Team Building Activity - building structures

 

The beginning of school is all about creating a classroom community. What better way then to work in small groups to build a structure?

 

Here's what we did.  First, I created 5 bags with spoons, plastic cups (Dixie size), paper clips, wire, straws, paper plates and tape.

Then I pulled sticks to create random grouping....after all, we are supposed to learn to work together with ALL of our classmates. I did work it out so there were two girls and two boys in each group. 

 

Students were asked to work together to create the tallest structure possible. They had to work together and had a time limit of about 15 minutes. We stressed that this was a challenge, not a competition and at the end of it, we would congratulate the winners of this challenge.  Bad sportsmanship in my classroom is NOT tolerated.

 

Enjoy the photos and see how simple this would be to recreate in your classroom this week.