With President’s Day just around the corner, my child’s elementary school is decorating the halls and classroom walls to fit the occasion. Sometimes when I am looking for a great idea for a craft for my kids that will also be a learning experience for them, I like to wander through the halls of the schools and take pictures of these crafts and then I go home and help my children make one of the crafts. This year however, for President’s Day, my youngest daughter came home with a project that I thought was extremely cool and I would like to share it with you.
She brought home an almost life size, cut out of a person. The cut out was made from a white poster board and was the head down to the waist. Her assignment was to write a report on any President of the United States that she chose and then to decorate the cut out of the person to resemble the President that she had chosen to write the report on. The President could be decorated in any way that the child and (parent) chose. We had a blast with this project.
My daughter is fascinated with animals and nature so when she heard that Jimmy Carter was a Peanut Farmer she knew that her choice for her project would be him. She is only in 4th grade and so Politics really don’t play a huge part in the kids choices.
Her best friend chose Calvin Coolidge because he had a pet Raccoon in the White House. ( I didn’t know that until I saw her report). Interesting and fun stuff. Her poster of President Coolidge was holding his Raccoon in his hands. One girl’s Presidents’ suit was made completely out of Jelly Beans. So as you can imagine, the sky is the limit, anything goes on this project, which is what makes it fun.
We decided that instead of going for the Presidential look that we would make a young Jimmy Carter that was dressed up like a farmer. So we went to work. I had an old pair of overalls that have been in my Halloween dress up box for years and so I cut them down to size. We drew the face on our President, had him wear a Red, and blue checkered shirt and then put the overalls on him. To top off the project we put peanuts in his overall pockets and had a few sticking out the top. He was a hit with my daughter and off to school she went with him and her report.
A few days later I went to the school to take pictures of her project and I noticed that the peanuts were missing! I guess some little child was really hungry, so I put more peanuts in his pockets. Then when she brought him home the peanuts were gone again and I asked her if they had been eaten at school and she replied “Well, I was really hungry on the way home from school.” Another memory never to be forgotten. I actually had already taken some really cute pictures to scrapbook by this time but I want to remind you to take pictures of your kids school projects right when the project is finished. That way you won’t lose the opportunity in case something happens to it on the way to or from school.
One thing I have struggled with raising children is what to do with their school projects when they bring them home. They work so hard on some of them and it’s hard just to throw them away at times. I have always kept one special box per child and let them keep some of their smaller projects, but then they sometimes have big pieces of artwork etc. that are hard to store. I have the perfect solution for you if you struggle with this. Start a school work scrapbook for each child and at the end of each year have it made into a special book for them as a remembrance of that grade. So, when each piece of work that is special is brought home, take a picture of it with or without the child, digitally scrapbook it that week and you will then have one more page to put in your scrapbook. The best thing is that you can then throw away unwanted clutter, guilt free!
I hope that you enjoy these ideas as you raise your little families. Have a wonderful President’s Day. Take time to do a scrapbooking page if you are lucky enough to have the day off!
Denise
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Here is the scrap kit I used for this article -
Blue Ice Polka Dot Scrapbooking Kit is sprinkled with beautiful, blue polka dots! Decorate your favorite moments of the past year with a kit that stands-out with its’ icy blues, and soft metallic silvers; filled full of digital papers, frames, tags, and embellishments
Celebrate President’s Day or the winter season or use this kit when you need a blue themed kit!
