Inspiration for school project comes at eleventh hour
The High King
I was having a great year in the fifth grade at the Inlet School until I was given my first real homework assignment. In previous years I had some small assignments, such as studying spelling words, but no real homework projects to speak of.
The assignment was a book report and it was given to us on the last school day before Christmas break.
The project was to include a two-page written report complete with a shadow box art work depiction of the book’s theme and characters.
I was reading a lot of books at the time, so I found choosing the right one to be difficult.
Not only that, but it was so snowy over the break that my dog Mutt and I took advantage of all the great outdoor opportunities, diverting me from tackling the assignment.
The vacation days went by quickly as we enjoyed the snow on Limekiln Lake, but the eleventh hour was upon me.
Our first day back to school was bright and early the next morning and I found myself under the pressure of meeting my first deadline.
I sat at the kitchen table and stared at the small collection of books I had read in the past month.
I tried to decide which one would be most condusive for creating an interesting shadow box as I wasn’t quite sure how to approach the written part of the assignment.
Mutt gave a groan from under the table and I reached out and gave her a scratch with my sockcovered toes.
I flipped through the books’ pages in hopes of gaining some inspiration.
I finally decided to create a castle-themed shadow box based on the book, The High King. I gathered some of my brother’s plastic dinosaurs and rocks, and some toy knights and Vikings.
I created three-dimensional effects against the castle background I designed from brown and gray squares of construction paper.
I spent a lot of time trying to glue the parts to the inside of the box so the castle would look as I had imagined.
When the pieces were all nicely glued into place I set the project aside to dry. Then, with only forty minutes to spare before bedtime
I began writing the book report.
I managed to fill much of the required two pages by writing the words as large as I could and leaving ample space between each word.
I found I had a little space at the bottom of the second page I provided a complete description of the book itself, including its glossy cover, how fat it was, and some words that were new to me.
Mitch Lee, Adirondack native & storyteller, lives at Big Moose Lake.ltmitch3rdny@aol.com
