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!
