Need help with my son's 2nd grade homework - Page 2

AOIIalum · #16 10-25-2005, 07:33 AM

Do they still sell bags of "cowboys and indians" (or should that be, "Frontier Immigrants and Native Americans")? My guys used to have little tan "cowboys" and little green "indians" that came in a plastic bag. Too bad one or two parents can't find a bag of the things and donate them for everyone to use. Worst case scenario, spray paint some other action figure lying around your house and say it's the required Native American.

Winnie, I'm still chuckling at "sequenced sibling".

It's sad when your 4th grader is doing Geometry, and they're actually CALLING it Geometry. My freshman is taking Honors Geometry, and he's already had to help his little brother. Thank heavens for the "Oldest Sequenced sibling" I guess

Best lesson I've learned for homework is to *always* have a stash of posterboard on hand. Ever try to find posterboard when you don't live in a major metropolis after 9pm?

MysticCat · #17 10-25-2005, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by AGDee
Can I explain to anybody how much I hate these types of homework assignments?

No explanation necessary. I hate these assignments, too.

We're having a wierd year, though. Second grade homework is turning out to be much more straightforward (with little parental input needed) than first grade homework was. Don't know what happened, but we're enjoying it. MysticCat Jr does his homework as soon as he gets home from school, making the rest of the day much more pleasant. Don't know how long it will last, but we're savoring it while it does.

Of course, there's the "Bat Project" due in a few weeks, which will require a poster or diorama. I'll have to see if we can work Batman in.

AGDee · #18 10-25-2005, 10:33 PM

Oh yeah, and we're trying to incorporate this genuine arrowhead he has, because he wants to include it, but it's bigger than the opening to his wigwam... To me, the scale is important, but maybe I shouldn't get hung up on that and I should let him use the genuine arrowhead? I dunno. An arrowhead that's bigger than the people?

ETA: We do have green army men. Maybe we can make our village for after we took their land...

winnieb · #19 10-25-2005, 11:30 PM

Dee--look at a dollar store maybe they have bags of Indians. If nothing else, I would spraypaint the army men.

I remeber this horrible project in 4th grade---everyone had to make a different part of a pilgram and Indian village. I had to make a log home, and lincoln logs didn't count. I had to gather the sticks, someone had to cut them to all the same size, assemble the house, cut windows out of the wood, sew curtains, build a fence, glue grass in the yard. I know I had some serious parental "help" --why do teachers do that kind of stuff. It is hell for everyone involved.

---and regarding my sons homework and the "sequenced sibling" I read that and had to ask him what it meant!!! His comment was "it is an older brother or sister, but since I am the oldest then it is you or dad" It isn't really nice to the kids who are only children or the oldest either.
There are plently of nights I just stare at his "agenda" and wonder who came up with these assignments.

AGDee · #20 10-26-2005, 06:43 AM

My favorite all time one was my daughter's assignment when they were studying forms of transportation. We were to make a form of transportation out of a big cardboard box and then she had to "ride it" in a Mardi Gras parade through the school. Thankfully, I was near the end of my medical leave after having surgery so we were able to make a very nice cardboard box horse. I saved it in the basement. It even had a braided tail made of yarn...lol. That was almost 3 years ago and I keep trying to find another use for our horse. I tried to get her to be a cowgirl for Halloween this year, pointing out that she could use the horse. I tried to get my son to use the horse last year when he was a Knight for Halloween. I'll probably have to throw out the horse, but it looked so cool, I hate to do it!

ETA: I'm thinking that printed pictures of Native Americans glued to cardboard might have to suffice. That would work for the animals too.

Buttonz · #21 10-26-2005, 07:00 AM

When I was younger I always loved those kinda of projects...I did it basically on my own with very little help. I remeber in 6th grade *or was it 5th?* I had to do the Redwood Forest...it came out pretty good. The worse was 8th grade though, I think between three of us in my group we spent about $20 each or so for our project...yikes. It did get us a 98 so I coudln't complain but still.

xo_kathy · #22 10-26-2005, 10:14 AM

In CUgreek's defense, the post did sort of sound like you were doing your son's homework. It's what I thought, too.

I sometimes help my step-daughter with her 5th grade homework. Had to check her long division the other day. Suffice it to say I shouldnn't be the one checking it!

adpiucf · #23 10-26-2005, 10:15 AM

To make your native Americans:

Option 1: draw one, photocopy several, color them and then cut them out. You can prop them up by taking a small strip of cardboard and folding it into a L shape-- glue one side of the L to your "Native American" and the bottom strip to the floor of the diarama.

Option 2: Fashion stick men out of pipe cleaner. Stick a feather over their heads and make a cape out of felt.

For the arrowhead, glue it to the "ground" or back against the "sky" of the diarama. Or it could be a decoration on the "wigwam."

And you can always do what my mom did when I was in first grade: Write a letter to the teacher, telling her that you're not made of money and you're not shelling out $50 for each school project your kid brings home. And then call the principal to bitch her out for approving such ridiculous lessons that aren't built on creativity or education-- but on buying stupid plastic parts. The teacher wants the kids to create 3D displays? Let her supply solutions for families who may be financially challenged or short on time to supervise such massive projects.

ETA: Try Michael's for foam shapes you can use as "templates" for future projects-- you may actually be able to find a bag of cowboys and Indians at Toys R Us or Walmart-- and maybe if you do, tell the other parents and maybe you can all go in together and share the cost. But those bags are usually just a few dollars

And encourage the child to come up with ideas on how to make the diarama-- let him run with his project. My most miserable school project was making a paper machie bust of Hernando Cortez. My dad got so "involved" that my involvement was handing him the paper strips. It wasn't fun for me at all-- maybe mine wouldn't have looked as good, but it would have been all my own project!

AGDee · #24 10-26-2005, 03:20 PM

Excellent ideas for the people! Thank you!

I don't do the thing for him, but I'm definitely the one who has to purchase the supplies for it. I like the idea of using the arrowhead on the wigwam as a decoration. The instructions refer to specific pages in the social studies book for the "4 elements of a native american village", so I am bugging him to bring the book home so I have time to purchase supplies for whatever those 4 elements are. This should be the easiest time of year to find some of this stuff since Thanksgiving is around the corner.

adpiucf · #25 10-26-2005, 04:44 PM

I wonder if you could make 4 "partitions" in the diorama (goodness, how do you spell that?!) to show each element---

if one of them is maize-- he can draw two identical pictures of an ear of corn on a brown paper bag and cut it out. Then crumble up some strips of paper (like newspaper) into balls. Mom will begin to staple the two ears of corn up around the sides-- almost like stitching it up--- until there is one side left open. Son will "fill" the corn with the wadded up balls of paper and then Mom can finish stapling-- Voile! 3D corn!

(My mom taught kindergarten for 30 years... I've learned a lot from her! For years, she had a Big Bird hanging on her door that she made using the above method-- she just found a picture of Big Bird, put it on a transparency, projected it on brown bag-- sketched out the front side and back side-- spongepainted, stapled and stuffed it-- and then all of her new kids had paper B. Birds with their names on them flocked around the stuffed one)

Another idea for your Native Americans-- Play Dough-- let him make shapes, pin them together with toothpicks so the heads don't fall off the bodies, use some feathers and felt to make costumes and you can glue them down. You can also make homemade playdough with flour, water and food coloring... look online for a recipe (another tip from my mom!)

a.e.B.O.T. · #26 10-26-2005, 05:02 PM

There was a paper in 6th grade that my parents had to help me with. Well, my mom ended up taking over the whole assignment. She pretty much wrote it herself. Well, I turned it in and got a D. My mom went in to debate the grade with the teacher. I vividly waiting in the car for like half an hour. The D stood. My mom taught 6th grade for 15 years prior, and got a D on a 6th grade assignment.

Tom Earp · #27 10-26-2005, 05:05 PM

What happened to the Three Rs?

Everyone is trying to be so damn PC anymore, they forget the kids!

Just look at the schools with drop out rates that are higher than the National dept and they still come out dumber than a box of rocks!

Take away the Calculator for a bit and give them a big Chief Tablet and a lead pencil. Here figure out this equation. They cant!

Rio_Kohitsuji · #28 10-26-2005, 10:03 PM

This is just funny hearing about all ya'll and your dioramas (sp?). I JUST finished up my 9th graders "Shadowbox" activity. The only thing, is that I supplied materials and had very-very-very-kind companies donate other items.

AGDee · #29 10-26-2005, 10:46 PM

We had fun when he had to do a habitat and chose the ocean. We got sand from the sandbox and mixed it with glue and covered the whole bottom. Then he painted the rest of the shoe box blue like water. He found cool pics of ocean fish and taped them to toothpicks, which we stuck in mounds of modeling clay so it looked like they were swimming in mid-air. The sand I got had some algae in it, so that looked cool..lol. He cut up a sponge so he had a real sponge. Added rocks and other stuff. It came out good. I think I'm freaked out about making the people. We'll work it out. I already figured that for the corn, we would just pull out the metal prongs from a couple of our "corn on the cob holders" that look like corn...lol. They're really cheap ones anyway and I have nicer wooden ones.

Anyway parents, there are things to always have on hand in addition to the poster board that someone else mentioned..

Shoe boxes (you'll need at least one a year, never throw any out, unless you want an excuse to go out and buy a pair of shoes because the kid needs one TOMORROW)

Milk Jugs (again, at least once a year. Since we're lactose intolerant around here, I end up buying milk, dumping it out and cutting up the jug)

Paper Towel rolls and toilet paper rolls. It really stinks to have to unwind an entire roll of paper towel because the kid needs the roll TOMORROW.. same with TP. Keep a few on hand, always. And make sure the TP ones are good ones, where the TP doesn't stick to the roll too much!

Modelling clay,paints, glue (sticks and liquid), markers

Egg cartons, both styrofoam and cardboard because it depends on what they're doing.

Coffee cans.. these are getting harder and harder to find all the time because the bags are more popular. Again, no coffee drinker in this family, so I buy it, put it in tupperware in the freezer and save it for when my dad comes to visit. I have tons of coffee in tupperware in the freezer! I wish my dad would take it with him when he leaves, but he never will.

Dee