To Trap a Leprechaun

Yesterday Alex spent a good few hours designing and building his Leprechaun Trap (a K assignment). There's gold on the top to lure the little guy (they like shiny things), a flag that says "Please Don't Take This Gold" (leprechauns don't obey signage apparently) and then a cleverly disguised hole in the top that will trap the green guy inside the box when he falls in while trying to take the gold pieces.

I thought Alex did a great job thinking about all the elements, deciding what it should look like, and putting it all together - with a little help from Mom to cut the hole in the top, hold the box still while he painted- you know, the few things that are tricky.

How surprising it was when I looked at the other kids' leprechaun traps. They were all so different and creative, it was such a cute project.

Except one thing. There are a few that look suspiciously like maybe an.... adult might have done a LITTLE (a lot) of the work. Like, as a parent, you can't even let your kid write the words on the little sign? A little too much parental ego wrapped up in this assignment I think. Back in Feb, on the Hundred's Day project ("create a project displaying 100 objects"), one student had 100 origami swans hanging in a mobile. As if.

I suppose we'll be seeing this throughout elementary school - a Kindergartener's project that looks more like a sophomore in high school created it, a 5th grade science project that looks as though a student from MIT put it together. Is it so hard to understand that in order for the kid to learn, the kid has to do? Whatever.

I'm proud of my little Kindergartener who made a Kindergartener's project. Great work, Alex.