Monday, October 3, 2011

First School Project - The Chattahoochee River

Today was the due date for G's first ever school project.  For the past three weeks, he's worked very hard on this.  He did research both on the internet and in print.  He learned how to cut and paste using Microsoft Word, and he kept a Word file with his research.  He created categories for his research, like "science and nature," "safety," and "fun."  He chose a poster board and title letters at Target.  He designed a layout for his project, and drew his illustrations first, including a very accurate map of Georgia and the Chattahoochee River.  He decided how to put his facts in his own words and used his very best handwriting to write out each fact.

He wanted to stay up all night on Saturday to finish it, because he was having so much fun working on this, but we only allowed him an extra two hours.  With Mommy overseeing the spelling and Daddy popping popcorn, we had a pretty great time watching him work.  He said that he loves doing projects and that for some reason, and he can't explain it, he found it relaxing to stay up all night.  He put the finishing touches on yesterday evening, et voila! 

One of our favorite things about this is how he drew trees in autumn and layered them, one behind the other, on each side of the river bank.  He did so much work on this - from research, to planning, to carefully forming each written letter, to erasing pencil lines and reglueing loose edges of title letters - that he really surprised and impressed us.  It's amazing what our kids can do!