The Colosseum was built in a few hours

While the Colosseum may be a neat project to build when done correctly and not in a rush, I fail to see where it benefits the students…third grade students.  The additional part of the project, the inclusion of five facts about the Colosseum, is a perfectly reasonable bit of homework and helps the students learn about the ancient structure.  If the students were older and were studying architecture, I’d be on board with the construction project.

We’ve now built two of these.  The first, two years ago, was made with modeling clay plastered to a plastic container to hold it up.  As the clay dried, it looked good, but shortly after it dried, it began to look like a time-lapsed version of the Colosseum, crumbling to pieces.  Luckily, it managed to hold together long enough to make it to school, get a grade, and make it back home before looking too badly.  This year, we found a boxed set of precut styrofoam with a picture of a Colosseum model on the cover.  Based on the picture, we built the model to the right with the five facts glued into the bottom.  Not sure if the Playmobil gladiators are going to go to school, though.

This really just seems like busy work for the sake of having a project and it’s the same one every year.  You’ve gotta love innovation in the classroom, right?  “Hey, we already have a rubric built for the Colosseum project, so why change the assignment?”

Anyway, the project is done and we have no more kids that have to pass through the third grade at this school so this should be our last Colosseum.  Hopefully, future projects will be ones that provide more of a learning experience.