Creative projects for 1st and 2nd Graders...?

Question

I came up with projects that got my son excited about English, now I wondered if anyone else would like to share things they did that got their kids excited about any other topic.

The English project that I did was that I had my son email questions to family members. Then he created pages about each of these family members with pictures and facts from the answers to his questions. He got so excited when their answers came in he wanted to send more questions. It was really exciting to see his face light up and to see him (trying) to write out more questions.

In Science we built and erupted a volcano. He can now tell you all about volcanoes, lava, molten rock, etc...

So basically, what things did you do that had similar results.

I want to continue to grow his love of learning and keep him involved and intrigued. Please Share!!!

Answer 1

We made a huge wall mural of the Solar System.  I mean HUGE.  Jupiter is almost two metres across.  I takes up two entire walls of our kitchen/dining room.  We did each planet in a different artistic style.  We used an abundance of paint, glitter, glue, rocks and whatever else.  For the asteroid belt, we used shredded CD's and rocks.  The only thing that wasn't to scale was the sun.  It would have turned out taller than our house and we just don't have the wall space for that!  Right now, we're working on ocean animals.  We're making a diorama of an under sea scene.  We're also working on our own documentary about life under the sea.  We're using our own video footage taken at various venues, as well as video taken by my brother in law, who is a master diver.  My kids are taking turns being the narrator/host.  When it's all done, we're going to invite friends and family to a video night.  Two other families we know are working on similar projects.  One is doing African Savannah, the other is doing Rainforests.  We also have a really big costume bin.  My kids love setting up a scene and acting out something they've learned.  On Saturday, we were treated to a re-enactment of The Battle of Jericho.  It was a hoot.  I've discovered that flagrant creativity goes a long way towards my kids' education.  They've learned way more because they're interested and they're having a lot of fun.

Answer 2

We use our kitchen! We cook alot, great with adding fractions and just learning fractions. It helped my kids see the difference in the fractions. It was very yummy! It also can be a great science lesson. If you look online you can find the monster marshmallow,you put it in the microwave and it gives you details on how and why it does what it does. Then there is the science behind rock candy along with the candy. then if you read up on how to temper chocolate you can let them read about why it turns out different, it has to do with fat crystals. We have done alot around candy because it gets them excited and they really get into doing this. So I am excited to find our next lesson in the kitchen.