Tell Hobbycraft about your DCs artsy school projects - x3 £100 voucher to be won! NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

Hobbycraft have asked us to find out what artsy school projects Mumsnetters have been helping their DCs with.

Here's what Hobbycraft say, "Kids are back at school, and that can only mean one thing #SchoolProjects.

"Every parent knows that it can be difficult to know where to start with school projects. Well, have no fear! Hobbycraft are here to help. We have created 25 step-by-step School Project guides showing you everything you need to make school curriculum based projects that are fun to make with your kids and sure to earn top marks!

"We've design the projects around the first three Key Stages, included everything you need to make them, easy to follow instructions, template downloads plus loads of helpful tips and interesting bits of information along the way. Whether it's making a Viking helmet, an Egyptian costume, a Roman Castle or Solar system model - School Projects have never been so fuss free and fun!

Visit the Kids' Craft section on the Hobbycraft blog to find the School Project guides."

So, what have your DCs been making for their school projects? Or if they're not currently working on anything at the moment, what's your favourite school project they've made? Maybe it's a science project of an epic model of the night sky with all the different constellations? Or perhaps a very technical drawing with hieroglyphics written on it for history class? Whatever it is, we'd love to hear it.

Please also feel free to add pictures of any of your DCs school projects, we'd love to see them!

Everyone who adds their comments to this thread will be entered into a prize draw where 3 Mumsnetters will win a £100 Hobbycraft voucher!

Thanks,
MNHQ

We loved making a farm animal. Dd chose a pig and made it out of papier-mache and toilet rolls around newspapers with her dad.

I really dislike the artsy school projects as it becomes a bit of a competitive thing between the parents which sucks all the fun out of it. I enjoyed making the roman sword and shield with my daughter out of cardboard and the eygptian cartouche out of salt dough. The anderson shelter with my son was a bit tricker and the zoetrope was interesting. But unfortunately several times my children were upset when so and so took in the projects clearly made by parents/grandparents entirely with the children taking the credit for this excellent work yet the children with their own hard work shoved to the back of the show and tell assembly. That made me sad on occasion.

I find the projects the children are expected to make now to be so time consuming, and tricky, we do help them and I do thank god for the likes of Hobbycraft or tescos have quite a decent craft section now, but we have been asked to make shoe box environmental landscapes, replica castles, which we made our of gingerbread - expensive and time consuming, and ended up in the bin eventually, I hate waste. Last term my daughter made gallows out of lolly sticks and stocks with a Barbie doll in them. Homework like this takes up so much if our precious family time, we find we have less and less time to enjoy life. And I'm not quite sure what it adds to their education. I feel so much time is wasted faffing and not learning.

Last year our DS had to photograph different shapes he could find in everyday things. We took him on a walk of our village and he took lots of photos of the different shapes he spotted (Pyramid roofs, cylinder post box, rectangular gate, circle road signs etc). We loved it and when we came back we printed them off and made a big poster of all the shapes we found.

My son is currently making a time capsule at school and they are thinking about what materials would be a good choice. He loves doing things like this!

Last year we had to make a poppy that was large enough to plant in the school garden, and weatherproof enough to cope for a week.

Floristry wire plus black and red duct tape worked brilliantly!

Best project so far was for the Olympics. Ds made a stadium. We used real sand and grass and lots of old packets glue and paint! Even got mentioned and showed to the rest of school in assembly. Ds was so proud

Not a school project, but me and DD spent a whole day making a model of the solar system with pancakes. Decorated them all beautifully then ate the lot lol. Best art/science/baking project ever!

My son has to make an animal habitat for school and also an instrument from our recycling bits and bobs, he has chosen to do an Arctic scene so I have stocked up on cotton wool and tin foil to make the snow and ice

My daughter made a wooden pencil holder in the shape of a square pig! She is very proud of it and it now sits next to our phone.

We have had a few. Kids really enjoyed making a Roman shield project as they could do some woodwork, designing and painting.
Also make a sea creature out of junk, objects around the house was great as it was so open ended. Some made elaborate jellyfish and we made a fish from an old shampoo bottle with acrylic paint.

My ten year old neice was given a project to create an arctic world out of a shoe box so I helped flip down the sides so she had a larger floor plan and attached velcro strips for her to do it up into a box shape afterwards. She filled the floor with crumpled silver foil for the sea and used painted white papiermaché for the ice and rocks then created animals using craft wire, beads and cardboard...it all looked great. :)

dd is 5 so hasn't had many projects yet. She did make a "bird" out of a pinecone, feathers, and bits of string last year when they were doing forest school stuff about birds, that is probably the best so far.

We (dd and I, yes, it did start to turn into a joint project!) had to make a Motte and Bailey castle. She was a bit ambitious, and there was a danger at one point it was going to be life-sized! Luckily I'm a bit of a crafty-stash hoarder, so I had lots of card, paper and tissue paper to get stuck into.
Dd did a terrific job, and it was very very funny watching her walk to school with it on a rather windy day :-)

In reception DD had lots of making projects... "solar system", "bridge", "rocket", "Easter bonnet" etc... these days it is more fancy-dress and models, basic circuit boards etc. DD has very set ideas and I try to get the homework from her before she can have too many ideas. For example... my idea of a bridge would be a basic pontoon, but having recently been across on during the holidays DD wanted to create a suspension bridge. When making the Solar System she wanted to make the layers of the earth (unseen but she knows they are there). I may have to help with technical advice and holding something steady but all the work and majority of ideas and definitely the initial concept is all down to DD. She keeps me on my toes!

This term we are making a car, a balloon rocket and wallpaper for a victorian dolls house. No challenge there then!

we made a book review report in the shape of a cardboard pencil with DD writing her review inside the folds. We have a half term project coming up about "people who help us" so yes school projects are a very regular thing in our household

Dd made a fairy book.
We made up a story about fairies in the garden, searched for evidence and photographed it.
Then she wrote the story and drew the pictures and stuck in the photos.
She also found pictures of fairies online that she pasted in
It was /really lovely and I'm keeping it for when she is grown up

My favourite was the Ancient Egyptian challenge which resulted in makin teeny weeny Canopic jars containing teeny weeny modelled internal organs made out of salt dough. I'm also personally proud of the Make a London Landmark task because I suddenly remembered that I had a tatty old lampshade in the cellar which could be dismantled and used as the foundation of the London Eye with capsules made of yoghurt pots glued together.

My son is currently working on a marble roller coaster we have been saving boxes and toilet roll tubes for weeks!

In Year 7 Geography, dd2 had to make a model of coastal erosion. Being a bright girl, she chose the medium of cake. We bought the coloured icing from Hobbycraft. It was a garish creation, resembling something precious to Shrek. However, it won first prize as the teacher was also a big fan of cake!!

A huge titanic model which we had to keep afterwards, unfortunately the paint kept flaking off so it was sunk into the bin.

I normally dread school art projects! Then I get really stuck in and want to do too much. Haha. We haven't had one for a while, think the last thing we made was a rocket!

They had to make a Viking ship from recycled materials!

DS isn't usually the most crafty child, but after a school trip to Bough Beech reservoir they were asked to produce some sort of artwork to commemorate their visit. Most children in his class made collages, paintings etc. but DS and his BF rose to the occasion and made a massive papier mache 3D model of the reservoir, the surrounding hills and the tower in the middle. Lots of silver foil and bright green paint. It looked amazing, and he was so proud of himself. I think that was probably the last time he made an effort on any school art project, though..... Luckily his sisters are very crafty, and both doing Art GCSE.