Animal report and a biome

Why is it that when your child gets a big assignment in school, mom does too? My oldest boy was assigned a one page report on an animal of his choice, and also had to create a "biome" (fancy word for habitat). He decided he wanted to write a report on grey wolves. I was pretty impressed with the biome we put together, and thought you might like to see it too.

The hardest part of this whole project was that my son had to listen to me.  He had to consider that mom might actually know a thing or two about writing papers and making stuff.  Originally he wrote a rough draft based on research he had done...and it wasn't very good.  Frankly I was disappointed that his teacher hadn't given him more direction.  I went back and we made a map of each question the report was supposed to cover, along with answers he found.  We discussed how a paragraph is written, and covered detailed outlines.  Once the paper was completed (hallelujah!), we tackled the biome.  I suggested to him that we use some real items from outside.

He used a small-ish box I just happened to have lying around.  He spray painted the inside to make it look like sky.  Good thing mom has spray paint, huh?

His dad helped him collect some small spruce branches to represent larger conifer trees, and we used google images to print off pictures he wanted of the cave, wolves, and a fawn onto cardstock.  He mounted the pictures onto bits of egg carton and put things together in layers.  Dolly was really fascinated with the final result.

Here's another close up for you:

And, the happy boy who finished his project EARLY! (never mind the dishes in the sink etc.)

It was not an easy thing to accomplish, but he did a great job.  In fact, his report and biome got top marks, and he really did do almost all of it himself.  I was just the coach.

p.s.  no big house updates...boo.  There have been some delays.  Good news is we have a floor.  Bad news is, there are no walls.