A Native American Project

It is the end of the year and so there are lots of special things going on at school.  Harry's class had a day when families were invited to come and see a project they had made as groups and then also some individual stories and projects each child did.  Here are some pictures.  Harry won the drawing for the diorama so that is in his room now.  It is always a fun and fascinating thing to go in and see what the kids have done.  The diorama's were very neat and they were done by groups of three.  The children brought in materials and they actually spent a whole day in school working on them.  I think that was a neat way of doing it.  This way the teacher's know that the kids actually do the work and the work is also comparable as you look around at the various dioramas in the room.  It is funny though, even then there was at least one group where you could see an overzealous (my prejudice I admit) parent had sent in things that were a bit much - rather than the shoeboxes and sticks and natural objects from around the house/yard there were more expensive materials and that group had made t-shirts/hats etc. so they all looked very cute and matched.  At the same time this was something I think that was so wonderful in the other groups, precisely because it was clear that they had come up with their ideas together and worked together.  They pointed out the things they'd done individually and what they'd done together as a group.  

Harry is generally not good with group work, but it seemed like he did fine on the project.  His story (which has not yet come home) was the expected longer length but it was also a well thought out and finished story. That has been one of the big challenges for him this year.  He has so many ideas, that he has a hard time coming to the conclusion of a story.

Harry's group

Translating a cave message for a parent

Close up of the diorama