giraffe-a-lama-ding-dong!

a little over a month ago, the paloma came home with an assignment (an "orbital study") to study a subject - any subject of her choice, write a report and create an exhibit to present to the class...

so, the paloma decides to study: giraffes... *sigh*

i know, they're cute, graceful, wonders of nature... blah, blah, blah...




we had four weeks to research, which we did - online and at the library. we knew anything and everything about the giraffe. and yet, i procrastinated helping her when it came to actually writing everything down and creating the presentation...

honestly, the paloma is something of a crab when it comes to homework in general... sometimes it's a downright wrestling match. so, just imagining what it would be like, getting her through writing a one page report, just stopped me in my tracks.

then, i couldn't get inspired to help her with a presentation because i just wasn't all that jazzed about the subject matter.

so, i punted. and ordered pizza.

and after inhaling some cheesy goodness, found inspiration inside the pizza box as well.

it looked like a little stage to me... a little stage that could be dressed to look like africa... with some giraffes... and a little pond.... maybe an acacia tree? i started by pitching the idea to paloma - that we could make little origami giraffes. she jumped at the challenge. :) btw - check out this GINORMUS origami giraffe.



we got paper and started making giraffes... we practiced first - about 20 times... then, paloma made five yellow giraffes for her project - two parents and three babies. she added in the spots with brown pencil.



i cut out a pond shape into the bottom of the pizza box and taped some aluminum foil into it:

paloma painted in the grass and the sky...



paloma made a cloud out of construction paper and wrote "giraffes in africa" on it. and failing to find origami instructions for an acacia tree - i ended up cutting one out of poster board. with an exacto knife. for like hours...

the sun is an AWESOME 8 point origami star (found at foldsomething.com) - you really need to make this one... or at least watch the video - so fun and easy! paloma made the one in the project.



here is the finished project. we added in a couple of "hands on" teaching tools: the navy blue fabric you see is a "giraffe tongue". we found out the color, length and width of an actual tongue and i sewed one up out of some extra fleece i had lying about. second, a giraffe hoof is the size of a dinner plate. so, i used a dinner plate as a guide and made a "hoof". the kids loved seeing how long the tongue was and compared their teeny feet to the plate. paloma got 30 points out of a possible 30 points. :)

UPDATE 11/27/09: i just sent a picture of paloma's giraffes to onemilliongiraffes. and it was posted! if you or your child have made giraffes - please help this collector reach the goal and send them in! :)

special thanks to bloggo chicago for the heads up! :)