Greetings,
Below you will find a letter from Mr. Posner explaining the Europe Winter Project. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let me know. Tonight, your child should be picking their top five options for the country they will research. Each student will have their own country, so students may not get the country they want. I will do my best to give preference to students who have the best reasons (parents were born there or I visited there). When this is not the case, selection will be random.
Best,
Michael Naaktgeboren
Later this week you will receive information for a project on countries of Europe. This is an extensive project that will require many hours to complete. It consists of six parts- a poster board, a project packet, a 3 paragraph essay, the 3-5 minute presentation, a visual aid, and a reflection paragraph. It has been tradition, at other academies, to assign this as a "Winter Break" project, normally assigned the Friday before break, and due the day back. We have always found that to be unfair. This year, we are allowing students more time to complete the project. The project will be assigned on Thursday, December 1st, and is due Monday, January 9th. This allows students five and a half weeks to complete the project, and three weeks outside of Winter Break.
Students may, of course, work on their project over break if they choose to. However, this is not mandatory.
You will receive the following:
-Project Week parent sheet- This lays out the project for you.
-Project week parent sheet to sign and return. This is due December 2nd. Once returned, students will receive their project week research guide. Guides will not be dispersed until this signed sheet is returned. It is very important that you contact me with any questions you may have. This is especially important at the start of the project. The research guide explains, in detail, all of the facets of the project.
-Project timeline- this is not a mandatory due date list. This is simply a guide. Students will, however, be given extensive time on December 19th and December 20th to work on their projects in class. In order to do this, they will need, at minimum, one of their books.
-Poster requirement sheet- This lays out the requirements for the poster portion of the project.
One of the requirements is that students choose one of these three things:
-dress up in clothes native to their country.
-make food from that country.
-create an architectural model or model of a landmark from that country.
They may do more than one, but must do one minimally.
I will add that in years past, I have seen some crazy projects such as Eiffel Towers with mechanical parts, lights, and moving people. I have seen a Tower of London, complete with moving clock parts. These were amazing, but....obviously not created by a 10 year old. While I expect parental assistance and guidance, there is something to be said for work mostly completed by the student. I simply do not want you, as parents, to feel as though you have a project to complete.
Project presentation days are Monday, January 9th and Tuesday January 10th. I will send out the presentation schedule over break. Parents are welcome, and encouraged, to come in and watch their child present.