Miss Brown challenged 6JB with the ‘blow cup challenge’ – a new craze which is sweeping the internet. The challenge involved combining two lightweight cups into a stack and blowing against the surface of the top cup to sling it out of its place with the aim of landing it into a third cup at a distance away.
Initially, when the class first attempted the challenge, Miss Brown heard a range of language being used as she walked around the classroom. Some were determined to succeed and some were baffled as to how it was even possible! However, little, handy tactics and methods to make the task slightly easier – such as placing a small object under the second cup to prop it up, making it easier to blow out, and adjusting the angle to which we blew at the cup – were soon being applied. Together, the class discussed these different approaches and spoke about their experiences and what they had found out so far. They shared what methods helped and also what methods didn’t, making sure that they were learning from any ‘mistakes’. This was the prime example of the well-known growth mind set quote ‘I haven’t failed – I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
As the minutes went by, the children were getting closer and closer to succeeding, until eventually some of them did! The class definitely demonstrated their growth mind set this afternoon: the task was a challenging one and the children certainly had to show a great deal of determination and perseverance in order to succeed. Miss Brown was thrilled that even though the lesson had to come to an end, that many of the class chose to take their cups home so that they could continue to try master the cup-blowing challenge! What great can-do attitudes! Well done 6JB!
