Life-Sized Models in School

I've been gone and busy for a while. I'm baaaaaack.

I've taught 5th grade in two states. In the last one, I tried to very closely follow the teacher manuals instead of being my normal creative self. (State Educational Standards, and all)

From the health book, there was a group assignment, where one child in the group lies on a large sheet of bulletin board paper while someone else in the group outlines him or her. Then the kids were to bring in 3-D objects from home to represent the various organs and body systems. I provided some of the materials they could use, from the suggestions in the book.

They did EXCELLENT jobs, both on the projects and doing teamwork. I was very proud of them. Only, I removed their projects from the school hallway in less than a week. It appeared that the balloons, suggested in the teacher's manual to represent air-filled lungs, definitely looked like a different body part when the papers were taped flat against the wall.

Ah, fifth graders.
"All right, class, let's move on to the next unit."