Principal's Challenge

Guillermo, at the Principal's Challenge fair with his poster and some origami

With his trophy.

On stage, with his certificate. I was so happy he wore his Aikido uniform.

Several months ago, we signed Guillermo up to participate in the Principal's Challenge and for several weeks, we worked and worked and worked on that project, and last night when we saw Guillermo's beaming face, we knew it was all worth it.

The Principal's Challenge was a new project at Guillermo's school. It was voluntary. If the students wanted to participate, they picked a topic and then had to complete 25 activities of their choice about that topic. Guillermo first picked ninjas, but I axed that idea quickly. I was too embarrassed to ask the principal if hired assassins was an acceptable topic for a kindergartner. We instead convinced G to make his project about Japan. The project was a lot of work, but it turned out to be pretty fun.

For the project, Guillermo read books about Japan, make a Kabuki mask and a stuffed paper Japanese fish kite, hosted a Japanese tea ceremony, wrote Japanese characters and took an origami lesson from a graduate student in Will's department. He also took Aikido lessons, learned about Mt. Fuji and the geography of Japan, drew various flags from Japan and took care of a Bonsai tree. Oh, and he learned about some products that come from Japan, including the DS, and studied manga, and made his own manga drawings.

Last night, the principal set up a sort of Principal's Challenge fair, where the students could show off their projects in a science-fair type program. It turned out to be pretty neat. The fair ended with an awards ceremony in which the principal called each student up to the stage, talked briefly about their project and handed them a certificate and a trophy. Guillermo was one of three kindergartners who complete the project!

We've already started talking about next year's topic. I suggested his next topic be Africa, but he said no. After a few other suggestions, I think next year our topic will be FOOD. I'm already thinking about the projects: Growing food, interviewing farmers at the farmer's market, visiting a farm, picking strawberries, drawing the food chart, cooking dinner. Oh, I can't wait.