Our 5th graders just finished the story Breaker's Bridge by Laurence Yep. If you haven't read it, it is actually a pretty good story out of our basil reader. It's a folktale about a man named Breaker who is challenged to build a bridge for the emperor or else he'll "have his head". Needless to say, the bridge is nearly impossible to build due to the strong river that he has to build the bridge over. He is given magic beans by an old man and the bridge appears and is stronger than ever!
I challenged my students (compliments again of my fabulous teaching partner) to build their very own bridge! For the first time ever, I allowed them to choose their groups. Here's what I learned from allowing them to pick their own groups:
1. They seem to work better when they work with people they are friends with and get along with.
2. They couldn't complain if someone wasn't working, after all, they did pick the group!
3. Even when 4 of my challenging students grouped up, their results were much better than I expected! (they actually built the strongest bridge!)
So, I gave them several choices of designs and we did a mini-lesson on bridges and brainstormed what type of bridge we were going to build. Then I had them assign jobs, draw up a blue-print, and present their design to me. After they completed all the pre-work, they were ready to begin!
Each group got a pack of 100 straws (the bendy kind) and a roll of masking tape (scotch brand is the only way to go). It had to be free-standing and had to hold at least one reading book. They had about 3 or 4 class periods to work on it.
They did FABULOUS, remember that challenging group? Their bridge held 16 reading books! I was super impressed.
After we presented our bridges and received awards, we reflected on the project. We wrote about what obstacles we had to overcome, how our experience compared to Breaker from the story, and what we would do different next time. Then, they did a short writing piece comparing their experience to Breaker.
Overall, it was a lot of prep work, but sooo worth it!
Here are some things I will change next year:
1. Make a height requirement, some of them were FAR too short.
2. Do a better job of making it an actual "presentation".
3. Buy the scotch tape with our teaching allowance or ask for donations! (that stuff is expensive)
Anyways, here are some photos from our adventure! Enjoy.
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| Great team work, everyone is doing their part! |
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| Top secret, some groups were starting to copy! |
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| Great idea, starting with a sturdy base! |
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| Beautiful bridge, but they quickly learned that it wasn't very sturdy! They changed their design. |
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| This bridge held 16 books! Next year, they won't be able to build one so low to the ground. |
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| This group overcame many struggles, they rebuilt their bridge several times. |
Thanks again for reading! Try something like this in your classroom, it's amazing how engaged and anxious they are about these kind of projects! :)
