School Projects

A few months ago (yes, I'm behind) Emily and Peter had a school project to write and illustrate a fairy tale. We "published" each story and they got to read them at an author's fair with the rest of their class.

Emily's fairy tale was about a princess whose father accidentally turned himself into a dog. The princess and her mean sisters had to go gather various items from around Europe in order to get their father back to normal. Emily is a prolific writer. Her story was the longest in the class - by double!

Peter's fairy tale was about a lonely emperor penguin in Antarctica who wanted to build himself a warm home. Every time he built a house out of ice blocks, a cruel orca whale would knock it down with his tail. Other penguins came along and helped the little emperor penguin to finally build a house that the whale couldn't reach.

Then it was on to inquiry projects. Inquiry is like science fair except your question doesn't have to be science-based. The kids each came up with a question and an experiment to answer their question. Then they had to analyze the information they had collected and make a board to use in presenting their inquiry at the school's Inquiry Fair.

Peter's inquiry was about how plugging your nose affects the taste of food. His hope was to discover that food didn't taste as strong if you plugged your nose - a strategy he could have used when forced to eat horrible food - like meat. Unfortunately, for kids at least, plugging your nose while you eat doesn't seem to take away the taste.

Emily's inquiry tried to discover which noise maker was the loudest. She tested her scream, banging two rocks together, using a homemade megaphone, a whistle and an air horn. She was trying to see which would be the most useful item to have with you if you got lost camping. Her results were pretty inconclusive - so just don't get lost!