Too Many Craft Projects?

[vhoffman]

She has an infant and a 3 year old. She's constantly taking time off whenever they have the sniffles. Well, emergencies happen, but she should have some sort of back up plan for such contigencies, rather than just calling in for a sub--she's off at least one day per week!

Even though she has kids, she doesn't have kids at this age level, so she doesn't really know what to expect from a 9 year old. Probably expects something waaaaay more than her kids, obviously, because they're older. But she doesn't have a realistic benchmark.

 

[Hannathy]

I understand how you could spend so much but you don't have to. Why buy a base- use cardboard, use paper bags instead of stock paper,$10 buys a ton of stock paper. You have to buy new markers everytime? use decorations from the kitchen. a pack of construction paper is 2 dollars. Another thing the teacher probably grades harder when she knows the student had a lot of help. I know several teachers who do this. A lot of teacher won't accept a bought model for a project and I would never spend $50. dollars on a project. My DD built a model of the Bastille last year and the only expensive thing we bought was the antique brown paper and we bought it at Office Depot. otherwise she used toilet paper tubes and a sheet of poster board and a box from Aldi's. She got an A.

I can understand you think the teacher is giving too many projects and it does seem like a lot but I would quit buying so much and do as she says use things from home and see what happens.

 

[ntink]

If the teacher is taking off points for things that are so obviously miniscule can you try talking to her and then if you don't get anywhere with her, talk to the principal? Her grading policy seems ridiculous.

 

[vhoffman]

i guess I feel they're just throwing all this stuff at us, with no real direction as how to proceed. some people have done such projects before and at least have some idea where they're going. Some don't. At least do a porject or two in class so the kid gets the hang of it. Don't just throw it at the parents, with an unreasonable time frame, and especially at such a busy time of year!

I wonder what's next--build the Kremlin out of popsicle sticks? Can't wait!

Really, in my opinion, I don't see what children learn from all this cutting out paper, gluing, etc. its busy work raised to the nth degree! Their time would be better spent on the basics, rather than all this make work stuff!

 

[vhoffman]

Insofar as using the teacher's suggestions, her suggestions included making it out of Pay Doh, wood, clay, ceramic. Wow! I just have all that laying around! If she suggested something reasonable, such as the suggrestions here--toilet paper rolls, jello boxes, etc., maybe we would have half a chance. We bought a model because we had absolutely no idea how to even begin. Unless we wanted to use wood, clay, etc. Get real!

Even things like cardboard isn't something one just always has, especially at the right size. Do remember, we were given a scant week to do all this. If the school is going to assign all these craft projects they could at least give us a heads-up at the beginning of the school year, something to the effect of ".. during the school year we will be making various projects which will require some items from home, such as empty oatmeal boxes, glass jelly jars, jello boxes, cardboard of various sizes, coffee cans, shoe boxes, etc. Please start collecting/saving such items now for future projects." At least we would have some idea what "things around the house" to save. I typically don't save my trash in case it might be needed for a school project. One year they required a shoe box for a project. Well, I just didn't happen to have any! I'd thrown some away just a few weeks prior. I bought a pair of shoes just to get the box! Of course, I did use the shoes, but I wasn't planning on such a purchase at that time. Schools know their cirriculum for the year, why can't they let parent in on the required items in a more timely fashion? There again, I'm just not into crafts--guess I'm a pitiful failure! BTW, I have 2 bachelor's degrees and an MBA, plus I'm a CPA. Guess I didn't do too bad while being "craft-challenged"!

 

[AlleyKat]

BTW, I have 2 bachelor's degrees and an MBA, plus I'm a CPA. Guess I didn't do too bad while being "craft-challenged"!

Wow, one certainly can't say you aren't motivated!

 

[kaw1218]

hmmm....I wonder if she's related to my DDs teacher from last year. She tried to give my DD a failing grade on a famous person report. Of course she didn't want to factor in that the name she gave my DD was spelled incorrectly and missing the last name-she only gave the first and middle names!!! She told my DD that she needs to learn how to research better on the internet!!! WHAT???? I looked for that non existant person for over 45 minutes! and besides, last I checked, internet usage was not mandatory for an 8 yo!!!!( and if it is...I missed that parent-teacher conference)

anyway, lets just say, my DD received a new name, correctly spelled, and my youngest will NOT have that teacher in the future

my advice...talk to the principal..... she may have suggestions on how to handle the situation. You may not be the only parent having issues.

 

[PlutoPony]

In our experience, when teachers give minimal time for a project such as this they usually do it to keep the scope of the project DOWN .... the only kids who can turn in very elaborate things in a short amount of time are the ones whose parents did a lot of the work and it's usually pretty obvious. For short time frame projects DS has done, the emphasis has been on the "research" and as long as you could explain what your rendition was and how it applied to the subject you were good to go.
IMHO the underlying issue here really is kids (not parents) figuring out what the teacher wants and expects in a project - or anything else for that matter. Yeah, it's nice if the teacher is very explicit with the expectations but as you go thru school many aren't,sometimes intentionally. If your child doesn't really know what the teacher expects the end result to be or represent (doesn't have a "vision" of what they want) get them to ask the teacher for clarification... By now my son understands that it's HIS responsibility to understand what's expected and consequently how it will be graded, and he's gotten used to asking questions if it's not clear to him. It took a while to get him to do this (much easier to get mom to e-mail the teacher after school ) but by later elementary school he got very good at finding out what he needed to know. That's a skill that really helping him in MS also... Sorry to go off on a tangent but thought it might apply.. Good luck!

 

[Fabooliss]

When she has to make the human vascular system out of spaghetti, I'll take that one.(I'm a nurse ) It took him over a week in the workshop with lots of cussing, and he finally did it. We had DD label all of the parts because that was the point of the assignment...types of simple machines all used in one project. Sometimes I think these projects become bigger than the actual lesson taking place.

Sudden flashback... I made an eyeball out of macaroni in a fishbowl for grade 12 biology!!!!

 

[java]

I have a 4th grade dd and she is also getting "extra credits" to do. Well she has done them all and when I asked where they show up in her grade- "oh I spread it out over where she needs it the most" which means "oops I forgot about the extra credit and they are not anyplace in the grade- since my dd is the only one in the class that did it!"
I am LOL because there was an episode of Old Christine- where they had to make a spanish mission and it was all about guilt that she had because of her divorce-- stays up all night making it.. then dh shows up also having stayed up making one all nite! very funny and it was a Spanish Mission!!!

 

[marcyinPA]

Last month, my DS11 (6th grade) came home with a permission form, of sorts, to participate in a Social Studies project. It was not required, but completely optional. My first thought was "heck no, I'm not doing this!", but he really wanted to participate, so I agreed and signed the paper. The assignment was to bake, cut and decorate a cake to look like a piece of a map that each kid was given from school. My DS got part of Ancient Egypt, complete with pyramids. The cake had to look EXACTLY like the template given to him by the teacher. In theory, it was a neat idea. But we had a week to get it done, and it was due on a Thursday. You can't exactly bake a cake a week in advance without it going stale, so we put it off. Well, every day until Thursday, DS had either a ton of homework, or an after school activity. He helped me bake the cake and I froze it, but guess who decorated it? Yup...me! And I got an A!! LOL It actually turned out pretty neat....Hershey kisses for the pyramids, blue twizzlers for the river....They were all his ideas and he picked out the ingredients. I just followed through with the plan.

On the day they were to bring the cakes in, they pieced them all together like a puzzle on a long banquet table. They sent photos home so the parents could see what it looked like. There were many "perfect" pieces of cake in that map!

6th grade is very project heavy in our district....I don't particularly like it, but I don't see that we have much of a choice.