School Projects

Throughout everything with the trip and getting back we've still had school and school stuff to do! Since it's Catholic Schools Week, everyone had big projects to be on display for the open house. 

I don't know why?! Do other parents really look at the other kid's projects? Why teachers, why? 

M had her turn at the 3rd grade community. Do you remember when C made a church? And then M and I got COVID and we couldn't even go? 

Well M has a new teacher this year so they didn't get assigned the buildings they took turns picking buildings. M opted for a restaurant when it was her turn. Solid choice M. She knew I was gunning for "house" but I wasn't there and she never seemed that excited about my choice. 

She opted to make Whitey's, a local ice cream chain. And you know what? It was way simpler than the church. Locations have different colored roofs, the one we go to often has a black roof which is what I thought we were doing, but during our Michael's run, she told me she distinctly wanted a red roof. 

Since I was already buying vinyl for the logo I said we could use that as the roof too. Kudos to M for insisting, and to me for coming up with it. Because all it is cardboard wrapped in vinyl so it couldn't have been easier and it just adds so much flair! 

And here's the thing: other than cutting the cardboard pieces with a box cutter, M did all the work. She hot glued the walls together with Husband's help. She cut out the siding pieces and glued them on. Okay, the Cricut cut out the Whitey's logo but she stuck it on the sides. She also helped wrap the roof pieces in vinyl. 

The windows and doors are a cereal box cut up, with white paper (with sharpie marks) glued on, then a layer of cellophane to make them look like glass wrapped over it. Then she glued on black paper shutters or door frames. 

She made the benches with the 3D pen and she hot glued them on! 

In 5th grade, we were given a full week's notice to create an ecosystem. And everyone had a different kind of ecosystem to make. C was assigned a swamp. Because of course, he was. 

His involved a lot of crafting. And patience. The idea was things above water were 3D and below water 2D. That didn't fully pan out since the rocks and roots underwater are 3D but just go with it. 

It was C's idea to use twine string as the cattail roots and I think it's one of the most interesting parts of the project. You can tell better in the process picture. And make out more clearly the turtle who hides in the roots. 

I am not sad that it is no longer taking up our kitchen table. You can't really tell in the completed picture but there's cellophane over the water area to make it shiny. It gives it a little something. 

Here they are at open house! 

Here are more community pictures because I love them so much! 

Here are the kid's contributions to the full school mural: 

And since it's Catholic schools week, there are always days to dress up. This year, new to the themes is "Dress Like Your Favorite Holiday." Well... I genuinely think that's fun but M's favorite is Halloween. We didn't have a Halloween shirt so for $4 we bought one and then M designed a pumpkin face for us to screen print on. 

And I think it turned out super cute. But is just one more project we've got going on. It's going to be a good week,