Allana has been studying and exploring habitats at school.  As a culminating project, my little first grader was expected to complete a diorama of any habitat of her choice.  The diorama was to include three plants and three animals.  To accompany the diorama, she also had to write 3 paragraphs about her habitat.  That’s right: THREE PARAGRAPHS!  Did I mention she is in first grade?  

When Allana came home with the paper about this fabulous habitat project, I skimmed though the information and read the important print: Sign and return this paper with a date chosen for your child to present his/her project.  (Did I mention she also had to present to the class.  I remind you again that she is only in first grade.)  So, I chose Thursday, November 6.  It was after Halloween and her birthday, which would give us a few extra days to work on it.

Then, on the morning of November 3, I decided to read through the information again to review the criteria and expectations.  That’s when I read the bold print: All projects must be turned in by Monday, November 3.  Projects turned in late would lose 5 points. 

Oh no.  I began flipping out and running through the house searching for rainforest books, which I know we have somewhere.  I feverishly searched the Internet for rainforest facts and printed out everything to be ready to work with Allana when she returned home from school.  I gathered all the necessary materials to create a rainforest.  Hoping to redeem myself, I painted toilet paper rolls brown so they would be dry by the time Allana got home to create her Kapok trees and replicate the layers of the rainforest. 

After school, we worked for 2 hours on her Topical Rainforest diorama.  Since the project would already be a day late, Allana’s project had to be perfect.  I knew my little over achiever would not be happy if she got anything less than an E.  Using the rubric provided by her teacher, we made sure to include all the important pieces and labeled every plant and animal.  We crossed every tree and dotted every eye.

I really hate waiting to the last minute to finish tasks, but I guess we did all right for working under pressure.

Then, we planned her writing with a web and she drafted 5 paragraphs, which took another hour.  She asked me to type it for her.  Reprinted with her permission, here is Allana’s Tropical Rainforest report:

Tropical Rainforest

 

Near the equator, you will find a special habitat called the tropical rainforest.  South America, Central America, Southeast Asia, Africa and Australia are continents that have tropical rainforests.

 

Millions of animals live in the rainforest.  Insects and large animals, like jaguars live on the forest floor.  Reptiles, mammals and birds, like the toucan live in the canopy.

 

There are four layers to the rainforest.  The first layer is the emergents which are tallest trees.  The canopy is the next layer and the upper parts of the trees.  The third layer is the understory which is the small trees and shrubs.  The last layer is the forest floor.

 

The tropical rainforest is a special habitat for a few reasons.  It never gets too hot or too cold.  It rains 80 inches of rain each year.  Most importantly, we must protect the rainforest because it gives us many foods and medicines.

Although Allana was scheduled to present on Thursday, she volunteered to present on Wednesday.  She mentioned that her teacher shared her planning web, rough draft and final draft with the class to illustrate how we used the writing process to write her report.  Even though we didn’t rehearse her presentation, she replayed her entire presentation for me including a question and answer portion.

We still haven’t received the final grade for her project yet, but I am sure we Allana probably pulled it off with flying tropical colors.