Noodle Showdown Team Placemat Staff Kickoff Event
Noodle Showdown
Table Placemat & Guide
Time Limit: 10 Minutes
Grade Level / Team Name
_________________________________
Team Collaborators
_________________________________
The Mission
Construct the tallest freestanding structure using only the provided kit. The whole marshmallow must rest entirely on the absolute top of your structure when the 10 minutes expire!
The Blueprint Kit
20 Sticks of Dry Spaghetti
1 Yard of Masking Tape
1 Yard of Kitchen String
1 Large Marshmallow
Structural Rules
The marshmallow must be whole (do not cut or eat it!).
No anchoring to the ceiling, floor, or adjacent walls.
You may cut or break spaghetti, tape, and string.
Measurement is taken when the tower is standing untouched .
Noodle Blueprint Sketchpad use for rapid prototype notes
Sketch your design ideas below before assembling. Keep resilience and failure-points in mind!
Pro Tip: A wide base distributes center of gravity. Stand strong together!
01
Connect
Align your mission. Share one major hope for your classroom before touching materials.
02
Pivot
Towers fall! When yours leans, stop, laugh, find a workaround, and try again.
03
Efficacy
Combine your strengths. Who is the planner? Who has steady hands? Every role matters.
Noodle Showdown Facilitator Guide FACILITATOR GUIDE
Noodle Showdown
A 20-Minute Staff Connection & SEL Translation Workshop
DURATION
20 Minutes Total
10-Min Challenge + 5-Min Debrief
Workshop Intent
The transition into a new school year can be daunting. This activity leverages play to establish psychological safety , practice a collective growth mindset, and explicitly examine how to scaffold collaborative SEL experiences for K-4 students.
Preparation & Kits
Assemble individual "Build Kits" in brown bags beforehand for each group of 4-5 teachers.
20 sticks of dry, uncooked spaghetti
1 yard of standard masking tape
1 yard of kitchen string
1 standard-sized large marshmallow
1 Team Placemat & pencil per table
Critical Rule to Emphasize
The marshmallow must rest intact at the very top of the tower when time is called. Towers that require physical holding or supporting at the end are disqualified from measurement.
Compressed Timeline
1. Welcome & Rules
0:00 - 0:02
Briefly define the challenge, display rules on screen, and prompt grade-level partners to write their names on the Table Placemat.
2. Rapid Sketching
0:02 - 0:04
Teams have 2 minutes to plan and sketch their blueprints on the Table Placemat grid. No building allowed yet!
3. Active Build Phase
0:04 - 0:14
Run a 10-minute construction timer. Call out active updates (5, 2 mins, and last 30 secs). Watch for high-collaboration moments.
4. Measurement
0:14 - 0:16
Facilitator runs through table rows to measure freestanding structures. Celebrate standing towers!
5. 5-Min Table Debrief
0:16 - 0:20
Guide teams in a focused, high-speed 4-minute discussion card conversation, with 1 minute of room-wide wrap-up.
Suggested Scripted Launch
"Welcome, grade-level teams, to a new school year! Today, we are putting our collective brains, creativity, and engineering skills to the test. Before our classrooms are filled with our wonderful K-4 students, we want to lay the foundation of our own team efficacy and trust."
"On your tables, you have a blueprint placemat and a brown bag. Do not open the bag yet. First, align on a school year goal and answer checkpoint one. Then, you have exactly two minutes to sketch your ideas on your placemat grid. Build phase begins on my buzzer. May the noodles hold strong!"
Debrief & Classroom Translation
Facilitation strategies to maximize professional development and school SEL alignment.
1
Staff Connection & Trust
Establish safety early. High-performing schools rely on mutual trust, shared vulnerability, and psychological safety.
Key Debrief Question:
"What actions did teammates take that instantly made you feel heard, valued, and safe to propose weird ideas?"
2
Growth Mindset & Failure
The marshmallow acts as a heavy load that often collapses towers at the final second. This is an intentional crucible for resilience.
Key Debrief Question:
"When your tower sagged or fell, what was your initial gut reaction? How did you regulate and pivot?"
3
Translating to K-4 Classrooms
Spaghetti challenges help primary kids practice collaborative language, role-play, and self-regulation.
Key Debrief Question:
"How can we scaffold this challenge for Kindergartners vs. 4th graders? What rules need to change?"
4
Shared Efficacy for the Year
Remind staff that a high-functioning school is a complex web of complementary talents.
Key Debrief Question:
"How does our team blueprint mirror our plan to tackle student success gaps and support one another this year?"
Adaptation Matrix for K-4 Students
Grade Band Scaffolding Needs Classroom SEL Focus Grades K - 1 Swap spaghetti for wider materials (Wikki Stix, plastic cups, playdough) for motor skills. Sharing materials fairly, taking turns speaking, label emotions during stress. Grades 2 - 3 Keep spaghetti, reduce to 10 noodles, double tape quantity. Sketch first is vital. Resolving creative disagreements politely, defining individual duties. Grade 4 Full constraints. Include strict budget: "buy" spaghetti/tape using toy coins. Giving constructive critique, dealing with structural failure without blaming.
Noodle Showdown Slides Staff Joy & Connection Event Welcome Back, Educators!
Noodle
Showdown
Building trust, testing structural resilience, and translating classroom social-emotional learning (SEL) for K-4.
Let's build together!
Please sit with your grade-level partners
The Rules of Engagement
TIME: 10 MINUTES
Your Core Mission
Construct the tallest freestanding structure . The marshmallow must rest completely intact on the absolute top of the structure!
Provided Materials Kit
20 Sticks of Spaghetti • 1 Yard of Tape • 1 Yard of String • 1 Large Marshmallow
Heavy Constraints
The marshmallow must remain completely whole .
No tape/string may anchor the tower to walls, desks, or the ceiling.
Spaghetti, tape, and string can be cut or broken.
Towers must stand unaided for measurement.
Tip: Many structures collapse at the final mark. Design for weight!
Phase 1: Spend 2 minutes sketching your concept on your Table Placemat. No physical touching of kits yet!
Challenge is Active
LIVE BUILD
10:00
Minutes Remaining
8:00 left
Sketching Over
5:00 left
Marshmallow Test
1:30 left
Brace Structure!
Collaboration Check
Are all voices being heard? Who has a strong structural idea that hasn't been tried yet?
Mindset Reset
If your tower just buckled, perfect! You found a weakness. Laugh, regroup, and rebuild stronger.
Please respect all components. Keep the environment supportive and joy-focused. Enjoy the process!
Stop & Measure
HANDS OFF THE TOWERS
Measuring Guidelines
All hands must be completely removed from the table and materials.
The structure must remain freestanding .
No leaning on textbooks, laptops, or water bottles.
Measurements are taken from the table surface to the top of the marshmallow.
The facilitator will come around to record official heights.
The Joy of the Build
Whether your tower is towering high or lying flat as a pancake, celebrate the effort. It is the collaboration and the collective memory that we carry into this school year!
Total Teams: ________ • Successful Towers: ________
Noodle Showdown Discussion Cards Print & Cut Asset
Table Discussion Cards
Cut along the dotted lines. Have groups discuss their assigned card for 8-10 minutes, then select a reporter to share one insight.
01
Dimension 1
Staff Connection
High-functioning educator teams are built on a bedrock of psychological safety and shared vulnerability.
Discussion Prompts:
How did your team establish trust or set up a collaborative tone in the first two minutes?
What small actions (verbal or non-verbal) made you feel safe to suggest risky ideas?
Core theme: Psychological Safety
02
Dimension 2
Mindset & Resilience
Spaghetti structures are inherently unstable. Dealing with collapses without blaming or quitting is a key resilience skill.
Discussion Prompts:
What was your team's collective reaction when a noodle broke or the tower started leaning?
How do we, as an educator community, handle professional failures or unexpected plan shifts?
Core theme: Pivot & Growth
03
Dimension 3
Collective Efficacy
No single educator can do it all. Collective efficacy is the belief that together, we can meet any student needs.
Discussion Prompts:
How did you allocate different roles (planner, builder, timekeeper) based on natural talents?
What is our team's shared mission for this new school year? How will we support one another?
Core theme: Interdependent Strengths
04
Dimension 4
Classroom Translation
The challenges we experienced (frustration, division of labor, focus) are exactly what K-4 students experience.
Discussion Prompts:
What direct emotional scaffolding do our primary students need to complete a task like this?
How can we model collaborative talk, sharing, and peer mediation in our classroom routines?
Core theme: K-4 SEL Scaffolding
Noodle Showdown Workshop Toolkit Empowering Educators, Sustaining Joy
Noodle Showdown Presenter Script FACILITATOR RESOURCE
Presenter Rollout Script
Compressed 15-20 Min Schedule: 3-5m Launch, 10m Build, 3-5m Debrief.
TIME BUDGET 20 Mins Max
Slide 1: Welcome
0:00 - 0:02 (2 mins)
What to do: Stand at the front. Set a welcoming, high-energy tone.
"Good morning, elementary team! Welcome back to a fantastic, fresh school year. Before we dive into schedules, we want to celebrate our most important asset: our collective strength, resilience, and connection. Today we are launching with the Noodle Showdown . You are already sitting with your grade-level partners—people who have your back day in and day out. Today, we're going to put that collaboration and problem-solving to the test."
Slide 2: Rules
0:02 - 0:04 (2 mins)
What to do: Highlight physical kit constraints. The marshmallow must rest on top.
"On your tables, you have a build kit and a Blueprint Placemat. Do NOT touch the bags yet! You have exactly 2 minutes to talk with your grade level partners and sketch a blueprint on your placemat grid. You must agree on a layout before you unpack. The goal? Build the tallest freestanding tower with the marshmallow sitting on top. Hands off the materials until the countdown begins!"
Slide 3: Countdown
0:04 - 0:14 (10 mins)
What to do: Unpack the kits and start the timer. Walk around the room observing.
"Unpack your bags... and BUILD! You have exactly 10 minutes of active building."
Mid-Challenge Callout (5 Mins left): "We are at the halfway mark! Grade-level teams, check in. If your tower is starting to lean or sag, congratulations! You've found a structural failure. Celebrate it, laugh it off, and pivot. Redesign that base and keep pushing!"
Slides 4 & 5: Stop & Debrief
0:14 - 0:20 (6 mins total)
What to do: Measure the standing structures. Prompt table talks with the Cards.
"Three... two... one... HANDS OFF! Please stand back. Let's see which structures are fully freestanding... incredible! Look at the variety of blueprints in action."
"Now, grab your table's Discussion Cards. Since you all know each other well, we're skipping introductions and diving straight into the deep stuff: focus on Card 1 (trust), Card 2 (growth mindset), and Card 4—how we can scaffold this powerful experience to support our K-4 students' SEL development."
Mic Tone
Keep a playful, game-show host tone. Avoid letting stress or quiet periods dull the room vibe.
What to Spot
Watch for grade-level teams that have towers collapse at the last minute. Call them out as resilient role models!
