It is a group consisting of 13 fourth and fifth graders with vibrant personalities and from all levels of ability. We have met for about a month now, and everyone is very comfortable with each other. The instruction is loose, the challenge is open-ended, and the end products are up in the air. This group is still getting started, meeting after school for an hour and a half, one day a week. They may produce visual art, or they might work on writing songs or scripts. Whatever they choose, it must be based on primary documents from the founding era of our nation, and that's not always a simple task. Such is usually relegated to middle school or high school students, but here we are, tackling it at teh elementary level.
