Thursday, February 25, 2010

Another Amelia

Yesterday was "Famous Americans" day for all the second graders at Abbey's school. Each student had to do biographical research on a famous American, make a presentation poster, write a biographical speech and deliver that speech while dressed as their character.

My little sweetie chose to be Amelia Earhart.

She read books about Amelia, did some web research on Amelia (thank you, Wikipedia), and last weekend our family watched the movie Amelia.

[The movie was pretty good, but we had to fast forward through a few parts that were "inappropriate" for kids. Inappropriate is Abbey's favorite word of late and she's found many ways to insert it into conversation which completely cracks me up. She told me the other day that my jeans were inappropriate without a belt.]

Back to the project...

It involved a costume. I know you're not keeping count, but I sure am and this was the FOURTH costume that was required of my second grader this year. One, two, three, four.

I believe I've shared with y'all (ad nauseum) that I'm challenged in the costume department.

I hate stress more than I hate coming up with costumes though so I started looking for some Amelia Earhart garb almost as soon as I got the teacher memo. I had no luck at the thrift stores (though I did find something else that I'm excited share with you soon!) so I started searching online.

I bought the aviator hat, scarf, and goggles for $8.99 on Amazon and that was the best $8.99 I've spent in a long time.

We had a last minute crisis with the leather jacket I'd arranged to borrow, but John found this one (at Goodwill) and saved the day.

So, meet our little Amelia Earhart.


Whew, am I glad that project is over! I asked her teacher (begged her, really) to assure me we were finished with second grade projects for awhile. She sorta laughed. Hopefully we ARE finished with costumes though.

BTW, I did have a brilliant costume plan at the beginning of second grade. I wanted Abbey to be an Indian (I should probably be politically correct and say "Native American") for Halloween. She could then re-use the costume for the Thanksgiving play. And she could keep re-using it and be Tiger Lilly from Peter Pan for Fairy Tale day, and Sacajawea for Famous American Day. Brilliant, eh? Except she looked at the Indian costume I wanted to make for Halloween and burst into tears saying it wasn't "pretty enough". Shot my plan to pieces. Sigh.

I promise I have two other children that I take pictures of. Seems all I've posted lately are pics of Abbey. I need to remedy that soon (because I have a middle child who keeps count of stuff like that!)

Oh, and one more thing. Marie Curie was granted honorary citizenship yesterday (I guess) because she was one of the presenters at Famous Americans Day. Maybe it's just me, but I sure thought she was Polish.

Happy Thursday to you!

18 comments:

Sheila said...

When my older daughter was in 4th grade, she wanted to be an Indian for Halloween. I sew, so I made her a costume, and let me tell you, the costumes patterns you can buy are a little more elaborate than you would make on your own, but they do turn out nicely. It was also a little more expensive than I expected, because of all the different trim (braid) I had to buy, so all in all, I felt like I had made a mistake. However, my younger daughter is in 4th grade this year, and wore the costume for Halloween AND did a book report on Sacajawea and wore it to present her report! Happily, she has waist-length brown hair, so she had the hair for it, too. Her teacher was quite impressed and all the kids thought it was neat. Think I wasn't doing a happy dance? :) And, I'm going to send it to a friend whose daughters are younger than mine, so I guess in the end I got both my time and money's worth. Whew!

Anonymous said...

FOUR?!? I thought I was stressed with our two state posters for geography! It's biography week at our school next week. No one's mentioned any costumes. To be safe, I'd better check. (I may need to borrow those Amelia Earhart accessories! :) )

Lauren said...

How stinkin cute!!!!! :)

Kristina said...

Hi Meredith!!
Just wanted to say that I LOVE visiting your blog!!! I have been checking in with you for about 6 months now, and I want to tell you what an encouragement you have been in my life (even thought I don't even know you!!) I especially love Wedded Wednesdays--you and your hubby are so real and honest about your feelings and your faith and I find it very refreshing. None of that "Christianese" that is so confusing--real advice but God is always at the center!! Thanks for blessing my life and helping me grow as a mother and a wife!!!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Your second grade works much harder than our second grade! Which is good for me, the lazy mama, but probably not so good for those ignorant kids. {Sigh}

Deena said...

Cute!!! Great job as usual with the costume. Your idea to use the same costume all year cracks me up! Too bad that didn't work out.

We have 2 costume days next week - yes 2!! Thurs is Cowgirl Day and Friday is Dream Job Day (what I want to be when I grow up). I'd better get busy!

Janna Widdifield said...

LOVE the hat and goggles. And love all the costume stuff. I have to say I would probably be the annoying teacher who would keep asking her students to dress up because I love dressing up so much myself!

There will be a post soon of my with my girl in our Oklahoma! costumes when we go off to see the musical...I will be a post-married pregnant Laurie, of course!

Gina said...

Polish, and married to a French man.
Cute Aviatrix.

Gretchen said...

Darling, darling, darling. She is just the poster child for cute.

And re: the middle child noticing: "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!" ;)

Brenda said...

I can't believe that you've had to do this four times. Seems a little too much for me. Your Indian idea was a good one, kill four birds with one stone, right? (and yes, in AZ it's Native American, we learned the hard way!)

His Girl said...

considering boycotting all 'parent projects'- and we didn't even have FOUR costume days.

*high five* on the 9 bux well spent! and your girl? A-DORABLE.

truly.

Anonymous said...

Maria Sklodowski-Curie - sure she was Polish :)
Greetings from Poland!
Ania

Anonymous said...

Not that I'm complaining, but why hasn't my child had any projects for school? I think the last one we did was for 100th day back in Kinder.

Angie said...

She looks just like the little girl in "Up" with her aviator hat and goggles. Adorable!

Rosey said...

That is such a fun learning method for kids, it is surely memorable and helps them remember their character of study. Cute costume! You are so talented.

Carol S said...

Yea for female pilots!!! ha loved the costume. You are so good even when you don't want to be!1 Can't wait to see you all.

Angie @ Flibbertigibberish said...

I've said it before, but that Abbey is SUCH a doll, Mer! But that is one heckuva project for a 2nd grader! Wow. I don't remember doing anything so intense. We did a similar project in SEVENTH grade (we called it Night of the Notables) (but 7th grade? Either Abbey is brilliant or I was... not), and I was Laura Ingalls Wilder. And then I was her for a monologue performance later that year in drama class. And then I was her for another school project. And then I was her... you get my point. My point is, I TOTALLY appreciate your brilliant plan of being able to reuse the costume. But for Abbey's sake, I will admit that LIW got a little old after awhile. Just sayin'. :o)

Mollie said...

Great Job!! Hope she gets an A+!!
BTW...is she out of the "name" stage- when she likes you to call her a different name each month??
Haven't heard of any lately- just wondering....that was so cute!!