Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
Project Ideas	Moonlight2danceby	10/17/04
Hi All, My son Daniel is in sixth grade this year and I am the room mother for his class. There is a child in his class that was diagnosed with cancer over the summer break, fortunately it has a 98% cure rate so we are all hopeful that she will be fine. The problem is she is receiving treatment and loosing a lot of time with her classmates, she comes in for an hour here and there but no more. This is the year the class graduates elementary school and goes on to the middle school so it is kinda a big year for the kids. My question to you are what kinda project can you suggest for the class to do that would make this student feel part of the class and not so left out? Thanks for any and all help Denise
Clarification/Follow-up by CeeBee2 on 10/17/04 8:00 am: Or use the picture-from-a-letter idea (each child is assigned a letter of the alphabet), make each picture simple and colorful, slip each finished picture inside a 3-hole plastic page cover, and then put all inside a 3-ring binder to make a unique ABC book for the hospitalized kids. Someone can use markers to draw a special cover for the book. (Or do the same thing but use numbers from one to nine - make more than one book since there are more than nine students.) Also, someone could use a hole punch to punch out lots of different colored dots. Each student has a sheet of manila or white art paper and creates a picture using the dots (a la Pointillism, as by the artist Seurat) and Elmer's or a glue stick. The ill student (and the others as well) can work on this at home too. Dots can be taken home in Baggies.
Answered By		Answered On
CeeBee2		10/17/04
I was thinking more about this beyond what I have already told you. I had the added thought that the class should not make her feel like the recipient of their good will, like everyone is saying "poor you," but do some kind of class project in which she can partipate. Perhaps that could be an art project, like painting a mural for the classroom or even for the school hallway. It could be adopting the children's wing at an area hospital or adopting senior citizens at an area nursing home. For the children or seniors, cards and letters can be written, pictures drawn, tray favors or inexpensive displays made...something done on a regular basis, checked over by the teacher or a parent, and then hand-delivered by the teacher or a parent who perhaps takes along some of the students. My concern would be that the ill classmate be a participant with the rest of the class, and not just an observer or recipient, in whatever project is decided upon.

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