5SW

Sugar Cube Madness

In the middle of December the class of 5SW got introduced to a project called sugar cube houses. This project required these students to make plans and build a house out of sugar cubes. But as fun as this seems there were lots of requirements to be met. These requirements were: the perimeter of the house had to be 20-26 inches, at least 2 of the sides had to be symmetrical, you had to have at least 2 patterns, your house has to be only 4” high, the roof had to be a 40-70˚ angle, we had a budget of 15 dollars (fake money) to buy candy, and you can only use 96 sugar cubes. If you needed extra sugar cubes you could buy them at our class candy shop for one dollar.

At first the students had to think of 3 possible ideas that their house could be. Then they had to choose their favorite one and make final draft plans that were mounted on a large piece of paper. These plans had to be approved by the teachers in 5SW. Once their plans were approved they got a building permit. Time to start construction!

When construction of these houses began a lot of stress was flowing. Houses falling down, having to change plans, and resubmitting plans to the permit office several times. Although lots of stress all of their hard work paid off. A sugar cube open house was held on December 21, 2007. It was a success and quite a relief for the hard working builders!

Here’s what some 5th graders had to say about the project:

Interview 1

Interview 2