Hello, I am a soon to be second year teacher . This year I want to try to incorporate projects for students to take home and work on. This way I can create more meaningful work for them to share with others. However, I have no idea on how to accomplish this. Please share with me if you have any project ideas on any subject but esp. math, science, reading, and writing. Oh, I teach fourth grade (and love it!).
Projects can be your downfall if you aren't careful. Are you going to provide all the necessary materials to create the project? If it requires the parents to purchase something, even just posterboard, I'd rethink it. Also, are you going to be looking at the project from the standpoint of the child doing all the work or will it be a family project? More often than not you will find parents doing 90% of "projects". Will the projects require research at home? Do your children all have equal access to research materials/tools? Not everyone today has a computer, nor do many have encyclopedias like it was once upon a time.
In my school district, the jr. high science teacher is queen of projects, and most of the parents cuss her for it. I was once a parent of 2 jr. hi boys that had to do her projects. She is still doing the same ones years later, so we warn all newbie jr. hi parents to get ready, we even share materials and ideas. So this is definitely something I would think about if I were you.
I agree with the other poster - you have to be careful with projects. You'll have some kids throw something together the night before it's due, and another student whose parents spent hours/days doing it for them - either way they're not learning a lot. I try to assign projects occasionally, but nothing too extensive, and I try to give them time to work on it in class some - that assures me that THEY are doing the work and actually learning from it.
Now, all that being said - if a student starts a project in class and doesn't have time to finish it, I make sure they take any necessary materials home and they have that as "unfinished classwork" just like anything else (except they get a project grade for it).
I also teach 4th grade. I posted a couple of science projects on the science board under the thread scientific methos and/or process skills. Only one is a take home project. I also posted a biography project on the 4th grade board (page 2) under biography unit. I agree with Tweet, you need to be careful. I try to limit the number of at home projects to no more than 3 or 4 all year. That includes our school science expo which is required in grades 2-5 ( We're a science magnet school). I have given students supplies such as poster board and construction paper. I never require projects to be done on the computer because not everyone has one. I also try to have projects that do not require a lot of parent input.
Last year I did one take home project per marking period and didn't have a problem (I teach third grade). I think it depends on the means of the parents where you work. I would not have been able to do that at the last school I worked in.
Some ideas:
State Fair---each student chose a state (they all had different ones) and they wrote a five paragraph report (had to have certain info.) and they created a tri fold board to present at the State fair. They had to have an attention getter (food, things from that state, pamphlets, etc) VERY FUN!
Science Fair--our school required participation
Biography papers--- students chose famous people, did research and wrote a paper. They they created a poster board and we had a wax museum...very fun.
Landforms---we also have an earth science unit on landforms (ties in with Soc. Stu also) I had a salt dough recipe that the kids used to create their own landforms. (They had to be real ones) Then they brought them to school and painted them. We also made brochures to go with them and displayed them for the school to see.
Instruments--We also have a sound unit for science. One year the kids made instruments and brought them in... they had to give a presentation...that was awesome.
I had rubrics for each project that I sent home with the directions so they knew exactly what they would be graded on. These are just some ideas I've done over the years.
You really do need to be careful like all the posters have written. Just something to think about...not to say that you shouldn't do them just realize that not everyone has access to the same kinds of materials and parental support. I give support after school to those kids who need it..some unfortunate students that can't afford materials and have no parental support, but anyone can stay after and work on it.
Million Dollar Project- (Math, Writing) Children will pretend that they have just been given 1 million dollars..they choose how it happened, lottery, genie in a bottle, inherited, found on the side of the road..etc...They write a story about what they will do woth the money. They find examples of these things and apply them to a posterboard. They have to spend exactly 1 million without going over or under. They must include actual prices from catalogs, newspapers, Internet, etc...They have a rubric to follow and it states that some of it must be given to a charity of their choice as well as all the fun stuff they would buy. They present to the class. These are awesome and every yeare I get positive feedback from parents and kids.
Tatum
07-12-2006, 03:34 PM
. This year I want to try to incorporate projects for students to take home and work on. This way I can create more meaningful work for them to share with others. However, I have no idea on how to accomplish this. Please share with me if you have any project ideas on any subject but esp. math, science, reading, and writing. Oh, I teach fourth grade (and love it!).
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