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Thursday, August 8, 2013

Whew, the kid-driven summer projects were a hit

Saw a fun summer idea on a friend’s blog, Wisdom Comes Suddenly, to buy the kids poster board and let them do a project on whatever they wanted. Floated the idea past Ree and Ro while we were doing back-to-school-supply* shopping at Target and they were all over it!

The projects spanned two days and resulted in fantastic posters and presentations and happy girls. The best part was that Ro and Ree were completely occupied and not fighting with each other for hours and hours.

These projects were totally self-driven and the only object was fun. They picked their subjects, did research and printed pics using the iPad, decided what their poster boards should look like and what kind of facts and illustrations to include, then did brief presentations (a little over 2 minutes for Ree and about 4 minutes for Ro) to their incredibly receptive audience of one (me!).

“Hello, my name is Ree and my fairy name is Leela. [smiles proudly] My project is Fairies! Fairies are tiny humans with wings. There are dark fairies and good fairies...”:
IMG_3563LRps

“Helllll-o, my name is Ro and my project is about Mermaids. Mermaids are half human and half fish. Mermaids live under the sea. They have tails like this little fishy [points to poster]...”:
IMG_3569LRps

Cute! And a fun idea for your kids if you’ve still got a few days of summer vacation to fill.

Some of the other project ideas Ro and Ree tossed around before settling on the final winners, by the way, were Dogs (I really wanted to see that one but kept quiet – you know that was hard for me), Castles, and Royalty (hello, Prince Georgie! – squeal – again, kept my mouth shut...).

Happy last blast of summer.

~~~

* Who sells UHU glue sticks, whatever the heck those are?! Does anyone else worry about this type of detail or do you just get as close as you can on the school-required supply lists and call it a day?

18 comments:

  1. Anonymous8/08/2013

    I just buy whatever glue sticks are on sale. The brand doesn't matter :)

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  2. Anonymous8/08/2013

    agreed! and i'm a teacher so relax, it really doesn't matter.

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  3. I'm a teacher, and I've never heard of that brand of glue stick. When I googled it, it looks like you can find them at office stores like Staples or Office Depot or craft stores like Michael's or Joann. They were also listed on Amazon.

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  4. Those are great! I sense there would be less enthusiasm if I proposed this to my group (ages 13, 13, 11, and 10), which is too bad. Those are great!

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  5. Anonymous8/08/2013

    Quill.com has them

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  6. Anonymous8/08/2013

    Very nice work, girls!

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  7. Anonymous8/08/2013

    Great job the girls did. Great idea. Maybe they would do another one before school starts. No one did Hawaii? Dad needs one done for him. :)


    ERIKA

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  8. I am a teacher and so long as you don't buy those awful purple glue sticks or el cheapo dollar store glue sticks you should ok. I ask for a certain kind but get a variety! The two I've just mentioned are just the worst!

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  9. I have a lot of Uhu glue sticks in ourt craft bins! Want to come for a visit and pick them up? ;o)

    Looks liked they might be a Canadian brand. Want me to mail you some friend?

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  10. http://www.amazon.com/Permanent-Clear-Application-Sticks-99450/dp/B001PMJYAO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376093327&sr=8-1&keywords=uhu+glue+sticks

    Amazon link to them....Wal-Mart also sells them. I am a teacher and we try to list things that are accessible to parents! Ususally we recommend a certain brand only if it has been found to work much better than other kinds. Maybe you can order them online? I love the projects. I read Lori's post about her three doing their reports as well! I am sure you can tell these would make any teacher smile! :)

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  11. Anonymous8/09/2013

    Hi M3, I bought the exact brand of everything at a pricey school supply store when Clare was going into kinder. This year...well Target on sale glue sticks for the girlies...as I saw that it really did not matter and not worth hunting down a specific brand. It all goes into a community pile of supplies and somehow gets the job done. Enjoy the beautiful days of August. Ginny

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  12. That is absolutely awesome!!!

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  13. Yeah! I love the girls' boards. They are stunning. I'm so glad they enjoyed it, and I'm especially glad you got a break from the late-summer squabbles. We were taking a late-summer trip to St. Louis, and we just got home tonight and caught your post. I can't wait to tell Kelly. When I told her that her independent report idea traveled to California, she said, "I am famous!" And for a 6 year old, I guess she is!

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  14. OMG!! Your girls are just beautiful!! We have so loved watching grow over the years!!! :)

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  15. Great job girls! Looks like you had lots of fun!

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