Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Tigers stripes are like fingerprints...

... each one has a different set. And did you know that if you shaved off all of the tiger's fur, the same stripe pattern would be on it's skin? Olivia learned this and much more about tigers and gave a little presentation yesterday in her class. I promised myself long ago that I would NOT be one of 'those moms' that did their kids' projects for them. As you can see with the poster, I failed miserably at keeping that promise. We found the coolest book called Actual Size by Steve Jenkins that had a close-up of a tigers' face. Liv and I knew immediately that we had to try to copy it, and this is what we came up with. I loved it when she turned the poster over and her classmates saw it for the first time--there was an audible gasp from them all. As much as I want Olivia to do her own work, I'm kinda proud of the way this poster turned out. I did refrain from typing her report, she did all the research and put it all in her own words and then wrote it out in her very best handwriting (no patience left for the hunt and peck typing). I did try to let her help me glue on one or two pieces on the poster... does that count so that we can say with some honesty that we "did it together"? Below is a video (just a minute long) of her report. Somewhere near the end her poster slid off the easel, which sent all the kids into a laughing fit. We gave out "Trio Kisses" (delicious little gems of dark, milk, and white chocolate) because they are striped as a little treat.



**Do you ever do your kids' work for them?
**Do I get docked good mama points for doing her poster for her?

4 comments:

Lula Mae said...

My first grader has a report on Tigers due next week. Maybe we can "borrow" your poster!

Heidi said...

Who says a mom can't help out? I think that poster is so cool and I think working together with Olivia was the way to go. Homework should be about having fun learning and doing together!

Dinner Club in CT said...

That is so adorable, I am so glad I got to see her "oral report." (that was what we called them) Kids get plenty of chances to do art, you should have fun with it too. I am just glad to hear she did the work on the paper. When we first got married Matt was having a tough time with papers in college. I didn't understand what he wanted me to do to help him. He said he would always just give his mom his ideas and she would type them into a paper for him. I was horrified. Boot camp started soon after...

Janene said...

mama points, shmama points! :o)