Childrens' State Projects

In the spring, all of the 1st and 2nd graders at Angel and Grins school studied a state in the USA.  At the end of the unit, each child created a float and they had a big parade.  It was so much fun, and a great learning opportunity for the students!!

Angel's teacher randomly assigned them, and Angel got Minnesota.  She did a fantastic job researching the state, learning all sorts of neat facts and information.  What's more, her class was very first in the parade - and Angel was first in her class line-up - so Angel was the VERY FIRST PERSON in the parade!!!  I didn't know it until she came around the corner, smiling.  It was adorable, and one of those moments when a mother believes her heart may honestly burst with joy for the love she has for her children, and seeing them so proud of the hard work they've done.  

Here she is, leading the parade (with her sweet teacher, Mrs. Ardito)

Here's Angel with her float:

A shot from behind...the halls were all very crowded; I was so proud of Angel for bravely marching right along!

Some more peeks at different elements of her float:

She did such a fabulous job, and did the majority of the work herself!  I was so pleased with her!

Grins' class got to choose what state they studied.  Grins selected Oregon.  We had a hard time coming up with a float idea for him - but finally decided on a covered wagon.  It sounded like a good idea - but was more difficult to build than I would have imagined!  I took some pictures of him in his pioneer outfit the night before (out in the garage because it was too cold and wet outside - sorry for the messy pics).  I'm SO glad we took pictures beforehand, because 2 things happened at school the next day: 1 - he was embarrassed and refused to wear his pioneer outfit to school the day of the parade, and 2 - he had some difficulty steering the 'float' during the parade, so I had to help him get on course and thus missed the opportunity to catch any photos of him in the actual parade.  So, these will have to do:

Is he not the cutest thing you've ever seen???!!!

Oh - and that's a beaver tucked into his vest, since the Beaver is the state animal.  The only beaver we could find was an itty bitty stuffed beaver - but it worked. :)

Here he is right before the parade - without his costume, the little stinker. :)  And his beaver is now sitting on top of the float...best seat in the house. :)

After the parade, each class did a little presentation in their classrooms.  Since I had 2 students in separate classrooms, I kept running back and forth between the 2 (lucky for me, their classrooms were next door to one another!!)  so I missed bits and pieces of each one, but was able to catch a bit of each of their performances!!  Let's see if I can get these videos to upload correctly:  (Sorry they are sideways....does anyone know how I can correct that?  I can't seem to figure it out....)