Project Katrina - Please Help

YOU did a poster for the last two book reports??

I had to laugh at Cheryl B's response. Because I was thinking the exact same thing! LOL

do a diorama, those are always fun and artistic.. Use a box for example, have someone in a boat with water all around, show the scenery and that which is happening all around.. or perhaps a house with flooding.. Not sure what your son is focusing on specifically within his report, but if he plans show the devastation that took place, the diorama is a good way to illustrate it.

good luck

How about he does a project showing how the low levys were the main underlying issue OR show how New Orleans was basically a soup bowl or you can find footage of the rescue and make a mini video to play. You can also do a power point presentation on what happens during and after a hurricane and keep it weather based and factual. There are a lot of angles you could go with this - just depends on how far you want to go. If it is a survivor's story I would see if you could find some survivors (they are all scattered) and see if one would be willing to do an interview or a live Skype conversation even. Sorry if it is scattered - but this post is a "brainstorm" post in my eyes.

Could he do something to illustrate Dubya's swift and extreme help? Oh....no.....guess not....sorry...lol

What about a paper maché model of the levees?

Not sure how old your son is but you can make a "hurricane model" as a cool visual project by making a hurricane in a bottle. Find two clean 2-liter plastic soda bottles. Cut 2 inches of 1/2-inch diameter PVC pipe with a hacksaw. Fill O. bottle two-thirds full with cold water. Cut up the labels of the soda bottles into confetti and add some to the water. Push the PVC pipe halfway into the filled bottle, and then push the other bottle onto the top of the PVC pipe. Seal the bottles together with duct tape and turn the bottle over so the water goes into the empty bottle. Turn the bottle over again and rotate the top bottle with your hand to create a circular motion, which will make a hurricane inside.

Near the area where Katrina happened there are tubes labeled with times and the amount of water that was coming. He can make a art project out of that.

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=A0PDoTGZq...

It looks like that. I know its a lot but copy and paste in the Google search bar. You will see the image. I was just there in August 2011. It was amazing.

You could do a diorama. Shoebox and re-create a scene from the book. Play dough/clay for trees and water, take a hammer to a couple of toy houses, hang a toy boat or matchbox car in a tree, etc.

Really, I say this because that is what it looked like here. I am in South Mississippi.

On the lighter side, you could do a diorama with houses under construction and lots of little volunteers in hard hats and new trees, etc. Because that it also what it looks like here. Be sure to build the houses on stilts because our flood elevations went wacko high afterwards.

Or, a collage or mosaic depicting both the good and the bad of Katrina.

But, please, while you both work in the school project, tell your son about the resilience of the people affected by Katrina and about the outpouring of good will that came to our area from literally across the world in response to this tragedy.

Despite the losses suffered, there are amazing stories of accomplishment, and humanity at its best, to be told through the Katrina story.

Good luck on your project.

Could he do something with maps? Population maps before, during, and after? Maps the hurricane's path, or of one family's journey out of (and possibly back to) New Orleans?

Do a collage of aftermath pictures.
I googled 'hurricane katrina aftermath pictures'. there are a ton of heartbreaking ones. Many match with the cover of the book.

http://www.google.com/search?q=hurricane+katrina+aftermat...

How old is he? The reason I ask is that depends on the level of detail he needs to do for this project. My kindergartner has projects all the time! I suggest a diorama as well. Have him build a little model house and maybe use cut out waves to show the water rising up to the roof -maybe put people on the roof -that type of thing. If he's really young, a large picture on a poster may suffice, but he will probably enjoy building a diorama more. Make sure HE does it -and you just guide him and help him get the materials together.

Something regarding emergency preparedness? (ie how to build an emergency supply locker, evacuation procedure, etc)
There were several companies that designed homes for affordably rebuilding. Maybe he could build a model from legos of one of the plans and explain what features were included in the plans and why they were important.
Interview/ tape someone from the Corp of Engineers about levee construction and build a model levee in a fish tank.
Interview/ tape a meteorologist about hurricanes.