Ideas for Kids' School Projects

If you have kids in school, they will have to do a school project at some point. School projects can be hard if you don't know where to look for inspiration. This article gives you some ideas for school projects for two very important subjects: English and Science.

When it comes to English and Literature projects, students can get really creative by producing dioramas, sculptures, drawings, essays or plays.

Make a diorama of a scene from a novel that is created using small items, which gives it a 3-D effect. These tend to be very popular with students who prefer to work with their hands. The scene chosen needs to reflect a moral or important message the novel conveys to the reader.

Sculptures are made with modeling clay. The student can model a character or an entire scene using modeling clay to sculpt the characters. This also is a good project choice for students who prefer to use their hands.

A drawing of a scene, or of several scenes, also is a good project idea. It allows students to express their creative talent and show their understanding of the book at the same time. Artistic students tend to do best with drawing projects.

Essays are not especially popular with many students, although they do show a great deal of knowledge on the part of the student who writes it. The essay needs to have an introduction, several paragraphs that constitute the body of the essay and a conclusion. The essay can be a general sum up of the novel, or it can discuss the deeper meaning of the novel's message.

A play is where the novel is acted out by the students. If you are going to do a play, assign parts, make a script and have the entire class participate in the prop making. Most likely, the students will really get into a play, and it gives everyone a chance to show off their special talent.

Teacher.net has an interesting project idea. The teacher suggests that you give students a list of possible project choices to choose from. There are some interesting project ideas, such as creating a song and a character description.

Science projects are probably what we think of when we think of school projects. Although we are still doing science projects in school, we have evolved from sprouting potatoes and having a flower drink up colored water. Today you can find more complex, but still very interesting, science projects.

There is a great website called sciencemadesimple.com. On this site you will find projects that explain everyday occurrences, such as "Why do leaves change color?" and "How do planes fly?" These projects are great for elementary-school-aged students.

Another great website is stevespanglerscience.com. Projects such as Pop Rocks Science, Water Screen, and Exploding Watermelon can be found here. Some others are Light Sticks or Liquid Light, Growing Live Things, and How to Make a CO2 Sandwich.

For high school students, visit ScienceFair-Projects.org for more complex project ideas. Projects such as Lift an Ice Cube, Optical Illusion Due to Motion, Cloud in a Bottle and Electrical Attraction can be found at this site.