When you were a kid,
did you have a hard time with school projects? I'm sure we all did at
some time or another. For me, it was procrastination; I would put
everything off until the last possible minute and end up having to
slap something together the night before something was due. This was
usually for the more boring projects like French Christmas cards or
geography essays. But what if there was a way to make these projects
more interesting? What if your child could do that presentation or
read that report in a way that makes her stand out from the crowd and
is fun to do? Here are a couple of ideas for interesting school
projects-pending teacher approval, of course.
Let me make one thing
clear: I am not suggesting that you do their project for them. That
kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? No, I'm just giving ideas
that you can give to your child to make things a little less boring
and make her want to get started early.
If your child is doing
a report on a state or a country, make a 'wearable map' out of
string, poster board and/or cardboard. Draw an outline of the state
and draw or glue things to it that represent the state's exports or
major landmarks. For instance, for Georgia, you can glue the label of
a can of peaches to the 'map'. For the diamond mine in Arkansas, cut
a picture of an engagement ring out of a magazine and put it in the
approximate location of the mine on the map. A map of Maine can have
lobster claws and a tail coming out of it, and the upper peninsula of
Michigan can be given tires and windows like a car. It doesn't really
matter what state or country the report is about, just as long as the
information relevant for the presentation is on the map/costume
somewhere. If all else fails, your child can wear a board in the
shape of the state or country's flag while reading his report.
I'm sure we all
remember the fun we had on the days when someone brought food for
everyone. My French class would have 'tasting parties' where we
brought in different French foods. Since most of us were not chefs
and neither were our parents, you'd find at least three different
kinds of quiche, two salads with vinaigrette dressing and bunch of
trays of desserts. Spanish class wasn't much different, what with
doing presentations on various cities or countries. If your child
wants to do something edible but doesn't want (or you don't have the
materials) to make something everyone else is bringing, you can take
a more 'geographical' approach. Do something like make a huge cookie
in the shape of France with M&Ms highlighting the major cities or
make a Mexican flag out of fruit. Since there is at least one type of
fruit or vegetable for every color found in a country's flag, this
shouldn't be hard to do.
Hopefully I've given
you something to think about next time your child asks you for help
on a school project. Creative ideas like this can help take a lot of
the anxiety out of standing up and presenting to the class. Just
make sure it's okay with the teacher!
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