Printable Marshmello Template

Using toothpicks and marshmallows, create constellations from the book. In this project, we created the following constellations: Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Cassiopeia, and Canis Major. As you can see from the images below, it’s not overly hard to make constellations using marshmallows but there are a few things to keep in mind!

I’d also suggest having extra marshmallows on hand for this experiment. There will be some that will be eaten, dropped, lost, smushed, get wet, get thrown, or a combination of all the above. As you can see, there is a lot of putting together toothpicks and marshmallows for this activity.

Be certain that they’re careful to not poke themselves with the toothpicks as it doesn’t take a ton of pressure to get the toothpick to go through the marshmallow. Advise them to hold the outside sides of the marshmallow and stick the toothpicks in that way.

There will be some that will be eaten, dropped, lost, smushed, get wet, get thrown, or a combination of all the above. As you can see, there is a lot of putting together toothpicks and marshmallows for this activity. This has a lot of benefits to it for little hands to also work on fine motor skills as well.

Explain that they are going to try and build the tallest, free-standing tower they can with only the marshmallows and toothpicks. They can use no other materials.

Preparation: Give each team one box of toothpicks and one bag of marshmallows. You might also want to cover the tables or floors from falling marshmallows. Pass out one box of toothpicks and one bag of marshmallows to each team. Make sure they don’t open their materials until it’s time to start!

It’s awesome for both large and small groups too. Building with marshmallows and toothpicks is always a huge hit and a quick way to set up structure building challenges for kids. Why is building structures amazing STEM play?

(The added benefit of this challenge is the fine motor work preschoolers get from pinching those marshmallows and sticking toothpicks in them!) Read: Make a Simple Marshmallow Tinker Tray!