The 25 best building toys for preschoolers

Does your kid love building and construction? Here are the best building toys for preschoolers and by age!

Are you looking for fun and educational toys to keep your preschooler engaged and entertained? Building toys can be a great choice.

Not only do construction toys promote creativity and problem-solving skills, but they can also help develop fine motor skills and spatial awareness.

With so many options out there, it can be tough to know where to start.

That’s why I’ve put together this article on the best building toys for preschoolers, so you can find the perfect set to keep your little ones building, creating, and learning.

the 25 best building toys for preschoolers

Looking for the best building sets for your kids? Here are my favorites overall and by age category!

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The best building toys for preschoolers

My favorite building toys for kids are:

Magnetic tiles

I can (and have) gone on and on about how much I love magnetic tiles for kids! They are seriously one of the best gifts for kids who like to build.

Younger kids can practice colors, shapes, and fine motor skills and older kids will LOVE making big builds!

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Check out all of our fabulous and free magnetic tile resources!

Legos are a classic for a reason and come in a lot of different sets. They are an obvious choice for best building toys for kids. I’d just only use them for kids aged 5 and up. Use duplo or megabloks for younger kids!

Balancing Stones

Balancing stones are not actually stones but wood blocks cut at angles that can balance on each other. These are simple, fun, wooden toys to build with and appropriate even for babies.

Picasso Tiles building sets

My 4 year old LOVEs these picasso tile building sets. And no – they aren’t magnetic. You use a drill and screws to build shapes, animals, and vehicles.

The sets include the drill, though I do suggest getting a larger set if you want to be able to make all of the builds in the guide book!

Lincoln Logs

Lincoln logs are a classic toy that kids have loved playing with for decades. They are great to build buildings and towns and pair well with a lot of other wooden building toys and block sets.

Tinker Toys

Tinker Toys are another 90s classic toy that are back. These sets are designed for little hands and preschool aged kids can easily put together simple builds!

Water pipes

If your kids love to build, they’d like building in the bath tub too! These suction cup tubes make it easy and fun to dribble water down the shower or tub wall.

Build a Bouquet

This is another great STEM toy – put the pieces together to build a whole garden of flowers. This is great if you are doing a spring or plant unit or if your kids just really like flowers!

Soft blocks

These soft blocks were the first blocks I bought my son when he was born. They are mouthing-friendly, super soft and squishy, and actually stack and build nicely!

Megabloks

Megabloks are the most junior version of legos. They are large enough to not be a choking risk with a small kiddo. They stack and build and give even young babies their first taste of building toys!

Stacking Train

This wooden stacking train is designed for babies and a great way for them to learn hand eye coordination. When they are slightly older, they can be used to practice their colors, too!

Wood blocks

Wooden block sets are a classic for a reason. These are one of the most open ended construction toys that can work for almost any skill level.

Jumbo blocks (cardboard)

I remember having a set of these cardboard “bricks” back in the 90s and had to include them on my list. You’ll need a large space to play with them, but they are great to build – and even more fun to crash.

Duplo legos

Duplo legos are an intermediate size perfect for preschoolers. They are large enough that small hands can easily put them together, but small enough that they can start building more intricate builds!

Bristle Blocks

My son’s class has some bristle blocks and I thought they were very cool. Because of the design of the bristles, they can be put together in a lot less exact ways compared to legos which are more precise!

Drill sets

My son loves any toy builder set with a drill. This is the one that he has, and it includes a carry case where one side has the holes in it to drill the screws into.

It comes with an idea book so you can create different designs and layouts with the screws and flat pieces!

preschooler using screwdriver building toy

Squigz

Squigz are actually my pick for restaurant/on the go toy. They stick together and make woobly wobbly build designs. Smaller kids might need help getting them off the table, but they are easy to suction cup in place and together.

Wooden Train set

We recently got out of an 18 month long train obsession in my house. I will always push Thomas the Train, but most of that stuff you have to buy secondhand or vintage since it’s no longer in production. There are lots of great wooden train companies now!

Look for a set with plenty of track pieces as well as fun add ons like bridges for slightly older kids.

Castle building blocks

This set is a bit like normal blocks, and could be used with normal blocks, butt adds turets and other castle designs for a fun and unique look!

Batat Take Apart Toys

My son is always ready to take anything apart (his dad is a woodworker professionally so he’s just following in his footsteps!) Batat has great quality trucks and I love these designed to be disassembled by the kiddos!

K’nex

Luke actually plays with my husbands old K’nex set from the 90s – and loves it. I will say that, at the age of 4, he can do about half of the pieces and needs help with the other half. Modern K’nex offers a kids set that’s a bit easier to build with!

K’nex is awesome because you can get motors for it and build sets that actually spin, rotate, run, and move. This is my top pick for a slightly older kid maybe bored by your existing building kits.

Marble Drop

Luke got a marble drop for Christmas and it was a huge hit! Seriously, buy a larger set when you buy it – it’s worth it.

It’s so fun to design tracks and actually teaches great troubleshooting and critical thinking when certain designs don’t work and they have to re-work it!

Tegu

Tegu is wooden blocks with magnets in them to hold them together. It’s a cool alternative to regular blocks – the magnets make it so you can do some interesting builds!

Happy Architect set

These are called blocks but are really plywood shapes that have slits to slide together and build little houses and towns. I love this for pairing with other wooden blocks, roads, train tracks, and similar.

Circuit kit

If your kids likes running the drill, they will love this circuit kit! Kids use templates and a drill to complete circuits and make lights light up and the astronaut spin.

This is a huge kit and something we do with our son at least once a week while his baby sister naps!

Best building toys by age

I also wanted to break down some of my favorite building sets by age group!

Best building toys for toddlers

Best building toys for 3 & 4 year olds

Best building toys for 5 year olds

There are a lot of building sets with tiny magnetic spheres and sticks. I purposely kept these off my list – they are a big choking hazard and the magnets are very dangerous if ingested. Better safe than sorry in my house!

What are your favorite building toys for kids?

Thanks for reading!

Morgan

Hey there, I’m Morgan, the creative mind behind CelebratingWithKids.com! As a parent of two lively little ones, I’ve made it my mission to turn ordinary days into extraordinary adventures, sharing playful activities, thoughtful toy reviews, and delightful printables to help families celebrate every moment together. 🎉👨‍👩‍👧‍👦🎈