Insp. by school threads-Projects

[hereyago]

The couple school threads made me think about projects.
What kind of projects have your kids had to do? Also, were the projects in sync with what they were learning or just something the teacher wanted to do?
My DD10 is in 5th grade and hasn't had any projects nor book reports to do this year. Last year, the only project they did wasn't on something they were learning.
She has had to make travel brochures for ancient greece, an aqueduct for ancient rome, life cycle of sea horse,etc. in previous grades.

So far no science fair at all. And no, I don't do her projects for her, I made guide her and ask her what she thinks about doing certain things. Plus, I am really not that creative

 

[AmazingGrace]

My oldest ds recently did a sims video of Homer's Oddysey. My dd reacently had to make a math array. My middle ds made a website about Davy Crockett.
Here's ds's Oddysey project.

 

[clori]

My dd is in third grade. So far she hasn't had any special projects and honestly I don't mind that.

kindergarten - she had to do something related to Cinderella but it was supposed to be a parent/child project and wasn't graded. They learned about Cinderella stories from various countries. They could do things like make a cake, decorate a shoe etc. Dh and dd made a paper model of Cinderella's castle that still lives on top of the fridge. It was a free paper model dh found online which was in color, He printed it out in cardstock paper. The directions were in German which we don't know.

first grade - the kids made a clay sculpture of a spinx. We helped in that we picked up the clay and showed dd some internet pictures but she made it herself. I don't believe it was graded other than pass fail. They studied a bit of Egypt but more Chinese that year so I don't know the full connection. In class they did quite a bit for Chinese New Year's and it helped that the teacher's parents come from China.

Second grade - graded projects that required a bit of parental help gathering things. However it was known that different families had different things availible and the grades weren't based on that part.

#1 timeline - a picture from each year of child's life and a few sentences about each picture. Pictures could be drawn or photographs. DD can't draw and wrote about things I found photographs for.

#2 Scrapbook, poster, or written report of a country of heritage -
dd chose a scrapbook. The same things needed to be included for all 3 such as a map of the country, list of surrounding countries/bodies of water, capital etc. Most of the items were printed from the web using things like google image search. Family history/Family tree were the areas that dd received the most help since she didnt' know them well enough to do independently but I don't think the grade overly mattered for those parts. We included some extras to fill up the remainder of the scrapbook such as pictures of grandparent in the country, postcard from the country etc. but any child who answered the required parts would get a 100. Basically I helped dd is some areas but those didn't affect the grade.

Bookreports - dd read the books independently. I had her write the answers to the required questions on scrap paper so I could help with some spelling but otherwise she was independent at it. I probably helped less as the year progressed.

 

[KiminChicago]

Every year our school's second grade classes do a unit of study on the rainforest. As part of that, each child picks a rainforest animal and has to make a life-size model of their animal. It requires a lot of creativity to figure out how to make a life size model of a twelve foot crocodile. Parents are encouraged to help with the model, but the student is expected to do the research and do a report on their chosen animal. My son did the red-eyed green tree frog (we made it out of sculpey clay with red beads for eyes), my daughter did her report on the kinkajou (paper mache over a framework of screening material) One of the crocodiles this year was made out of cardboard -- it was just the back of the crocodile poking up above the river.

The rainforest animals are all put on display in the hallway for the spring open house and the teachers add all kinds of painted scenery -- they even cover the lights with green paper and add vines hanging down from the ceiling. Its the big hit of the open house -- the younger kids know they have this project to look forward to, and the older kids compare the current year to the year they did the project.

In third grade each child researched a country and does a report on it. Since we were in Epcot that year, my DS decided to do his report on Morroco (the European countries tend to get picked first so he did something completely different)-- we burned a CD of Morrocan music, he had a flag and fez we bought in Epcot and he brought hummus and pitas and tangerines to share with the class. For some reason the third grade classes last year didn't do this so DD feels she missed out.

In fourth grade they do a biography project. Each child reads the biography of a famous person, then does a report on why that person was important. When they present their report to the class, they are encouraged to dress as that person. DS did his report on Walt Disney, so he wore a suit and carried his Pal Mickey. We even drew on a fake mustache. DD is doing Susan B. Anthony, so I guess we're going to have to get creative to come up with a costume.

Finally, in 5th grade, they do a research project on one of the National Parks. The student has to write a letter to the park service requesting information about the park, then they do a travel brochure for their park. DS picked the Everglades.

A lot of the teachers at our school have been there ten years or more so there are kids in high school who did some of these same projects.

 

[Erin1700]

My DD is only in second grade and we have only had to make a monster at Halloween.

I have never heard of people doing science fair projects around here.

 

[Nascia]

My son started attending his current school last year while in 5th grade. He's had many projects and book reports to do. He does a book report each quarter, plus one over the summer.

Projects all seem to be for reading, language arts and social studies. He's had to make life sized posters, dolls, a grab bag (find 10 things related to your story and placed them in bag like the ones used in the story). This week he had to make a diorama related to the story Hatchet. He was instructed to use things he found from nature, which would have been fine, except we have over a foot of snow and ice on the ground . We "found" the things he needs at Micheal's. He also has his book report due tomorrow. In social studies, he has a project due about once a month. He is given a list with 10 choices on them. So far this year he's made a model Zigerot, written is own laws and created a small play focusing on the early Greeks. Personally, I hate the projects. He's a better auditory learner and is generally not very creative. Getting them done can be very frustrating.

 

[EthansMom]

In First Grade last year, DS had to do a research project on an animal. He had to do the research, write a paper, edit the paper, type/have typed the paper, draw a picture on the computer for the cover of his report, make a related craft-type project, and answer questions about his project animal that were asked by people at a viewing (all parents and the students of the Kindergarten are invited in). Except for the craft-type project and some of the research, most of the work was done in class. I thought it was great! The kids learned to do research with a variety of sources (books, video, internet), write and edit a paper, and got experience with public speaking.

From First Grade on at our grade school, most of the grades have one large project of this type each year.

 

[shelly3girls]

DD's 4th grade teacher loves projects. The last one was fine. They have to build a model of a Lenape village and write a research paper 1-2 pages long.

The current project I think is completely rediculous and over the top with time involved. They have to pick a topic from the Revolutionary War and creat different projects on it. The minimum a child can do is 4 different pieces. If perfect 4 gets you a C (these come from a required list), 5 for a B and 6 for an A. They are graded on all the usual stuff including spelling, sentence structure, research, proper bibliography,etc. If they were small projects I could see but here is a list...

Biography (min 2 typed pages)
poem (min 1 full page)
diary entry (2 days, min 1 typed page)

then they have a list of other things to choose from for the remaining, here are just a few...
other types of poetry
obituary (min. 1 typed page)
poster
letter (min. 1 page)

As I see it my DD will have to write a minimum of 7 typed pages of material to get an A. This is 4th grade! Even my DSil who teaches 4th grade said this is way too much for one project.

 

[mamamary]

My 4th grader hasn't had any projects yet. Yaaaa.

My 6th grader has had a few. Mostly, writing projects/powerpoint presentations. Nothing too bad so far.

Last year we had a few that were difficult.

 

[Pigeon]

We get projects galore. Some are more idiotic than others.

When my kids were in K, they had to do diaoramas practically every week, which were nothing but crafts homework for the parents. The teacher must have thought we were all Imelda Marcos, because I don't know who else would have that many shoe boxes.

Then there are the crafts projects pretending to be something else. One kid this year had to decorate a "journal" (composition book) with physical items that were supposed to have special literary meaning for her??? and then cover the book with a particular brand of very expensive and hard to find laminating film to keep the junk on the journal. Pointless in the extreme.

Over the holidays one kid had to do a big project about a ecosystem of their choosing. The teacher gave them a complicated grading rubric, but no help at all with topic selection, which is often the hardest part of any research project. The school library had absolutely no resources to help, and the public library wasn't much better. It was a major PIA.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

The couple school threads made me think about projects.
What kind of projects have your kids had to do? Also, were the projects in sync with what they were learning or just something the teacher wanted to do?
My DD10 is in 5th grade and hasn't had any projects nor book reports to do this year. Last year, the only project they did wasn't on something they were learning.
She has had to make travel brochures for ancient greece, an aqueduct for ancient rome, life cycle of sea horse,etc. in previous grades.

So far no science fair at all. And no, I don't do her projects for her, I made guide her and ask her what she thinks about doing certain things. Plus, I am really not that creative

My 5th grader hasn't had any projects this year either. I thought something was wrong, but I am laying low..I hate projects. Actually, he has a small one right now where he has to make 5 Civil War trading cards- kind of like baseball trading cards, but with CW people. He is enjoying that, so I guess I missed that it is a project.

My 3rd grader has had only had one small project and a book report. His teacher has told me she hates homework, so I wonder if that is why the lack of projects..he does have plenty of regular homework.

In the past years, both DSs have had at least one project every two months. I don't know if this is a blessing now, or not good preparation for Middle School. Do MSs have a lot of projects? Anyway, we are enjoying not being bogged down with projects for now, they certainly have enough regular homework to keep them busy.

Their projects in the past have not been difficult at all, just pains in the you-know-what.

 

[sdarwkcabemanmy]

Only project DS has had so far this year was the same thing he had last year: Decorate a turkey 'feather' for the class Thanksgiving Turkey to be displayed on the wall outside their class room.

DS and I picked out several Disney cliparts together and printed them out. I cut them out and he glued them on. I also added some little curling ribbons to the bottom of it, just to give it some flair.

 

[DisneyKT]

I wish my DD (4th) didn't have any projects. Since the beginning of school. A Math graph due every month, a book report plus another project due every month. This month the book report is a biography. Then the kids have to do a wax museum on their character. So my DD has to be Stephen Spielberg. I guess it isn't to bad. She can dress up in a baseball cap and glasses.

 

[luvmy3]

dd 5th has a science project for class. The science fair is optional but the project is not.

ds3rd has had none to date

ds K has had none to date

They have all done in class projects but nothing that required at home work. No dd did have to research sea lions for one but that is it so far.
I'm not sure if things have changed in the school, but in the past years my dd has done 2-3 big projects a year, but in those same grades my ds has not. He did 1 last year in 2nd grade

 

[Cindy B]

My kids are both in middle school== that is when it gets interesting.

My daughter is working on an animal or plant cell model right now. My son had to make an edible cell -- so we made a mini sheet cake and he decorated the "cell" with different pieces of candy or food decoration. The decoration had be labeled a different cell function.

My daughters is not edible. Her instructions were not as clear as my son's science teacher.

My DS had to do a Star book, which was to create and publish a specific book on one thesis statement.

For every year at this middle school, all students have to do a personal literacy project.

This topic has to have different components for 6th grade it is a trifold, for 7th grade it a demonstration, and 8th grade it is a persuasive piece.

This project is about 20 pages in length with written materials, bibliography and all that. They start the project in January and it is due in April or May.

Yes, 6th graders with a 20 page project. It is basically a high school- early college Comp I assignment.

My daughter also has to do annotated bibliographies-- which is a variation of a college assignment I had to do last year. She only had to do 5 books, whereas I had to do 25.

It only gets worse.