Academic Museum

When I left the public school system, I thought I was leaving behind the awful stress of the TAKS/STAAR test.  Thank goodness I don't have to worry about an entire class passing 2 tests they have never seen before, but instead, my new school has academic museum.
Now don't get me wrong.  This is an amazing educational experience for my students (and this year, for Gianna)  Every student in my class has to research a topic, write a paper, create a timeline, draw a picture, a map, write a speech, and put it all together on a poster.  At home, they have to create a costume and a 3D project.  Whew.  Now that its all over, I can say it was well worth it, but with a snow day the Monday before it was all due, I was worried it wouldn't get all done.

Using kitchen utensils to go break up the ice.

All students 1st-8th grade have this project, and display it in the halls and gym of our school.  Then for an hour on Academic Museum night, parents, teachers and other guests can walk around and ask students anything they want about their topic.  This year, my students were studying plants in science, so they each picked a plant for their AM project.  They put the life cycle into a timeline, drew a map of where their plan grew, and drew and labeled a picture of their plant.  All the pictures I took of my students have their face in it, so I don't want to post for privacy reasons.  

One of my students did the Tulip.  She wrote a paragraph on the history of the tulip, and there are very famous tulip gardens in Holland.  Here is her own Dutch Tulip garden 3D project.  She also dressed as a little Dutch girl.

I thought the hardest part of the project would be the costume.  They had the option of dressing up like a person from the region of where their plant grows, they could dress up as their plant, a farmer, a gardener, etc.  The creativity flowed here.  One student, who had the Sequoia tree, dressed up as John Muir, who discovered and studied them in California in the 1800s.  One student dressed in a lei and grass skirt for the palm tree.  One of my students had the Hibiscus, dressed like a little Hawaiian girl, and served hibiscus tea.  Her station had a constant stream of people!

My Water Lily (permission from mom to post)  This is my student, Lily :)

I dressed as a pregnant gardener.

Gianna's class had been studying Greece, and Gianna's specific topic was the Greek alphabet.  Her ending sentence in her paper was "My favorite part of the Greek alphabet is that instead of starting ABC, it starts ABG."  Love her creativity.  1st grade does the 3D project in class.  They made greek pottery and laurel wreath crowns.  We put her toga together at home.

She was so proud!

The night before academic museum and the day of, whenever I saw her at school, she kept telling me her tummy hurt.  I think it was nerves, she was so worried to present!  She could recite all the letters in the Greek alphabet.   In the bottom left corner of her poster, she put a picture of Chris and I in togas from the geek Olympics we did in Rome almost 10 years ago.  This was a great way to start Spring Break- we had the next day (Friday) and there were no more tummy aches after that :).

I'm glad its over.  I learned a lot, and already have ideas for next year that will make it even better.