Eli's Amazon Vacation

Do you remember how excited we were after our parent/teacher conference with Eli's 4th grade teacher? She was recommending him for the gifted program and Eli couldn't wait to get started. The first step in this process is a special project. Eli chose to research the Amazon rainforest and then to create a brochure. After a few weeks of research at both houses, we worked on a mockup where he laid out all of his text and space for drawings. He stayed up late working out all the details and had it ready to turn into his final brochure...but the next time he came home he talked about making the brochure into a book. He would like to write a children's book so the thought of a book really appealed to him. We talked it thru some more and decided on a combination of brochure and book. He created a postcard brochure of his travels thru the Amazon Rainforest. Each post card was written to a family member and shared some of the things he had learned on his trip. Each post card features an Amazon image on the front (animals, flowers, waterfalls) with a description on the back side. Each postcard was full of research facts and it turned out fantastic! He even made stamps for each of the postcards based on the flags of the countries from the rainforest. It was a huge project but he did such a great job! He worked on this final phase all weekend and finished it Sunday night. We even laminated the front of each of the cards to give it that professional touch. The postcard collection is in a photo album that he is going to decorate tonight at his mom's. He also decided to draw a map of the rainforest tonight to add that to the back of the project. The project turned out GREAT and we are so PROUD!

The proud owner... :)