Ice Hotel

The end of the school year is rapidly drawing to an end. The students are feeling it, the teachers are feeling it--everyone is just ready to be done. Following this spirit, my classroom activities are falling more to the entertaining side rather than the educational side. Take for example last week's project. We read a Russian fairy tale about a snow girl who comes to life. Then we read a short article about a hotel in Sweden made entirely of ice. That got me thinking...what could we do in class that relates to this? Then it hit me: we should have our own ice hotel building contest. However, considering that the temperatures are now 100+, we can't use real ice. The next best thing? SUGAR CUBES!! I divided the students into groups and gave them each a box containing the following items: one box of sugar cubes, macaroni noodles, 10 straws, 6 paper clips, 3 pieces of white paper, 2 pieces of tin foil, one piece of cardboard, and 30 Q-tips. The students had to use these materials, and only these materials, to create an ice hotel in 30 minutes. Oh yeah, and just to make things interesting, they had to use frosting instead of glue. Below are some snaps of the chaos (I mean fun!) that ensued. :)