Valentine's Day Centerpiece

I was in a classroom last Thursday where second and third grade students were preparing items to send to an assisted living facility.  In place of a traditional Valentine's Day party, they spent their time decorating placements and a giant table centerpiece to create a focal point for the residents of this special dementia-care facility.

With some fruit skewers, "Peeps" and marshmallows, the students quickly got to work building the abstract art piece that would go on top of the cardboard box structure that would be the centerpiece.  The only rules: make it sturdy enough to last through the car ride to the facility and small enough that it will fit in the car!

Without even an objective or lesson plan, the students learned teamwork and some interesting structural learning, about using support pieces, triangle and square shapes, and stability.  Some things I overheard:

-My job is the structural inspector.  You build it bigger and I will check it for sturdiness.
-We can make it taller over here!  Add some wooden sticks and a marshmallow.  I'll hold it.  You add a stick to connect it here!
-Can we eat the marshmallows?  (I heard this one from almost every student!)

Each group would work on the structure for about 10 minutes, and then switch to the next station.  At the end, all 20 students felt satisfaction and awe that they contributed to the final product?

And what was the final product?  A modern-art looking mess of sticks and marshmallow goo.  It was definitely a focal point, though.  I hope it brought happy thoughts to the people at the assisted living home.