by Cori Hilsgen
news@thenewsleaders.com
Fourth-grade students from Sharon Beach’s class at All Saints Academy in St. Joseph recently displayed their state-fair projects.
The class of 16 students was given about a month to complete the project. Criteria of the project allowed students to pick any state except Minnesota and to create a three-dimensional display that included information such as the state map, state flag, bird, special attractions, famous Americans or inventions of the state and other information. For the display, students could not use tri-fold boards.
Each student was also asked to give a two- to three-minute practiced oral report about the project. No two students could study the same state.
Lance Harren, who reported on the state of Massachusetts, said he learned states have so many variables, making some easier to report on than others.
“Not all of the projects are as easy as others to make,” Harren said. “Some people’s projects were really hard and they needed more time to work on them.”
Tricia Castro studied New York. Castro said each student had to use four different resources to study their state. She said the resources could include the encyclopedia, the internet, a visit there and a state book from the library.
Claire Kissela studied the state of Alaska. Kissela said it took a lot of time to study the state but she thought it was still really fun.
Anthony Botz studied the state of Arizona. Botz said he enjoyed the project.
“It was very cool to learn all the information about the state I chose and (the states) other people chose,” Botz said. “I thought it was a very fun experience.”