Making & creating
Book bridge
- Builds: Building something strong
- 15 min
- Ages 4–6
- Calm
- A little tidy-up
From the house
- 8–10 books
- A few sheets of printer paper
- A toy car
- Spoons or blocks for testing
How to play
- Make two towers of books about a hand apart, and lay one flat sheet of paper across the gap.
- Drive the toy car onto it. Does the bridge sag and fall?
- Fold a sheet back and forth into a zigzag, lay it across so the folds run from tower to tower, and put a flat sheet on top as the road.
- Drive the car across now, then make the gap wider and test again.
Fit it to your child
- Easier: Lay a strip of cereal box across instead of paper, and let them build the towers and drive the car over.
- Harder: Count how many spoons or blocks the zigzag bridge holds before it falls, then try to beat it.
Words to use
- bridge
- strong
- sag
- fold
- across
- test
Why it helps
Seeing a flat sheet fail and a folded one hold shows them that shape makes things strong, the same trick that’s inside cardboard.