Skip to Content

Save Fred Activity for the First Week of School

I tried this Save Fred activity with my chemistry students during the first week of school. I had almost all of these students for Algebra 1, so I needed to find a few new beginning of school activities that they had not seen before.

Save Fred Activity

Each group of students needs a plastic cup, a gummy worm, a gummy life saver, and one paperclip for each person in the group.

Save Fred Activity for First Week of School

I found a story online that I put in my SmartNotebook file to use to introduce the activity to students.

Poor Fred! He was sailing along on a boat (your plastic cup) when a strong wind blew it upside-down. Fred (your candy worm) ended up on top of the upside-down boat. Unfortunately for Fred, his life preserver (your candy life preserver) is still trapped under the boat.

Your job is to place the life preserver firmly around Fred’s body, but you must obey three rules:

1. Fred may not fall into the “sea” (onto the table) more than one time; if he does, Fred “drowns.”

2. You may not injure him in any way.

3. You may use only the four paper clips to move Fred, the boat, and the life preserver. You may not touch anything except the paper clips.

I found a document online that outlines the entire Save Fred activity. The activity is attributed to Stacy Fox from the NSTA ListServ.

I used trays from Dollar Tree to set up each group’s Fred. This let me set things up before class.

Save Fred Activity for First Week of School

Then, I just had to pass out paper clips so that each group got one paperclip per student.

Save Fred Activity for First Week of School

This is a fabulous activity for the beginning of the year because it encourages students to communicate, share ideas, experiment, and ultimately learn better how to work together to achieve a goal. I used this activity with high school chemistry students, but I have seen many elementary teachers using it online as a beginning of year activity.

Save Fred Activity for First Week of School

There was a ton of laughter and discussion as groups worked out how to save Fred without piercing him with a paperclip or letting him “drown.” Once groups come up with a valid plan, the actual saving of Fred doesn’t take all that long.

I used the flowchart assignment assignment in this PDF to give groups a chance to reflect on the experience. They had to write and draw a flowchart describing how they saved Fred. I figured this was a great lead-in to writing descriptions for future lab reports in chemistry.

Overall, it was a great activity! I recommend it if you are looking for a team-building activity for the first week of school.

Holly Olmscheid

Sunday 3rd of October 2021

I'd love to do this when we have shortened classes for Homecoming! Would you email me the Smart Board! Please and thank you!

Sarah Carter

Tuesday 5th of October 2021

Sent it your way!

Hafiz

Wednesday 22nd of September 2021

Do you mind sharing your slides with me as well? Thank you!

Sarah Carter

Tuesday 5th of October 2021

Just sent them your way!

Sage

Thursday 9th of September 2021

What story from storyline online did you use to introduce this activity?

Sarah Carter

Thursday 9th of September 2021

I'm not sure what you are referring to. Sorry!

Anna Yakubovich

Thursday 2nd of September 2021

Would you mind emailing it to me as well? It looks amazing!

Sarah Carter

Thursday 2nd of September 2021

Email sent!

Julie L Kennebeck

Tuesday 17th of August 2021

Would you be willing to share your Smartboard file you used for this activity?

Sarah Carter

Friday 20th of August 2021

I just emailed it to you, Julie!