Chinampa diorama

Whoever said arts and crafts stop in kindergarten? Not Niskayuna Central School District! Greta is learning about ancient civilizations, including the Aztecs. Each student had to take on a month-long project related to some aspect of an ancient culture. Greta chose something called a chinampa, which basically translates to a "floating garden." She decided she would build a diorama of one, which along with a five-paragraph essay would help explain to her class how they were built and used by the Aztecs. The first thing our fastidious fifth grader did was plot out her goals each day on a calendar. She then went about crossing things off, day by day. In the end, I think it was three trips to Jo-Ann Fabrics for properly colored pipe cleaners ($14.97) and enough dowel rods to line the perimeter ($0.79 x 5), plus at least six sticks for the hot glue gun (already purchased, probably in kindergarten), but she (and we!) are very proud of the finished product. Still, she's chosen to take French next year in middle school, not Spanish. C'est la vie.