The Smart Cookie Book Activity Marshmallow Toothpick Tower STEM Challenge

Bring The Smart Cookie by Jory John to life with a hands-on Team Building STEM challenge!

The Smart Cookie STEM activity connects reading, engineering, and reflection as students practice communication, collaboration, and perseverance. Students work together to design and build a strong, stable toothpick tower while discovering how their individual strengths contribute to a team.

Teams use toothpicks and marshmallows or play dough to plan, build, test, and improve a freestanding tower. Students share ideas, combine designs, and try new strategies as they explore how connections, shapes, and a wide base help structures stay stable.

The challenge celebrates teamwork and each student’s contributions throughout the engineering design process.

What’s Included:

• Step-by-step teacher instructions
• BONUS: Canva lesson slides
• Student challenge letter connecting the activity to The Smart Cookie
• Engineering design process posters and guiding questions
• Imagine and Plan student recording page
• Vocabulary cards: structure, strength, strategy, and perseverance
• Science explanations for marshmallow and play dough builds
• “What makes you a smart cookie?” writing pages
• Team planning and reflection questions
• Challenge sample photos for teacher reference
• NGSS, CCSS, and TEKS connections

Materials List

• Toothpicks
• Small marshmallows or play dough
• Ruler
• The Smart Cookie by Jory John

Perfect for:

• Back to school STEM and classroom community building
• The Smart Cookie read-aloud activities
• Team Building STEM lessons
• Growth mindset and social-emotional learning
• Elementary STEM labs and makerspaces

Help your students build confidence, recognize one another’s strengths, and discover that there’s more than one way to be a smart cookie!