This activity works for any age. For this activity, you may want to divide children into pairs or small groups of around four students each. Each group should be given one sheet of newspaper, scissors and a one-foot-long piece of masking tape. Tell the children that they have 15 minutes to make a structure that stands at least two inches off the ground and can support the weight of four books for one minute. They can use only the paper, tape and scissors you have given them. Children may struggle at first, but encourage them to try out different ideas. Ideas may include scrunching the paper into balls or rolling it into tubes.
This activity works best as a whole class activity for elementary children and can be used as an introduction to lateral thinking or as a "wake-up" exercise. Put a coin in a bottle and then stop up the opening with a cork. Challenge the children to find a way to get the coin out of the bottle without pulling the cork or breaking the bottle. The answer is to push the cork into the bottle and then shake the bottle to remove the coin.
This activity helps children increase their spatial awareness and works well with older primary children. This activity can be done in pairs, small groups, or as a whole class exercise. Place three cups in a row. Turn the middle cup upside down, but leave the first and third cups right-side up. Challenge the children to get all the cups facing upside down. They have only three moves to accomplish this and for each move, two cups must be turned at the same time. The answer is that in the first move, children turn over the first and second cups; in the second move they turn over the first and third cups; and in the third move they turn over the first and second cups.
This activity can be done as a whole class exercise or students can work individually. This activity is best for older primary children who have already studied Roman numerals. Write the Roman numerals "XI" (11) on the board. Challenge students to add just one line to the numerals so they end up with the number 10. Some examples of answers are to change the I to a +, as 10 plus nothing is 10; or to add a fraction bar to make X/I (10/1), which equals 10. Children may also realize that the instruction "one line" can also refer to a curved line, so that they can write the word ten in cursive, without lifting their pen from the paper, to make ten X 1--read as ten times one--which equals 10.