Paper Tower

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Have you played this activity? What worked, what didn't work? What type of group? Do you have useful advice for other users? Do you know a fun variation?

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Comments (12)

1. 

   jeWElle de Mesa August 15, 2023

   thanks for this, mr. collard.

   excited to do this for team building next tiiiiiime!

   plus exploring how to combine the reflection prompts with ‘how might we questions’, and potentially matching this activity with another one to increase/reinforce the impact.

   what might be some of these activities, mark?

   (“,)

   p.s. we can reuse the papers for other sessions like paper stone stacking and passing activities

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     Mark Collard August 15, 2023

     Yes, JeWElle, I always like to roll one activity (and its debris) into the next one, so you share good ideas. In regards to connecting this activity to others, there are many I can think of, but other tower building exercises may be a natural fit such as Marshmallow Challenge, Leaning Tower of Feetza, Block Bridge, etc.

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       jeWElle de Mesa August 15, 2023

       thaaaaanks, mark!

       (“,)

       Reply
2. 

   ChileSam August 10, 2023

   Hi, I did this activity yesterday with a group of 24 teachers who we hadn´t known beforehand. Blind faith in Playmeo! And it paid off. It was great! Each group spontaneously developed different strategies, they were totally engaged, there was a lot of laughter, perhaps some frustration as the momentarily tallest tower collapsed (but they recovered in time to win). Our workshop was on Environmental Education and one of our focusses was recycling paper from the classrooms, so it fitted in very well. Highly recommend it!

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     Mark Collard August 10, 2023

     Awesome Sam, thanks for sharing (and for trusting our content 🙂 )

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3. 

   Brad Lundell May 28, 2022

   I love the creativity available in this activity. There is no one way to make a tall tower. All of my teams have used different strategies. I did this with about 10 teams and all had a different tower. I did this with teend and they just kept building. They seem to love that activity.

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4. 

   Ellie November 10, 2021

   We sometimes use the variations of
   – straws and stickytape – limiting the amount of each to extend the group
   – spaghetti and marshmallows – also limited amounts, can be quite entertaining (and a bit sticky!) and remember to bring a bag of marshmallows to eat afterwards!

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     Mark Collard November 10, 2021

     Love it Ellie, thanks for sharing. Your suggestion of alternative resources reminds me of the Marshmallow Challenge

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5. 

   Gwynneth Bishop May 21, 2021

   Just done it today with 4 primary students. They needed assistance with the communication skills (which is what we’re working on) but I really was amazed with the ideas they managed to come up with. I reduced the materials to 10 pieces of paper only but they still managed to utilise a full 20 minutes. The best bit was the joy shown by their achievement….winning!!

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     Mark Collard May 21, 2021

     This is terrific news Gwynneth, thanks for sharing. Out of interest, how old were the students? What lessons did they take-away from their experience?

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       Gwynneth Bishop August 31, 2022

       One year+ on & I’ve just seen your reply!
       The students were 8 & 9 years old.
       Their take away was the start of the l o n g journey towards empathy and respect of each other and persistence. We are still working to this same goal with the same students and the growth in other areas of school has been noticeable.

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6. 

   rajeshramkumar July 27, 2018

   Great activity, especially, because it hardly requires anything. The lessons learnt:
   – Prototyping as you build like children;
   – Don’t over engineer;
   – Don’t presume it is difficult;
   – Ingenuity

   Could be used as one of the early activity in the programme.

   Reply