Today's Maker Challenges - Jenga & Jix

We ran out of time for yesterday's maker challenge, so we made up for it today with TWO challenges!  Today was all about building, considering features like strength and design.  

This morning, we build a tower with Jenga blocks.  Then, we found out how much weight in books the tower would hold.  I heard great conversations about the differences between low, broad towers and tall, narrow towers.  I also enjoyed hearing students count!  A few made it into the hundreds!

Our second challenge today was a team activity.  Students used JIX to build.  The challenge was to build the tallest structure.  The bigger challenge was to be able to communicate and work as a team.  Students reflected on the challenge when we were finished.  They all said that things went much better when they listened to each other.  This was a WIN for us all, especially students!  One of my favorite parts of these challenges is that students are learning things like team work, collaboration, and communication skills at six and seven years-old.