It’s already that time of the year again, Back to School! At the beginning of every school year, I always try to have my students complete a team building activity and/or challenge. Not only are these activities usually really engaging and fun, but they require a lot of communication and cooperation. Team building activities are great ice breakers, and help students get to know each other and have fun together on those nerve-wracking first days of school. My favorite back to school team building activity is the cup stacking challenge.
The Materials & Prep
The cup stacking challenge is a great activity for third grade and up and requires very little prep! You will need the following materials:
- 6 solo cups per group
- 1 rubber band per group
- 4 strings (about 12 inches each) per group
- scissors
- ruler
You will need to tie four strings onto each rubber band, trying to keep them equally spaced apart. I recommend double knotting the strings and I also recommend making EXTRAS for each group. A few groups of students always end up breaking their rubber band during this challenge, so I always have a bunch of extra premade rubber band/string combos on hand.
The Rules
he activity is easy to explain. The rules are:
- You need to work together with your group.
- You can NOT touch the cups with your hands or any other body part.
We discuss the importance of working together and being respectful of our groupmates before we begin the challenge. We also discuss what to do if problems arise that we can not solve respectfully in our group. I remind them I am always available to come and help them solve their problems in their groups if they can not work it out on their own.
The Challenge(s)
I have all of my students begin with Challenge 1. If students are able to complete Challenge 1, I have three other challenges for them to complete with increasing difficulty per challenge.
This is such a fun team building engineering challenge. I love doing this challenge with my students every year! If you would like to do this challenge with your students, check out my FREE Canva slides template! You will be directed to a template which you will be able to use in your classroom. Enjoy!
Click here for my FREE Canva template with all of the directions and cup stacking challenges.
