As a follow up to the project I assigned my juniors your should know that I am impressed. I had only one raft that I consider close to a failing mark. I had a couple that were marginal Bs and most of them were gems of creativity and imagination.

The largest is about three feet long and is incredibly detailed. They made a brown clay figure to represent Jim lying down on the deck. There are three little fish near him as well as his fishing pole. The A-frame wigwam has a woven coconut frond mattress and pillows and a fire pit just like it was described in the book. There is a clothes line with a shirt drying on it. There are also some fish hanging there. I asked about it and they explained that they were drying the fish for later!

The best, in my opinion, was made by a girl working alone. The raft is small but wonderfully conceived with proper scale and detail. It was built thick and heavy, the way a plank raft should be made. The wigwam was raised up a (scaled) foot as described. She had some rolled blankets and the fire pit in there too. There are extra sweeps on a rack and a steering sweep over the stern. She even has coils of rope laying on the deck.

One pair of girls created a diorama of the raft on the river. They cut a curved slit in the bottom of the box so they can make the raft move down stream. Another young lady built the house that floated past Jackson's Island. Huck and Jim find a dead man in the house. She took a block of foam and painted it blue. Then she built the house out of Popsicle sticks. But WAIT! There's more! She made the roof so it could be removed and then recreated the scene inside the house complete with wallpaper and graffiti.

I was very impressed. And very happy. I'm afraid my expectations were not very high.