Eliza just finished a science unit on the solar system. As part of their "discoveries" they had eight different kinds of projects to complete. Some were as easy as writing a letter to the president about why we should not live on Mars, or drawing a picture of a space shuttle (which, I admit, may not have been easy for some students). Eliza did those two projects as well as researching an astronaut and preparing a presentation about them, and several other projects. The last two that she turned in today were a diorama of the solar system and a solar system board game.
She just barely completed her projects last night, with a little help from me. I found the idea of making a telescope diorama online, then told Eliza about it. She was thrilled. Another student in her class had brought in a diorama in a box with all of the planets in orbit. Eliza said that she didn't want to copy her and paint on the comets and meteors. So, I did a little bit of looking online and found this idea.
Originally, Eliza painted all of her planets. She started painting them one day after school. When we woke up the next morning, we found that the paint was starting to peel off the foam balls. So, since it was crunch time, we went to plan B. She covered the balls with modeling clay. I think she did an amazing job getting all the little details and such. As she was working on them, I was making dinner and she came downstairs and said, "Look at Earth!" She had even put the continents on there and was so excited to show me where Florida was, and South America. The sun she painted with glow-in-the-dark paint; which, disappointingly doesn't glow very brightly. I think she is totally amazing!
Her second huge project was a board game. She based it on the board game Cranium. Everyone starts in section 1 on the sun and gets to choose a card from whichever section they want. If they get the answer right, they get to move along the "meteor" track; if they get the answer wrong, they get to move along the "comet" track. (I realize now that I may have mixed those two up. Which is faster, comets or meteors?)
Each of the sections had to be about either Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune. She came up with ten questions about Jupiter on her own. Then, I showed her a website that has 20 question trivia games about each of the planets which we took questions from, and I helped her to put them together.
In all, I think she did a great job on her planetary projects. And, she was so flexible, making up solutions for the problems she encountered. (We didn't want to paint the eye piece of the telescope and ran out of black paper. Eliza chimed in with, "Do you have any black fabric?" She's so creative using all the resources available.) She was up until almost 11:15 last night working on her projects. And, when I asked her earlier in the day if she wanted everyone to help her form the planets, she said that she would do them all. I am so pleased that she was willing to make the effort to get her homework done by herself. She really is such an amazing person and I love that I get to be her mama.
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