Just put those words on your daily agenda- Spoon Tower.

I promise, kids will be intrigued as they wonder what on earth they are going to build!

Now, I will tell you that the first time we tried this challenge we just built a tower. It had to have a spoon on the top. This was more challenging than it sounds. Students will almost always try to build a very tall spindly tower and when you place something on top that is heavy the tower falls over. They spent a lot of time reworking and rethinking to get that spoon on the top and have a standing tower, too!

Then I added a new rule to the tower. It had to have a purpose. Keep reading!

Building with a Purpose

Sometimes we build towers or bridges with no specific design element or purpose. Sometimes we add a rule requiring a certain size or design or interesting use of materials. For the Spoon Tower, I decided to take away the competitive nature of the tower challenge and replace it with a design rule.

The tower had to resemble a real structure and the spoon had to be a functional part of the finished building. It did not have to be a tower.

This turned out to be a spectacular activity. Students were so incredibly creative with how they made the plastic spoon part of their towers. Just take a look!

A Playground

Below you can see the playground a team built.

They made the frame from cups with straw swings. And the spoon is a SLIDE!

The Statue of Liberty

To be honest, this is what a structure I had thought I would see. It seemed only natural that the spoon would end up Lady Liberty’s torch.

The body is made from cups and covered with green paper – they told me the statue was green in real life. They made the tablet the statue holds and even the crown on her head. The blue is the water around the statue’s island.

A Dog!

Of course, I knew there might be animals! It makes sense that the spoon could be a tail.

You have to love those very large feet on this dog!

A Flower and a …

Take a good look at the photo below. Can you tell what it is?

The orange straws are decorated with paper petals. That is the flower part. The spoon is a BEE! This was one of my favorites! So clever!

Restaurants

Almost every class had a restaurant with a bowl and spoon as part of its decor.

The restaurants had different themes. One was a soup restaurant. One was called Mountain Sundae and they sold ice cream.

This is an easy prep challenge that can be completed in about 45 minutes. I do have a list of materials we use, but I often throw in just some odds and ends with it to see what happens. This activity is also more challenging than you expect it to be!

Alright, when are you going to try this amazing variation of the Spoon Tower Challenge! Click on any of the images to see the resource!