I work in a small, independent school, so often the kids come into my room already knowing each other quite well, and *I* am the outsider. Get to know you activities only go so far before the kids are bored and answer the questions for each other. So, I tend to focus more on teamwork challenges to start the year. Saving Fred the Worm is one of my favorites, but this year I found a new one. The tower building challenge! Students were in groups of 2 or 3, and each group’s supplies included 10 cups, 1 rubber band, and 4 pieces of yarn. The task was simple: build a tower. The catch was that they could not touch the cups with anything except the string and rubber band. Some groups struggled, others did well. Some kids rushed to take on more than one string, others were happy to just be part of the group. It was an informative activity for me, and fun for the kids!
