Tuesday Tried It - Save Fred!

Have you seen this awesome lesson over on Fourth Grade Fanatic? It's all about that first week with your kiddos and how you can take stock of their problem solving abilities, plus how well they will work together in a group.

***Due to overwhelming request, I am sharing the document I made based on Fourth Grade Fanatic's post. Apparently, the links aren't going to the correct place. I take absolutely NO credit for this sheet, since it is not my work. But I love sharing as much as I can.

Save Fred Worksheet

Saving Fred is a fun little lesson about a careless worm. Since worm's brain are by nature pretty small, Fred is at a disadvantage. That comes into play as he is out on his boat without a buddy. Now, Fred isn't completely without thought, he did bring his life preserver. As these things go, Fred's boat capsizes trapping his preserver beneath it with Fred on top. Fred can't swim very well, so it is up to your students to help Save Fred!

They are armed only with the two 'oars' that Fred brought with him. In our world, these oars look suspiciously like paper clips. The students aren't allowed to touch Fred with their fingers or hands. He's got a thing about that. Your students must get Fred's life preserver around him before the time runs out and Fred drowns.

I call up the Online Countdown Timer and display it on our SmartBoard screen. They are given five minutes to save Fred from certain death. The boat is a plastic cup, the life preserver is a gummy life saver, and Fred? He's a gummi worm.

Be prepared to handle it if some of the groups don't save Fred in time.

But for the most part they will work creatively to save their poor little worm and have fun doing it! After this activity there is a timeline for them to draw pictures of what they did to save Fred and also an area to rate their team on effectiveness.