overheard a few of the kids talking about making ice castles in the building center. She mentioned to the children that clear plastic cups might be fun for that. Well, the kiddos just ran with that idea!

A small group of children (and not just the girls) came to me with the suggestion. I grabbed our large writing pad and we started mapping out what we were going to do. I asked the children a few questions – “What do you want the ice castles to look like?”, “What materials do we need to turn the block center into Arendelle?”, and “Who is going to help make this happen?” These questions led to a lot of note-taking on my part, and tons of ideas on the part of the children. I loved showing the children how to record their ideas, and I loved hearing what they had to say! Our notes were up in the classroom as we prepped everything.

Prep
The main thing the children wanted to do was paint some of our wooden blocks. I checked with our director to see if we had any blocks in storage that were okay to paint. There were, so we set to work! The children took turns painting a variety of blocks with acrylic paint, then adding glitter to “sparkle it all up!”

The kiddos thought having snow falling from the ceiling would be fun. That part was a little harder to pull off with their help. I ended up stringing some cotton balls on fishing line, then hanging the lines from the ceiling. A few children helped me, but many became a little frustrated with the fishing line coming out of the needles we used.

Set Up
To invite the children into our own version of Arendelle, I placed a white fabric shower curtain on the big rug in the building center. The “snow” got taped up to the ceiling above the center, and the rest of the supplies were set out in bins near our blocks. When the children arrived, they were SO EXCITED to see everything set out!

How the children played
There were a variety of ice castles built in the classroom, of course. Some castles were for Anna and Elsa, while others were for “superheroes who live at the North Pole” and “snow dogs.” All of my students got a kick out of the block set up!

Some just used the blocks to build with, while others loved incorporating the plastic cups. I was challenged to build an ice castle taller than me, so I had fun showing the kiddos I could do just that. They loved that I got the cups almost to the ceiling of the classroom before gravity took over! 🙂

There was, of course, a bevy of snow showers at this center. And by “snow showers” I mean cotton balls and pompoms being tossed around. The children had to be reigned in a little and reminded that the “snow” was to stay in the confines of the center. Other than that, it didn’t bother me – they were having a blast! Even Miss Brit popped in to check out the fun and make snow showers of her own!

In case you didn’t already notice, I loved this Frozen-inspired block set up. From planning with the kids to painting the blocks to watching them build, it was an awesome process! Lots of fun along with lots of learning. Just what I like in my classroom!

Do you have any favorite building activities for preschoolers? Have you set up anything Frozen-inspired like this before?

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