I am going to be doing pulleys with my 3rd graders this week... someone posted a while ago that a cute idea would be for them to make their own flagpoles and raise them....and that we could call on kids based on when their flags were raised....

I'm thinking about how to do this and came up with using straws with string fed through the length of the straw and looped around the outside. It would be a fixed pulley and kids would pull on one side to raise or lower the paper flag that they'll create and attach....

Is there a better or more creative or challenging way to do this? I have to do it with 110 kids.... so it needs to be a basic supply if the kids are going to make their own...

originally i bought sand pails this weekend and spools of thread and was going to put a spool of thread on to a wire hanger and have them lift the sand bucket.... then i thought of flagpole....

I thought since it's the end of the year they could make flags that they feel represent themselves or what they learned about themselves in 3rd grade... sort of an end of the year reflective activity tied into science....

thoughts? ideas? thanks!!