Research Symposium

As a teacher, test days and big due dates were my favorite days.  I loved the nervous excitement that hung in the air.  That sense of accomplishment tinged with fear and energy?  Remember it?  Creating opportunities for kids to stretch was my favorite part of teaching.  So, I decided to do this for my kids this summer.  Now I have a lot more empathy for the parents of my students, ha.  It takes a lot of parent support for kids to produce awesome work.
I had a few goals with this project:
-Give myself motivation to get my kids to the library.
-Work together with them each individually on something.
-Teach them how to research and draw conclusions from their research.
-Teach them about design for a presentation board.
-Give them an opportunity to present what they learned to a wider audience.
-Spend time with some friends who also wanted to research. (We got 2 friends who finished with us!)
-Have fun.

And, actually I would say that I accomplished all of those goals!  More or less.  For the younger 2 I may have drawn many of the conclusions and had to lead them toward them.  But it was a great growing experience for all of them.
Sarah's biggest complaint was that we didn't have more people come to see their work!

These were the first dates I chose (after our vacation dates).  I wanted to make sure this happened!

Sarah's original topic was Kuwait.  Then she switched to Anne of Green Gables cooking.  (We had been listening to the Anne books in the car over the spring. )  I had her add the fabric part since I was so interested in that...I helped her hone in on her final conclusion (okay, I told her what it was); that people love Anne of Green Gables because it isn't just a book.  It is a total sensory experience including touch and taste!  We made ice cream, the liniment cake, and raspberry cordial.  

 Libby decided on her own that she wanted to recite some Shakespeare.  I wasn't sure that she was ready, but she had it memorized.  Maren helped her polish it.  This girl amazes me!

Our invitation

The appetizer table setting.

Ben's monster project.  He actually did so much of this research because it was looking at pictures of monsters to figure out what made them scary.  Did you know the characteristic shared by most monsters is sharp teeth?  We learned that together!  I put the board together, but he helped pick which monsters made the survey and the board.  

Here are my favorite poems.  I was super proud of these because she also typed and formatted them herself.  

Libby was actually crazy about her topic and loved the whole thing.  She decided to focus on the lessons Shakespeare is teaching through his tragedies.  We listened to a bunch of the plays in versions for kids in the car over the summer.  The kids all loved them!  Since Libby loves poems, I suggested she make a poem on each gravestone about the lesson Shakespeare was trying to teach.  The poems are amazing. Aunt Maren dedicated 3 hours to helping Libby make the graveyard.  Libby is very determined about how she sees a thing being accomplished.  It can be a challenge to help her.  But Maren did a great job!

Libby also wanted to have a Shakespeare coloring pages area.

And a carpet where kids could read the stories of Shakespeare.  

Sarah was a master on the mic.  (She is practicing here).  She made so many hilarious announcements.  She loves to hear herself in the microphone.  Wonder where she got that?

Thankful to everyone who came!  Especially Grammy who came after a long day of getting teachers technologically ready for school.  

Ben explaining his project to Ms. Harris (Sarah's teacher from last year).  We have a great community!