Monday, February 25, 2008

100th Day of School Project

So the note home from school said to brainstorm things that you could collect 100 of, then pick one and find a unique way to display it. Don't ask why, we chose straws. So for the last two weeks, we've raided ever dollar store in the area buying unique straws.

Saturday was our day to put the project together. I started by having Michael arrange the straws on a poster board, thinking I would punch holes through and attach them with rubber bands or something. He arranged 50 and ran out of reasonable space. Then I looked at how I would punch holes through and bagged that idea.

The next plan was to string them together. The string worked great through the straight ones but I couldn't push them through the twisted ones. Yes, I bought sculped bunny ears and twisted straws.

The third plan was to use fishing line... It didn't make the curves and now it was Saturday night. Michael was completely not into doing the project. Can you blame him? I was pretty frustrated and irritated by this time, thinking that I was going to cause him to fail Kindergarten.

The fourth plan was to just use straight straws and loop the fishing line from both sides so it was more like a mat than a long string... IT DIDN'T WORK EITHER.

Sunday morning, we had fresh outlooks. The last plan was to cut a cheap bag of 50 neon straws in half and glue them in the shape of 100 on the poster board. The cutting went well, the gluing went well. Phew - off to church. (see previous posts, this was the only thing that went well during the morning)

Chris was preparing the dining room table for dinner. He moved the presentation and as soon as he picked up the poster board, pop pop pop, the straws started popping out of the glue and falling off. NOOOOOO Luckily, he thought to cut a piece of cardboard to stiffen the backing. It worked. I re-glued, and re-glued. And finally, Monday morning, I drizzled "new skin" over them as an added measure to keep the straws on. Chris drove Michael to school and carried it into the classrooom. PHEW!

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