DYS requested a portfolio for DD(7 next week), so we've been working on it. But I have a few questions about the condition of the pieces sent in, and whether or not we get them back.
What I mean is that one thing we have is a story that DD wrote on a pad of shopping list paper while we were walking through Home Depot.
(She had gotten bored of looking at things and decided she had to write a story, and the only paper around was the long narrow list paper that comes with a magnet on the back of the pad for the fridge.) So - it is not exactly the usual paper for a story to be written on.
When we first found out that we needed to do a portfolio we mentioned that DD has some amazing art projects that are at about the 6th grade level (5 yrs above her age grade), and it was mentioned by someone that they thought that DYS wanted more traditional academic items instead. Since then DD's art teacher has been having her hang out with her in the art room 1 day a week after school just so that the teacher can observe her and her creative process. Some of the stuff she has observed and related to us really shows an advanced understanding of spacial relationships and creative expression. For example, she wanted to make flowers last week, so they flipped through books until DD found a picture of an orchid she liked. She then colored 1/3 of a paper green (for the stem and leaves) and 1/3 yellow and spotted for the flower. She then drew the design of what an orchid would look like if it were "unrolled" into a flat 2-d shape (sort of like what a box looks like unfolded, but this was a flower). DD then cut out the design and rolled it into a beautiful flower. She added the pistil and stamen inside, a green bottom to the flower and then because they ran out of time she used a pipe cleaner for a stem, rather than making it and leaves out of the green part of her paper. Her teacher was amazed at the whole process, saying that she had never seen a 6yr old (or any age child for that matter) who could create a 3-d figure from looking at a 2-d picture and flattening it out in her head, only to give it 3-dimensions again.
Would something like this, which obviously shows quite an advanced understanding of spacial relationships be something we could/should include in her portfolio?
Along a similar line, she had to do a book report for school, based on any fiction book she wanted to read that was at her level. She read Salamander Spell by E.D. Baker, wrote the summary, and as her creative part of it made dolls! She designed the patterns for their dresses, cut out the material, sewed up 90% of the dolls, stuffed them with cotton, etc. The whole nine yards! Could those be sent in? Especially if we can get a video of her explaining who the dolls are, and why they are important to the story?
We do have some other stories that she has written and some math work that she has done, but she really shines when allowed to be creative like this.
What do you think?
