JaniceO Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 I know some people frown upon projects. My kids are former public school students and they actually enjoy projects. I'm looking for some fun, educational ideas. Right now, we are going to start working on President File Folder Reports (from Mrs. Renz's website). I'm going to simplify it for my 1st Grader, but all 3 boys are going to be expected to complete it. I also plan on tracing their bodies on a huge piece of paper and then putting the body parts on it. What are some other ideas? My boys are 5th grade, 3rd grade, and 1st grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNC Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 History Pockets and other literature pockets from Evan Moor - you can see samples here: http://www.evan-moor.com/Social_Studies/History/Catalog.aspx?CurriculumID=7&ClassID=166 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lorna Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 You might like to do some of the engineering challenges on the Think! website. New ones are posted each week (on a Saturday) and then pictures are posted through the week of other children's solutions. You can send in photos of your own creations, if you like. The challenges are always fun, using easy to obtain materials and make you think! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Explore Academy Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 (edited) make a cell in jello or make a pillow of a cell make a bridge of toothpicks and gumdrops make a poster about parts of speech make a how-to video relating to science or math make a lap-book on any topic make a photo collage go to unplugyourkids.com for great project ideas go to harmonyartmom.com for great art ideas go to the crafty crow for great craft ideas listen to a piece of music and draw a picture to represent the music what are you studying? I have lots of ideas! see our blog: http://www.exploreacademy.blogspot.com. -- you could alter most of what we do to make it appropriate for younger kids. Edited October 30, 2008 by Explore Academy adding our blog link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zee Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 Salt dough maps. My son is doing a salt dough map of the Italian Peninsula, marking it for the founding of Rome. He had to type out all the labels and make flags with toothpicks. He had to make the dough and color it. The project is going well and took us most of the school day yesterday (I'd rather devote a day once in a while, rather than having projects dragged over days, all the time). We'll finish it up today. Ds will also be putting an elevation legend on his map. He said that he imagined Italy was rather flat (even though he read about it being hilly and mountainous), until he did this project. It helped him to understand why the different people groups were fighting for the flatter, better farmlands. I plan to do a display board on Rome and a 5 paragraph essay or research report with it, also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaniceO Posted October 30, 2008 Author Share Posted October 30, 2008 Thank you so much for all of the ideas, and please, keep them coming. We are going through SOTW 1 right now (but I don't like alot of the projects in there). In geography, we're wrapping up Europe and getting ready to start Africa. I also plan on doing a mini unit type thing on the Election. For science, we are going to start Chemistry (much to my displeasure, but I was outvoted) as soon as our books get here from Amazon. Zee, I always pictured Italy as flat as well. I'm not sure why I had that image in my mind. BUT, after living here, I can tell you that it's definitely NOT flat. It's almost all mountainous. Which just helps make it even more beautiful in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Explore Academy Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 What about making a map of Africa using different paper patterns -- 3 different maps -- 1 for each kid with 4-5 categories for each endangered species poverty level population For chemistry -- figure out the best ratio for baking soda/vinegar for volcanic eruption -- are permanent markers permanent? use a variety of things to "treat" permanent marker and or make sharpie pen t-shirts to learn about solubility hope those help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
workingmom Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 can you elaborate on this or have an example. i would love to do something fun like this for my second grader instead of posting a pre bought one. thanks make a cell in jello or make a pillow of a cellmake a bridge of toothpicks and gumdrops make a poster about parts of speech make a how-to video relating to science or math make a lap-book on any topic make a photo collage go to unplugyourkids.com for great project ideas go to harmonyartmom.com for great art ideas go to the crafty crow for great craft ideas listen to a piece of music and draw a picture to represent the music what are you studying? I have lots of ideas! see our blog: http://www.exploreacademy.blogspot.com. -- you could alter most of what we do to make it appropriate for younger kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorax Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 I'm not sure if these are the type of projects you're looking for, but we've had lots of fun with them... Project Feederwatch eIditarod We used an Iditarod lapbook from In the Hands of a Child with this. Journey North has tons to choose from. We thoroughly enjoyed Mystery Class last year and Symbolic Migration is very cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 History Portfolios might work for you. Don't know if anyone has mentioned this or not, but you can get those tri-fold cardboard display things & use that to showcase things you've studied. We did a Leonardo da Vinci/Renaissance art camp & used the tri-fold displays to showcase the work we did. We attached the pics they painted, hung a little banner they made on it, put on photos of them working on the projects, and put the 3-D type projects (science projects, masks) in front of the display board. It was fun to have it sitting up on display & the kids loved showing friends, their grandparents, etc.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katrina Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 But in my house, nothing will ever beat making the mumified chicken. EVER. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kewb Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 We do History Pockets. Right now, I have traced their bodies and we are placing parts as we study them. So far we have the bones of the leg, the lungs, and the heart in place. Mummified chicken sounds like a great project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riada Posted October 30, 2008 Share Posted October 30, 2008 ...are an egg drop. Have them design an egg container or holder of some kind and then have dad take it and drop it off the house or some other high place. Some variations are to fill the box with water, popcorn, bubble wrap, or have a parachute on it. Our hs group does this yearly and the local fire dpt. drops them from the extended ladders. It's exciting to see what the kids can come up with. Another project might be to get involved in a postcard exchange. We are currently doing one and it has been exciting for the kids to send and receive postcards weekly (3 a week) and explore the areas they come from. This has been the most excited the kids have ever been about geography. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Explore Academy Posted October 31, 2008 Share Posted October 31, 2008 can you elaborate on this or have an example. i would love to do something fun like this for my second grader instead of posting a pre bought one. thanks The above samples should help some. Other things to do: For nouns, collect pictures/words from a magazine of nouns and paste them in the proper columns for types of nouns. For verbs, draw pictures and put a verb beneath each one. Or just pull some sentences from a favorite book and write them on a poster with one color representing each part of speech. All of these activities can be adjusted from elementary through high school by increasing/decreasing the complexity. Interjections are fun -- cut 5-10 pictures from a magazine and cut out the same number of speech bubbles. Have your student put an appropriate interjection in each speech bubble that goes with the picture. Hope that helps. If you have more questions, it is easiest to post a comment directly on my blog: http://www.exploreacademy.blogspot.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homemama2 Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 You could probably find lots of fun chemistry experiments online-just google 'free elementary chemistry experiments' or something....things like making your own slime, make your own rootbeer, bouncy balls, things like that. I don't have time to look any up right now but I know they are out there! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linders Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 This book has life-size blackline figures of all the internal organs of the body along with a brief explanation of the function of each. You trace each child's body on butcher paper and copy the organs, then the child colors the organs and places them on their "body." We did it a year ago and my boys still have their "bodies" hanging on their walls. They loved it! You can get the book at Rainbow Resource. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gratefulmother Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 Thank you for asking this question. Sometimes I get caught up in just doing the basics that I forget to take advantage of all the flexibility we have as homeschoolers and do projects like this. I have taken notes from all of these responses and am keeping them in a document to refer to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda...inOwasso Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 Hey Janice, Any chance you could provide a link to the President File Folder Reports you're using? I've scoured Mrs. Renz's website and can't find them anywhere! Thanks so much!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenn Robinson Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 I let my girls make lapbooks from the printouts on "homeschool share". They are FREE! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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