Teaching Kids Perseverance by Building a Tower

In my character building education series, teaching kids perseverance by building a tower is our next lesson. This activity is fun for kids of all ages but also teaches diligence as they set goals and work to accomplish them.

Character Building Education Series

Welcome to my character building series. I hope you’ll check out my perseverance tab to find even more activities to help teach this important character quality to your kids.

Start with this initial lesson in perseverance and then explore all the lessons I have to offer.

This character building series offers lessons and activities surrounding 52 character qualities, one trait for each week of the year. Within this series, you will find more than enough lessons to be able to work on character with your kids every day for an entire year.

Teaching Kids Perseverance by Building a Tower

Subject: Perseverance

Objective: Kids will experience the fruits of perseverance.

Perseverance Bible Verse

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” 1 Corinthians 9:24 NIV

Materials Needed for Teaching Kids Perseverance by Building a Tower

Set of Blocks – Don’t have blocks? You can also try and stack cups in a pyramid, rocks, boxes, toilet paper rolls, Tupperware, cans, spice containers, Oreos, marshmallows, or LEGO

How to Teach Perseverance by Building a Tower

Take out your blocks or building materials.

The goal is make the tallest tower with your building materials. This can be a group effort or kids can compete to see who builds the tallest.

Another option is build a tower and set the goal to beat the last height.

Kids will experience the tower falling over and over again and then experience the joys of perseverance as they try and try again to go higher.

Ask these questions:

Did you get your biggest build on your first try?
What did it take to build the tower taller? Potential answers include: perseverance, strategies, patience, a careful touch, etc.
How have you witnessed other people persevering as they seek to accomplish things in life?

A Famous Person Who Succeed Because of Perseverance

Ask: Do you know who J.K. Rowling is? She is the author of the Harry Potter book series.

What do you know about this book series? Here are some facts:

500 million Harry Potter books have been sold
8 Harry Potter movies have been made
2 Harry Potter theme parks have been created
Between seven books, eight movies, two theme parks, and countless Wizarding toys accessories, the brand is worth $25 billion.

Ask: Do you think J.K. Rowling was successful right after she wrote the book? Here are some facts:

J.K. Rowling was poor and was on welfare.
She was depressed after being jobless, divorced, a single mom, and poor.
When writing the book she was so poor that she couldn’t afford a computer or even afford to photocopy the 90,000 word novel, so she typed it out over and over again to send to publishers.
She was rejected by published 12 times before finally being picked up by Bloomsbury publishing.

Say: Our perseverance in building a tower is so much smaller than some of the real life situations where we need to learn to persevere. The more we practice in the small ways, the easier it will be to persevere in the bigger ways.