This month the kindergartners and first graders in Nicholas' class all presented their independent projects. Yes, you heard it right- independent projects.
For this assignment, each child selected a topic he/she was interested in, researched the topic, and then prepared an oral presentation complete with visuals. The only requirement was that the child found the topic interesting.
Topics ranged from Michael Jackson, to Atlantis, to the Portland Timbers. Nicholas selected the subject of "Stringed instruments from around the world." No doubt he chose this subject because of his music lessons and his love of music.
We bought a large piece of poster board for him to work with and construction paper for the various topics. Nicholas checked out several books about musical instruments, talked to his music teacher Laura at school and his ukulele teacher Jan, and consulted Wikipedia on my Ipad with my help.
Nicholas decided to focus on four stringed instruments and included information on when these instruments were first invented, where they were invented, how many strings each one generally has, and the name of a famous player.
Nicholas also played a song he wrote called "Singing on a Checkerboard" for the class that was a big hit!
Afterwards, he took questions and comments.
I was amazed by his poise, his confidence, his expertise, and his independence not only during the presentation to the class but also in the preparation of this project. Yes reader, he is five and in kindergarten.
I can only imagine what he will decide to do next year and what his eighth grade "Senior Project" will be. Regardless, this year's act will be tough to follow!
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