Children proudly demonstrate a colorful impossible machine in a pretend museum.

Activity Life Skills

Museum of Impossible Inventions

Build a wonderfully impossible machine and open your own museum exhibit.

  • 👧 Ages 3–8
  • 🎓 Pre-primary, Kindergarten, Grade 1
  • ⏱ 20 minutes
  • 🏠 Indoor
  • ⚡ Calm
  • 👥 1–4 players

What are we doing?

Your mission

Invent a machine, explain the problem it solves, redesign one part, and present it to three curious museum visitors.

Stay safe

Safety note

Use large, age-appropriate blocks and washable crayons on a clear floor or low table. Keep unstable towers below the child's shoulder height.

Get ready

Materials needed

  • Paper
  • Washable crayons
  • Large building blocks

Follow the clues

Your play plan

0 of 4 complete

  1. A child and adult prepare blank museum cards and a small colorful block invention.

    Step 1

    Prepare the Museum

    Draw three blank picture display cards and build one small invention shape from blocks.

    “Where will your invention and its three display cards go?”
    Grown-up tip

    Help arrange a stable exhibit space, then let the child choose the first block shape.

  2. A child explains a whimsical block machine to an interested adult visitor.

    Step 2

    Invent an Impossible Machine

    Add parts to make an impossible machine, give it a name, and explain the problem it solves.

    “What surprising job does your machine do, and how do its parts help?”
    Grown-up tip

    Ask curious questions without steering the design toward a realistic answer.

  3. Two children redesign one part of a colorful pretend invention and test its new job.

    Step 3

    Give It a New Job

    Change one visible part of the invention and explain the completely new job it can now do.

    “Which part will you change, and what can the machine do now?”
    Grown-up tip

    Encourage one clear change so the child can compare the two designs.

  4. A child curator presents an impossible machine to three delighted museum visitors.

    Step 4

    Open the Museum

    Present the invention, demonstrate it, and answer three questions from museum visitors.

    “How will you welcome your visitors and show what makes your invention special?”
    6:00
    Grown-up tip

    Invite three short, open questions and give the child time to invent every answer.

Progress is saved only on this device.

Learning and development

Skills children practise

Practise creative problem solving, design iteration, descriptive language, confident speaking, and responding to questions.

  • ✓ Problem solving
  • ✓ Communication
  • ✓ Creativity
  • ✓ Design thinking
  • ✓ Confidence

Make it gentler

Easier version

Offer a small set of blocks and two picture ideas, then ask the child to describe one useful part.

Add a challenge

Harder version

Add a design rule, require two connected jobs, and ask the inventor to use visitor feedback in one final redesign.

Grown-up corner

For parents

Treat every invention idea as possible in pretend play. Ask what each part does and let the child decide how the design changes.

Classroom idea

For teachers

Use pairs as inventor and curator, then invite a small visitor group to ask one open question each before roles rotate.