Category Archives: School Projects

School Projects Are Pure Gold.

Dr. Maria Montessori’s quote “Education is a natural process carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening but by experiences in the environment” resonated with me.
I have long thought the home-assigned school project was education’s way of connecting children back to process by providing parameters that kids could explore on their terms in an environment that was outside the school setting-thereby creating space to figure out the task in their time. Now, as a parent it wasn’t always convenient or easy for me and my kids to do the project but it was a vital way, I could see, that my kids could take all the information they had collected in their minds at school and put it together in their own way. I have my daughter, Maisy’s 4th grade mission project hanging on the wall at the studio. It was a shoe box, a sheet of thick paper and a few pieces of moss, drawn out and arranged to look like a diorama. That was a project that taught both of us that value of keeping it simple. We went over the concept of creating a curve in the paper that would serve as a background and by doing so, we created the illusion of a bigger space-just like at the Natural History Museum. We worked together to plan the project but she did all the drawing. Maisy figured out the details of her project in her own process and we had the space to trouble shoot it. I imagine if I asked her she would remember making it. I still do because it was a hands-on experience with various elements to include and parameters to keep. She learned so much more than Missions during that project and I haven’t forgotten it. 
Today, we love having kids make their projects at the studio because it adds an element of fun and ease to the “to-do” of a home-assigned project that everyone (parent and child) would love to have check-marked off their to-do list. The time they spend together at CReATE, talking, planning, figuring and creating are rich beyond words. They are deep in learning which is food for the brain, and they always leave feeling a sense of achievement and pride and I like to think, a little bit of connection too. Dr. Montessori had it right, experiences in the environment are golden.
* learn more about our win/win school project program here.

It’s School Project season!

Back to school projects are already in gear!
Will’s book report collage poster totally does the trick to convey what The Outsiders is about. I’ve got to read this book!

Learn something new.

It’s school project season at CReATE so we’re watching lots of learning come to life. We’re learning things too. This is a Horse Fly habitat and apparently Horseflies nest is the grass like this. Who knew!

Reuse!

Its #30daysofreuse day 18! We have to shout out to the students of Oakwood School who made awesome arthropods in a totally reuse minded way!

Freedom

#30daysofreuse day 16 was great! What better way to be in the reuse spirit than giving kids the opportunity to be resourceful.
Give them just a few kinds of materials to work with and see what they create! Unstructured time is good for the mind, body and soul. Thanks to Madrona Elementary for having us!

Gotcha!

Creating together is fun, especially when it involves catching a Leprechaun!
Open Classroom students had the awesome task of creating Leprechaun traps during their fieldtrip to see us this week.

Its a trap!

Watch out Leprechauns! The trap makers are out in full force. That’s good because we lots of interesting materials to use when you come in to make yours!

Drop in this weekend and create a fantastic trap your Leprechaun won’t believe!

The standard.

Ah, the school project science standard, the Volcano!
Our modern twist is using shredded documents vs. newspaper to get the built up mass. Mixing the shred and glue is a gooey highlight.

Creating…

What a wow worthy field trip visit we had from White Oak Elementary 4th and 5th graders we had today. They created fictitious missions and early American Colonies in collaborative groups with impressive features and details, all with scraps of this and bits of that.
Impressive!

Heritage.

It’s a small world after all. 

A few White Oak Elementary 2nd graders made a visit to us to make Heritage dolls this afternoon with Poland, Thailand and India being some of the lands they come from. 

School projects are win/win fun at CReATE!