Second grade social studies teacher, Kate Rozylowicz asked her students to discover a landform by creating a diorama for their recent ‘Parade of Landforms.’ This annual project provides an opportunity for students to showcase their talents while learning more about our planet. Students shared their new-found knowledge with visitors from grades K-5 during the special unveiling on Friday, November 18th, while giving the younger students a chance to preview second grade.

“This assignment allowed students to work with their parents if needed, but my students wanted to do as much as they could by themselves,” said Mrs. Rozylowicz.

Parent, Brooks Boyer has worked on some of Mrs. Rozylowicz’s past projects, and looks forward to this second grade assignment. “There are certain things I do as a dad, and this is one of them,” he said. It’s become a weekend project for him and his daughters. Joslyn, his oldest, helped him understand the unique facts about deserts. Kylie, his second oldest, taught him about volcanic eruptions. This year, he and daughter, Reeghan perfected this task while learning about lakes.

Reeghan picked out her favorite light-blue paint for her lake, while she and dad found the boat to display. She chose to study lakes because of the family’s most recent vacation. “She sought out her four facts about lakes and typed them up herself. I was impressed,” said Brooks. But Reeghan was impressed with her dad’s idea of creating the sun for her diorama.

“It’s part of the beauty of being at St. Joseph School. I think the faculty understands an important aspect of learning is to get the parents involved. If your child is going to be educated, you do have to be involved,” he added.

Brooks is always pleased to see how creative his children can be. Parent, Adria Neverauskas is, too. She worked with her son, Kovas on his Sea Cave diorama. While she is a big proponent of children doing their own projects, she enjoyed working with her son and was surprised to see how artsy he is. “It was a tough one to do, but he was totally into it!”

Kovas and his mom traveled to the craft store where they spent an hour looking for things. He chose his paint colors, new paint brushes and cotton balls for clouds. They gathered ideas on how to layout their cave online. Kovas worked closely with his dad as they cut and scooped out styrofoam to create their sea cave. "Kovas' dad used a hair blow drier to melt the styrofoam to make the softer edges," explained Adria.

Like his classmate, Kovas was adamant about doing his own typing. “It was long and arduous, yet exciting,” said mom, adding, “When you read something over and over, you learn it. He knew all the facts by the time he glued them to the box.”

Adria thought it was such a fun project. “I really enjoyed seeing him learning about sea caves and witnessing his excitement.”

Mrs. Rozylowicz was pleased with how her student’s dioramas turned out. “There were many mediums used and such creativity!” Brooks looks forward to his next diorama in two years. Adria, can’t wait. “When I was younger, I wasn’t the science kind of kid, so I look forward to my next diorama with my son, Gytis!”