I've been seeing a lot of teachers talk about PBLs lately, especially early childhood educators.  On social media it seems like there is a demand for more information on how to get started with a PBL in Kindergarten.  So here I'm going to give you my "2 cents" since (1) I've been doing PBLs at the kindergarten level for 4 years now and (2) I LOVE THEM!  Why do I love them you ask?  I love them because I am able to cover several standards, teach content that I'm passionate about, and most importantly my kids learn soooo much more than what I plan.

Disclaimer:  This will not be an in depth account of how to do a PBL but my hope is that it will encourage you to take the plunge!  For more information visit the Buck Institute for Education.

After attending Alabama Ag in the Classroom a few summers ago I have found a love for teaching agriculture.  I have paired this LOVE with PBL.  When teaching kindergarten you have to start small and teach everything step by step as you know, so when doing the first PBL of the year I keep things simple; hence, the Crop PBL.

Entry Event:  The thing that starts the PBL and gets the kids to "buy in" to the process.  A PBL can last for several weeks so you've got to get the kiddos interested from the beginning.  When I did a Zoo PBL we started with a Virtual Field trip to the Zoo and then had the Zookeeper write a letter to the students saying they needed more room because they are getting more animals and needed them to do some research.  I did a PBL on Alabama's water and started with a speaker from the Water Board.  All entry events don't have to be BIG, for the Crop PBL I simply started by having the students guess what was in my lunch box and then read this book.

The kids got a kick out of guessing what I was having for lunch and we created an anchor chart that we revisited throughout the process.  The next day we looked at the chart again and created our driving question. Once they guessed what was in my lunchbox we also created a chart that discussed where they thought it came from. Which brings me to another element.

The Driving Question:  This question is one thing that will drive you crazy trying to create but will give you sweet peace once you have it nailed down.  This question will be at then center of everything you do. For the Crop PBL it is usually something like this, "How do the crops in Alabama feed us?" I always let the kiddos help with the driving question although I do use strategic questioning to get them to arrive at the right place.  This allows them voice during the process which is also another important element.  My driving questions aren't typically flashy or uber creative but they do remind the students daily what their end goal is with their end product.  We visit this daily to remind the kiddos why it is we are doing all we do.

The end/public product:  I like to begin with the end in mind so I will usually decide what the end product will be before most everything else is planned.  This also helps when making daily plans.  At this level and it being the first PBL usually everyone has the same product although they may cover different things, ie in the Zoo PBL each group researched a different animal, the Water PBL covered different bodies of water.  They all used the same type outlets. For the Crop PBL the end product was a Crop Journal.  I like to include writing as a main component in all my PBLs and this is when I cover informational writing for the first time.  Since we covered 6 crops I was able to scaffold the teaching in a natural way.  To add a tech feature to the PBL my class used SeeSaw by publishing their journals and sharing it online with parents. This is also the first thing they upload to their portfolio.  If you haven't checked out SeeSaw I highly recommend it!





To wrap this PBL up we went on a field trip to a local farm.  We usually go to a pumpkin patch but this year I found out that a local U-pick'em Farm did free field trips and thought this would tie in perfectly.  The students were able to see a real working farm and even impressed the farmer with the knowledge they had.  That was probably my favorite part!  At the farm we had a sack lunch and utilized that time for the students to share their Crop Journals with family and friends.  It made the entire PBL come full circle since it started with a simple sack lunch.

Don't forget the fun! Although not a requirement I think it should be included.  My favorite part of kindergarten or teaching in general is that learning is fun. During this PBL I included things like baking bread when we studied wheat, investigating pumpkins when we learned about that crop, I did taste testing with soybeans (the fun was had by me with those faces), and of course the field trip was fun.  


As I said before this was not an in depth look at PBLs but simply a taste at what they are and the basics to think about when wanting to do a PBL.  Start small and go from there.  This is the third time I have done the Crop PBL and I think I finally got it like I want it; although, next year I'm sure tweak it when I do it again!

Social Networking

So I've been taking an online course about Social Networking.  I was familiar with several of the tools explored in this course.  What I have learned is that most people are familiar but due to the vast number of tools available educators are unsure as how to effectively manage the use of these tools.  

My favorite tool that I have gained and have already began using, and found it to be excellent in managing blogs that I frequently visit, is Feedly.  The best things about this tool is that it saves time and it's free. Educators everywhere should line up to sign up for this!

Feedly is a news aggregator application for various Web browsers and mobile devices running iOS and Android, also available as a cloud-based service. It compiles news feeds from a variety of online sources for the user to customize and share with others.

So that is the official definition, in simple terms it puts all the feeds from different blogs on one site or in one app.  I found the app to be most user friendly and fast.  There are tons of educators/administrators out there who run blogs like they run there classrooms and this tool keeps you connected without wasting time going back and forth through bookmarks on your computer.  If you have a smartphone you can download the app and while you are waiting in line at Walmart or at the doctor's office you can look through the sites that are most beneficial to you.

If/when I am an administrator I would encourage my teachers to use this site and even get them to subscribe to different sites that focus on instructional practices we are presently investigating.

So there is my 2cents, but don't take my word for it check it out for yourself.

PBL in Pictures

Whenever I teach a lesson, especially a PBL, I always ask myself this question "will I do this again?"  I can tell you that ABSOLUTELY I will do this again!

I have been asked a few questions, the most asked is if it was a lot of work.  I can tell you that yes, this PBL required work upfront, during and even after.  Once the chickens hatched I had to take care of them for weeks after.  I can tell you that it has been worth every minute!  My students learned even more that I could have imagined.  About a week after our project was finished we had some students from Auburn University come to our school to teach some of the older grades.  They came to visit my kids and had planned to share a few things with them, but they later told my principal that my kids taught them!

If you haven't checked out my previous posts about this PBL check them out for more details.



http://s1172.photobucket.com/user/Stephanie_Bradford-Brooks/story/79861

It's Chick Hatching Time!

DAY 21, EGG HATCHING DAY!!!

Wow, today has been long and exciting! We had one hatch and the kids went crazy, in a good way!  We had classes all over school viewing, plus a few at other schools in our school system. My own child was in PE when the chicken hatched, the PE teacher said she cried.  I asked her about it later and she said it was tears of joy.  While my class was at PE we had several classes take a "field trip" to my room to view the incubator and chick.  I had several great questions from students in other classes. This is why I love PBL's like this, not only the kids in the class learn other kids learn too!

I did have to change the web cam app I was using due to firewall issues.  I changed to ustream, so check out the link below to follow along and check back later to see how many hatch in all.

   

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cesbrooks

Chick Cam

TECHNOLOGY IS AWESOME!!!

We are on day 20 of the Chicken Haching PBL so we put up a web cam today.  You can actually view live feed by clicking on the link below.  We had some issues with the humidity over the weekend so we will see what effect that had.  My students are super excited and so am I.

We started with 38 eggs.  On Friday I candled the eggs using a homemade candler, thanks to my "egg eggspert".  I had 11 eggs that were basically empty so those were taken out.  We had 27 remaining that I was unsure about so they were all left in.  When we first candled on day 9 (would have done earlier but weekends aren't friendly) we had two eggs that we could actually see them moving!  It was so cool to see!  On day 11 we candled again and the class really got into it.  We had some great journaling that day.

Stay tuned to see the outcome and after the project is wrapped up I will post my PBL plan for you to download.


http://10.25.4.87/video.html

It's Chicken Hatching Time!

     Today my class started a PBL (project based learning) that has us hatching chicken eggs in the classroom.  My students have been anxious to see what the "white box" was in our room.  To introduce this PBL my daughter and I made this video of me at our house.  I have chickens at home and thought it would make for a great tie in.  I will try to post every couple of days showing the progress of the eggs and the work the students are doing to answer the question:

How can we grow chickens to have more eggs to share with Mrs. Brooks' family and friends?

I hope you enjoy the video below and look past my very southern accent!

I had three goals for myself this school year, besides the usual things I wanted to accomplish. They are
1. replace chairs with stability balls
2. get a class pet
3. hatch chicken eggs in class I know these may be strange goals to some, but they are mine.

This post is about the stability balls. Last year was my first year teaching Kindergarten. When searching various sites for different strategies I came across articles about teachers that had done this. I was intrigue by this concept and started to search specifically for others who had replaced their chairs for stability balls. It didn't take me long to realize that I too wanted to do this. I got permission from my principal and then began my own study. I asked my PE teacher if I could borrow a stability ball and then let my class at the time try it out. I started with my most energetic student and went from there. This small scale experiment went well and students were eager to use the ball when it was their turn.

The next step I had to make was figuring out how to pay for the balls. There are school supply companies that sell class sets, but they are expensive. I started looking for grants to help with this cost but after months of looking couldn't find anything. I'm not saying they aren't out there, I just couldn't find one. After praying about the idea came to ask friends, family, and church members if they would be willing to donate some money to fund this very unusual project. I found that I could purchase used stability balls from amazon for around $10. Since prices are so high, that's the cost of a fast food meal. I emailed everyone I knew and within a couple of weeks I had all the balls I needed for my class!

On the first day of school I had chairs ready for the students, because I wanted to have "ball orientation" with them. We talked about what kinds of ways we needed to sit and other things we needed to do to take care of our new "chairs". I had looked at a particular blog and liked the rules she used and decided I would try these to start. I posted the rules and drew pictures as cues. We have now been in school for a month and I LOVE how these balls have impacted my classroom!

There is tons of research as to why it is good to use them, so look for yourself. I'll update mid-year as to how things are going. Below are pictures of my class using these balls.

Special thanks to all those who made this possible!!!!!