Aristotle the great Greek Philosopher

Here is something that I had been working on for several weeks.  It took me several weeks because I would work on it for a few minutes and then put it down for several days - and you get the picture.

My son's school has a history faire every fall.  Usually it's not all that exciting but this year they have a new teacher and she's really into it!  All the kids from 1st grade to 8th grade had to do a project.  The middle schoolers (6th-8th) had to do their projects on a person/community during ancient times (BC).  They had studied Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt etc.

So my Ben decided to do his on Aristotle, the Greek philosopher.  I thought that was pretty fitting because he likes to stand around talking and have people listen to him talk.  Don't know where he gets that from :)

Anyway, it was a pretty extensive project which took weeks to do.  He mostly worked on it on the weekends and he did it at least 95% on his own.  I guided him a little but tried to step back and let him do it.  He really surprised and impressed me with how well he did.  I was so proud of him.  He did all his research by himself and made all the decisions on what to do by himself.  I did make the costume using a picture that he had printed but his teacher said it was ok for me to make the costume, so it wasn't cheating or anything.

ALL the kids did really well.  Having them dress in costume for their part really helped them get excited about it.  I've never seen them so enthusiastic at the history faire before.

Ben made a trifold board all about Aristotle, he built the Parthenon, he made a book with coffee dyed pages so that it would look old, and he did a board on daily life in ancient Greece.
Here he is in costume.  I bought a cheap sheet at Walmart to make the costume - and I do mean cheap.  That fabric was awful.  I was just hoping that it would stay together long enough.  I made the beard and mustache out of felt from instructions I found here. 

And I just had to show you Anubis, the Egyptian God of Death.  I was so glad Ben didn't pick him because I couldn't figure out how to make a jackals head but one of his classmates did.  Here he is:

I normally don't show other peoples kids but since you can't see his face, I thought it would be ok.
Pretty cool huh?