Challenges: Paper Chain and Marshmallows

This week in the Whale Pool the children were faced with two challenges... Challenge one: TASK - Make the longest paper chain with an A2 piece of paper. Elizabeth gave us the paper and we chose who we wanted to work with. Reflection:   We talked to our buddy and worked out who would do what.  We worked this out by ourselves.  One buddy cut the paper and one glued the paper to make the chain.  Some of us swapped over our jobs after a certain amount of time had passed.  We worked together. The longest paper chain was around 6.5 metres long?  Why was this chain so long?

Challenge Two:

TASK: Each knife must touch only one marshmallow.  All knives must be off the table and touching each other.

What Ms K saw:  I saw groups of children making mistakes.  When I explained the knives couldn't touch the table or you couldn't pile knives onto one marshmallow you accepted this and thought of what else you could do.  I saw you all make lots of mistakes and you were talking to each other, like....what if we do this....I know....lets try.... Everyone accepted other people's ideas and I thought the atmosphere is class was positive.  I saw some faces that thought...oh my gosh we can't do this....then I saw other team members in the group continue to try different ways of placing the knives onto the marshmallows.