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Home » Early Years Science » Three Little Pigs STEM Challenge

Three Little Pigs STEM Challenge

Modified: Mar 10, 2025 · Published: Aug 20, 2021 by Emma Vanstone · This post may contain affiliate links · 2 Comments

This Three Little Pigs STEM Challenge is a brilliant science experiment for learning about the stability of structures and properties of materials. It’s great for early years science age, but it can also be extended for older children.

If you like this, you might also like my Gingerbread Man science experiments.

We made six different types of Three Little Pig houses loosely based on the story.

Three Little Pigs STEM Challenge

You’ll need

Sticks

Straws – plastic and paper

Marshmallows

Elastic bands

Cardboard

LEGO

Squeezy bottle or small fan to use as wind

Sugar cubes

Three Little Pigs STEM Challenge Instructions

In the classroom, I set up five different areas with different materials for the house building and let the children explore each area.

3 Little Pigs Stick House

We talked about the properties of sticks, which make them suitable for house building. The best sticks were quite smooth, without too many bumps and all a similar size.

House built from sticks with a puppet pig inside for a STEM challenge

3 Little Pigs Straw House

I bundled the straws up to make them easier to build with and let the children work out the best way to put them together.

Little Pig house - house made from straw . straws bundled together for a STEM challenge

Sugar Cube House

This one was the most popular and kept the children occupied for a long time. Once finished, you could extend this task by spraying the house with water or sticking the cubes together with different materials, such as icing sugar or marshmallow fluff, or even just dampening the cubes to see if they stick that way.

sugar cube house for the Three Little Pigs

Paper/Cardboard/Straw walls

I built a frame using LEGO and then cut paper and cardboard walls to test, as well as a wall that could be built from straws. The children then used a squeezy bottle to blow “wind” onto the walls and observed what happened.

LEGO house for the Three Little Pigs as part of a fun STEM Challenge

LEGO/Brick House

I built this LEGO house and left one side of the roof empty so the children could test sticks, ripped cardboard and the LEGO tiles to see which protected against the squeezy bottle wind the most. I placed some tissue paper squares inside the house so the effect of the wind was visible to the children.

Stick, straw and brick house for the Three Little Pigs

Marshmallow and Straws

The children loved this one, but it did get a bit sticky, and the houses were not very stable. Smaller, harder sweets and cocktail sticks might work better.

marshmallow and straw house for a Three Little Pigs STEM Challenge

These FREE printable design sheets might be handy, too!

FREE Three Little Pigs House Design Sheets

Click on the image to download.

design sheet with three houses on it for a three little pigs STEM activity
Design sheet with a single house for designing a house for the Three Little Pigs
3 little pigs science activity design sheets
Instruction sheet for a Three Little Pigs STEM challenge

Three Little Pigs STEM Challenge Extension Tasks

Ask children to spray each house with water and observe what happens. They can also make predictions too.

Children can shake their test houses to find out how stable they are.

Suggest and test other materials.

Don’t forget to check out my other storybook themed science experiments too!

Collage of 3 little pig houses made from sticks, brick and sugar cubes.

Science concepts

Exploring and using media and materials

Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.

Key Stage 1  Science Topics

Everyday Materials

Uses of Everyday Materials

Working Scientifically

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Last Updated on March 10, 2025 by Emma Vanstone

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Safety Notice

Science Sparks ( Wild Sparks Enterprises Ltd ) are not liable for the actions of activity of any person who uses the information in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources. Science Sparks assume no liability with regard to injuries or damage to property that may occur as a result of using the information and carrying out the practical activities contained in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources.

These activities are designed to be carried out by children working with a parent, guardian or other appropriate adult. The adult involved is fully responsible for ensuring that the activities are carried out safely.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Becky

    July 28, 2015 at 6:21 am

    oh that is just fantastic fun!

    Reply
  2. Helen Adcock

    November 22, 2016 at 12:37 pm

    Fabulous ideas for our Year 1 science materials topic. Thank you. We have the materials but not yet made the houses. I’ll try to remember to post how the lessons went.

    Reply

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