SKL Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 My first-grade daughters brought home the following "science project" assignment. It's due next Monday. Here's the assignment verbatim: Kinds of animals: mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects Put your name on the paper I sent home. Cut out of a magazine, use an internet picture, or neatly draw a picture of an animal for each group. Label it with the name of the animal (bird), then write if it is an herbivore or carnivore and what it would eat. Everything should be neatly done and it MUST be the child's work!!! Remember to do all six groups. OK. Here's why there is no way "everything" is going to be "the child's work" (for any first-grader): They have no concept of planning a project to be done "Monday, January 14." Probably only 1 or 2 of the kids in the class can hope to read the assignment without parental help, let alone understand it. Most first-graders do not have the ability to search the net and print a photo; what kid has magazines on hand with all those critters; and how many 1st graders can "neatly" draw each of those critters? Few first graders can spell various animal names and preferred critter foods, let alone "herbivore" or "carnivore." Half of the first-graders can't write legibly let alone neatly. Few first graders can organize and check their work well enough to ensure all the requirements are met. Give me a freakin' break, okay? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathnerd Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 I agree with you. A parent has to handhold kids to make such a presentation and they are way too involved for this grade level. My Kindergartener just finished a monthly sharing "Cultural/Country Poster" which was mandated to be all "his own work". The teacher had sent a note saying "Remember this is your child’s project and he/she should do all of the work. Your child should do ALL the writing, coloring, and cutting". And she wanted him to cover the following topics: - Flag: What does the flag for this country look like? - Foods: What are the traditional foods? - Sites: What are the famous sites in this country? - Clothing: What is the traditional clothing worn? - Music: What type of music is played in the country? - Flowers: What flowers are found in this country? - Animals: What animals are found in this country? - Celebrations: What holidays or events does this country have? - Sports: What kind of sports do they play in this country? My child picked Japan as he was interested in that country. Honestly, he has no clue about anything to do with Japan except that he likes Japanse Martial Arts! So, I printed out the pictures, had him cut them out for me, glued them in myself on to poster paper (because he cannot do a neat job by himself) which I had to run to Michael's and buy for him and then drew triple lines at the bottom of each picture and had him write the words by spelling them for him. And finally I talked about each picture and what it was about for 30 minutes to him while going over all these items on several websites, basically making a presentation to my 5 year old. At the end of it, he could say Kimono, Cherry Blossom Festival, Koto Harp, Red Crowned Crane etc by himself while pointing to the pictures. I would say that the opportunity helped him to learn a lot and his classmates liked the presentation very much, but it was so obvious that it could not have been done without an adult's major contribution or hard work :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 We were assigned to make cookies (yes, assigned) and sew a doll. :D I don't know how to sew. Let's just say it took me an entire weekend and countless bleeds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 10, 2013 Author Share Posted January 10, 2013 We were assigned to make cookies (yes, assigned) and sew a doll. :D I don't know how to sew. Let's just say it took me an entire weekend and countless bleeds. Don't even get me started about the time we were required to go find a plain pillowcase and cut it up so they could use it for a Native American outfit. Umm... first of all, what if I only have pillowcases that have designs on them? Second, what if I don't want to cut them up? I don't know about you, but I don't keep garbage around; either I use it or it gets donated. And no, I'm not going to go buy pillowcases so they can be cut up! And third, what makes you think I have time to do a pillowcase craft on a school/work night? (It was too involved for a 6yo to do.) Fourth, of course, is that I already finished elementary school and I don't need any more homework from the first grade teacher. Bah. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 10, 2013 Author Share Posted January 10, 2013 Oh, and this Friday is "pet day." If you have a small pet, you can bring it. If you have a big one, ask the teacher for permission to bring it at 2:30pm. Right. OK. I told the girls they were free to trap any insects or arachnids they could find and take them to school. Alternatively, they could bag up some critter poop from the back yard and tell the class about the deer who hang out there. If they were a little older, I might suggest they trap the raccoon who thinks he owns the place. Ha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 I was saved by a friend who brought cloth samples dumped by the community college design department. I am not crafty, but a bit OCD. These assignments really stress me out. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 10, 2013 Author Share Posted January 10, 2013 I am not crafty, but a bit OCD. These assignments really stress me out. :) I don't like them because I don't think it's what they should be spending their time on, unless they want to. How is cutting out a picture and pasting it a science learning experience? Or, how does this prove what the child knows or doesn't know, given that no child in that class is going to do this alone? And if I do let my kid do it on her own, and she forgets some part of it, she's going to get docked. It's just dumb. I would love for a teacher to explain why making me do this over the weekend is a better teaching method than, say, discussing animal phyla in the classroom. My kids' ex-nanny spends Saturday mornings with them. She's a professional artist among other things. She would love to do this with my kids, but you know it would come out looking like it was "not their own work" (even though it would be as much as any other kid's). So I probably won't ask her to do this. Which means it will be my personal pain in the butt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uff Da! Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 DD had something like that. We don't have magazines in our house and the ones MIL gives us are not for children. I googled a bunch of coloring book images, cut and paste them onto a word document and printed them off. Then DD could do the coloring, cutting and pasting but the searching for images was done. I had more images than she needed so she did have to make some choices. SKL- Are your girls going to care if one kid has one set of images and the other has another? My kids want to have everything the other one has- so my preschooler did his own version of the homework project too. :rofl: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandra Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Oh, the 'cut from a magazine' is anathema to me. I did NOT want my dc to think that printed material and scissors were a good combination. EVER. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 10, 2013 Author Share Posted January 10, 2013 SKL- Are your girls going to care if one kid has one set of images and the other has another? My kids want to have everything the other one has- so my preschooler did his own version of the homework project too. :rofl: My girls generally do their own thing. They have very different styles when it comes to art. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnIslandGirl Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 LOL, It's so funny how we all think. When I read the OP, I though, aww what a fun project! We have stacks of old "collage magazines" and a ton poster boards, and I immediately envisioned color wheels and tissue paper. But then again, I'm more of an outside the box, creative person who lives for creative interpretation projects. The pet day though? I wouldn't know what to do with that! This is pretty typical of 1st grade assignments around here. Anything that is given a week in advance has multi-step research, collecting and organizing data, and some type of visual output is required. I figure these type of assignments are great to cover multiple areas at once. Grab a few books from the library (literacy component) and let the girls copy words that might be difficult.(spelling & handwriting). Talk about dividing the poster into six equal columns (math) and classification of each row (science). Making it pretty is the fun part (art), and finding some examples of animals in your neighborhood is a great 15 minute field trip/ nature study. As long as I break it down into smaller components, I can see the educational value of an assignment. The best part though is seeing how proud the children are for completing the finished project all by themselves! Given the right resources and direction, I would think a typical first grader should have no problem with this assignment. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 I once took several garden snails and a slug to a fair "pet show"-you got in free if you brought your pet. So we went out to the garden and turned over rocks until we found some. FWIW, Slither, Slime, and Shell(ey) won a blue ribbon for "Most unusual". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 That seems a lot for a first grader to do completely independently. My second grader would need a lot of hand-holding on it. (And my fifth grader could do it, but she'd need my permissions/supervision to use the internet.) I think a more reasonable approach would be to discuss the different classes of animals at school and then ask the children to find a picture of an animal that fits each class, discussing them with the parents. Then again, I kind of think that the point of homework in the early grades is to reinforce the concepts discussed in class and to inform the parents of what was taught. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 I totally agree with you. My kindergartener could do that project. In fact, I think we will, just for fun. LOL, It's so funny how we all think. When I read the OP, I though, aww what a fun project! We have stacks of old "collage magazines" and a ton poster boards, and I immediately envisioned color wheels and tissue paper. But then again, I'm more of an outside the box, creative person who lives for creative interpretation projects. The pet day though? I wouldn't know what to do with that! This is pretty typical of 1st grade assignments around here. Anything that is given a week in advance has multi-step research, collecting and organizing data, and some type of visual output is required. I figure these type of assignments are great to cover multiple areas at once. Grab a few books from the library (literacy component) and let the girls copy words that might be difficult.(spelling & handwriting). Talk about dividing the poster into six equal columns (math) and classification of each row (science). Making it pretty is the fun part (art), and finding some examples of animals in your neighborhood is a great 15 minute field trip/ nature study. As long as I break it down into smaller components, I can see the educational value of an assignment. The best part though is seeing how proud the children are for completing the finished project all by themselves! Given the right resources and direction, I would think a typical first grader should have no problem with this assignment. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 It's not a bad assignment-it's the sort of thing that I asked my DD to do when we first started homeschooling, which is now, at age 8, starting to turn into writing more "real" research papers. However, it's not going to be "the child's work"-rather, it's going to be the child learning how to eventually do such research on their own by sitting with the parent and "helping", with the parent doing most of the legwork and mousing. As a homeschooler, I'm fine with that. But I HATED such assignments when my DD brought them home from PS, after they'd had her all day and she hadn't done anything at all slightly challenging-it was more interesting than most of what she did at school, but it was me doing the teaching, not her teacher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 11, 2013 Author Share Posted January 11, 2013 I'm not saying my kid can't do this assignment. I'm saying it's ridiculous for the teacher to talk like there is any way this is going to "all" be the child's "own work." It would have been less ridiculous if she'd said "the parent can help with research and planning, but I expect the child to do x, y, and z on her own." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nart Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 I agree it is a project that a first grader can't complete independently as homework in a busy week. It would have been a better assignment if the teacher assigned one kind of animal each week and have the project be a six week project. That way the teacher could teach about one kind of animal per week. My son's homework that was emailed on Monday was to bring in a "clove of garlic pressed" on Thursday for the class Stone Soup. I wish it were emailed last Friday because we grocery shop on the weekends and we were out of garlic. DH had to do a late night run to the grocery store on Wed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 11, 2013 Author Share Posted January 11, 2013 My son's homework that was emailed on Monday was to bring in a "clove of garlic pressed" on Thursday for the class Stone Soup. I wish it were emailed last Friday because we grocery shop on the weekends and we were out of garlic. DH had to do a late night run to the grocery store on Wed. I have this problem too. I normally do grocery shopping once every 2-3 weeks, because my grocery store of choice is a half-hour drive away from any other place I go. Last month, at different times, I was asked to provide ingredients for "stone soup," jars of peanut butter for a charity project, bags of M&Ms for a holiday craft, and cans of food for another charity project. Most of these items I don't normally buy or don't have any unopened in my cupboard. Each time I had only a few days' notice. I'm surprised other parents are able to consistently respond to these requests. They may sound like "no big deal," but when you're already very busy (this is December, OK?), dragging the kids out to the store is going to throw off something else you needed to do. I also love the way they don't bother to give advance notice of the times the kids have to sing in church. We normally attend the 8:30am Sunday service, as I work on Sunday afternoons. I will be browsing the school's Wednesday newsletter and discover that my kids are singing in church the following Sunday at 11am. Come Friday the kids will bring home a note to that effect from their teacher. Gee, thanks, I never have any weekend plans, do you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 13, 2013 Author Share Posted January 13, 2013 Well, we spent hours on that dag bling project today, and it isn't even done. Turns out my kids had no idea what a reptile or amphibian was. I was determined to not do the work for them, but I had to make sure they understood what they were doing, right? They read the assignment and did all the layout and choosing of animals and labeling etc., and then they wanted internet pictures. At this point I was done with this being a "team" or "kids'" project and I went and found those dang photos and printed them and re-copied some of them so they could be a useable size. Tomorrow their aunt will supervise as they cut and paste. I guess they learned something (if only because I made the extra effort of finding books, explaining and re-explaining, and making them repeat back a few times). And I only lost my temper once. Grocery shopping will have to wait until next week. Please, no more "projects" for a while. This is also the weekend one of my kids gets to keep "snuggle," the class panda, and write a journal about what we all did over the weekend. Call me a scrooge, but I really don't have time for that on top of a "project." Bah. Humbug. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 I foresee battles with teachers. They are at school all day. I don't bring my work home and I don't see that they should have to either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2lydia Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 My daughter is in second grade and just had to make a model of an animal she is doing research on. Her animal of choice was the red panda. It was assigned yesterday and they have until Feb. 28th, so a full month to make this. My child insisted we had to finish it by today so she could take it to school. She knew and understood it didn't have to be finished until next month but wanted to have it done. By the time I got home from work she had been working hard on it for about 2hrs only taking a break to eat. She was trying to use a glue stick to make it all hold together. I helped her so we could hot glue it and we used an old blanket that was red and made out of fleece and created it. I didn't finish it last night before she went to bed and she got up early to make sure it was done before we had to leave. I did the physical construction but she had the ideas I just didn't want a 7yr old using a glue gun, even a cold temp one like I have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uff Da! Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 My daughter is in second grade and just had to make a model of an animal she is doing research on. Her animal of choice was the red panda. It was assigned yesterday and they have until Feb. 28th, so a full month to make this. My child insisted we had to finish it by today so she could take it to school. She knew and understood it didn't have to be finished until next month but wanted to have it done. By the time I got home from work she had been working hard on it for about 2hrs only taking a break to eat. She was trying to use a glue stick to make it all hold together. I helped her so we could hot glue it and we used an old blanket that was red and made out of fleece and created it. I didn't finish it last night before she went to bed and she got up early to make sure it was done before we had to leave. I did the physical construction but she had the ideas I just didn't want a 7yr old using a glue gun, even a cold temp one like I have. I love this post. It's fun when the kids are so enthusiastic that they run ahead on a project insisting mom or dad follow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 I'm not saying my kid can't do this assignment. I'm saying it's ridiculous for the teacher to talk like there is any way this is going to "all" be the child's "own work." It would have been less ridiculous if she'd said "the parent can help with research and planning, but I expect the child to do x, y, and z on her own." My kid is in K, not 1st. But if asked to do such a project, the teacher would have sent home a coloring sheet for each of the kinds of animals with choices of animals on it. Along with extra "thick" paper to paste it down on. They don't expect you to have Internet at home OR magazines to cut out of. (though they would expect crayons, glue, scissors, a few other things. The glue thing is the one I have the most problems with). In fact, when they wanted the kids to practice logging in to the computer system, they sent home a cardstock "keyboard" for them to practice "typing" on if they didn't have any other way to do so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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