The Floor is Lava!

Quick...the floor is lava! We all know this game.  You say, "The Floor is Lava" and the person has ten seconds to find somewhere to get off the floor.  It is hilarious watching those videos.  I got this lesson walking through school one day and saw in a classroom, students doing something like this. I don't know if this is exactly what they were doing, but this is what I turned it into.  

This STEM activity I used as a filler.  If my students were done with their math page and had a little bit of time before the next lesson, I had them complete this activity.  

Each group of students get three plastic cups, 3 popsicle sticks, 4 index cards, and three little bear/penguin counters.  The objective of the game is to get the three bears as far off the ground as possible.  The students love trying to their work done quickly so they can try to get their bears the highest.  This was this groups idea today!