There Will Be A $5.00 Charge For Whining: Hands On Learning = Creative Kid

Nobody likes Hands On Projects more than I do. For Reals.

In fact, when Josiah gets to High School, I will still be assigning Salt Dough Maps.

Once a kindergarten teacher...always a kindergarten teacher.

For one I think that Hands On Projects make learning so much fun. They make it real. They give learning life and help what Josiah learns stick in his cute little brain.

I need to share with you one of our Favorite Hands On Projects Ever! It is so good it calls for the use of Unnecessary Capitalization and a big ole Exclamation point!

It is no secret that Mr. Josiah has just a little obsession with the Big Screen. And I"m not talking about the fact that our TV is too big for the living room. He loves movies. He loves trivia about movies.

And since he was just a little bitty guy he has done elaborate productions of his favorite movies. Costumes. Scenery. The whole bit. I would share some pictures with you, but my laptop has lost it's mind and I'm pounding away on The Muffin's Desktop. Thank goodness I had the bulk of this post done before my laptop went crazy!

Anyhoo. Back to the subject at hand.

What better way for Josiah to learn history than casting his motley crew of action figures and random Happy Meal toys in a rousing movie reenactment of Christopher Columbus' voyage to the New World.

Here's how it all went down. I'll reveal the Big Show at the end of this post.

For his script he used one of the books we've used for History.

He wrote down all the major characters, the various settings and what kind of props he would need to find.

He then went on a search for props and his perfect cast.

My fabric bins were raided.

He set up his first scene carefully. I'm not quite sure how the Star Wars Love fit into all of this.As far as I know, George Lucas wasn't around in the 1400's.

Here is Mr. Spock... playing King Ferdinand. Queen Isabella is played by a very uncomfortable looking Avatar. I think Dr. Spock is a breath of fresh air in our history drama. "It is curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want." Exactly, Mr. Spock.

Han Solo is our persistent Christopher Columbus.

According to his script, Josiah took pictures of each scene carefully. Then he moved on to the next setting. The Ocean Voyage!

I'm not so sure that sending this group out would be my first choice.

I mean really. Darth Vader isn't known for his people skills. And this isn't exactly the Millennium Falcon.

But look who they find once they make land! Wow! Notice everyone in the New World is green. Except for that Warthog Bank from The Lion King. I'm not even sure warthogs live in the Bahamas. Details! Details!

It was great fun for Josiah. I'm not sure I will ever think of the story of Columbus in quite the same way again.

After Josiah chose the pictures he wanted to use, we edited to them and downloaded them to Windows Live Movie Maker. He picked some free music from a free music site (all his choices, I assure you!) and then made his movie.

This is supposed to be his publicity shot. He took it himself, but failed to put it in his film.