Last 3rd grade project

We knew at the beginning of 3rd grade that Anna would have between 6-8 major projects during the year. Gary and I split them up and alternated supervising the projects. There have been ones where we had to build something (landform....a fjord as well as the 3-D scene from a book) as well as book reports that required costumes (clara barton) and the final one was a doozy. Anna had to make up an imaginary animal, complete with adaptations that helped this animal survive in its environment and then build the animal and its ecosystem. No real direction was provided on how to build the animal, how large this should be, etc. Technically it was my turn but I am not a great "builder" for projects so Gary and I tag teamed this one.

Gary spent some time with Anna by themselves planning out what she wanted to do. She came up with a "Camonkey" meaning a monkey that could camoflague itself within its environment. They came up with the adaptations but not really how we were going to build it. We took a family trip to Hobby Lobby and after 1 solid hour of looking up and down the craft aisles we got some ideas and all the supplies to build the camonkey and its ecosystem.

I was not a huge fan of this project as I thought it took too much parental guidance and help. However, it was the last project of the year and we wanted Anna to have a good grade on it. The camonkey was green and ended up being larger than the tree that we placed in the ecosystem, so then it looked like Godzilla, but Anna was pleased with the final product. She typed out the report that accompanied the built structure and was proud. Luckily she got a 100 on the project and she said that she went above and beyond what some of the other kids did such as just drawing their animal on a piece of paper and the ecosystem was drawn in the background. Oh well, just call us the over-achievers!!

Thank goodness we are done with 3rd grade projects....now to think about having to do a science fair project next year....wow!!

the camonkey with its berry trees, cave for shelter with stored nuts inside. hilarious but done!