School's Cool

It's the last day of school today, and I'm looking back on some of the cool projects assigned to the second graders this year.  Here is a recap...

Greece Poster: During the neighborhood storyline at school, a Greek family moved into the class's fictional neighborhood, and all the kids were sent home to research four facts about Greece.  They made posters to show what they learned.  This was Eleanor's design, I helped when asked by printing images from the computer and providing straight lines where requested.  There was a 5 euro note taped to it before, but I've taken it off so I can spend it... in GREECE!

Family Poster: The kids did a classroom unit in which they considered what it means to be a family.  The kids were asked to make up an emblem to represent their own family, and then they designed posters incorporating symbols that might be meaningful in their own family (notice the Stewart plaid in the background).  The kids also interviewed "elders" in their families, asking for advice about life.  I love this poster.

Israel Project:  In class, the kids each picked a country to research and Eleanor chose Israel.  At home, they complimented the class research with a creative project somehow related to the country.  Eleanor created a copy of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which we hope to see this summer!

Art:  Our school in Portland doesn't have as much art instruction as our school in Texas had, but the kids do get Art Infusion (taught by parents)  once a month, and Art Cart (taught by a real teacher) once a week most of the Spring term.  They produced many lovelies, here is one of my favs; it's from an Art Infusion lesson...

Animal report:  Right here at the end of school the class was immersed in an Animal Sanctuary storyline, and alongside that the kids were researching an animal of choice.  There is always a creative project to be done at home, to compliment the research and writing they are doing in the classroom.  A lot of this last project had to come home (including the research and writing) because they just had too much to get through the last few weeks at school.  It was a homework heavy last month!  And here is the elephant diorama Eleanor made, with paper mached elephants.

 

Such a cool class!

Eleanor and the Fantastic Ms. Hanes