Projects based learning in Kindergarten (Essay Sample)

Projects based learning in Kindergarten Name: Course: Instructor: Date: Project One: Story of my Family Core competencies: communication, positive personal and cultural identity According to Topal (2013), Families are the functional units of any society and as a result, play a crucial role in the cognitive growth and development of any given child. Once a child can fully understand and identify him/herself with his or her family, he will create sufficient rapport to initiate great interactions with all the family members and hence aid in the overall cognitive development. Similarly, such an understanding will help the child comprehend and internalize the identity of his or her family; characteristics that are unique and only associated with his family and not any other. Hence, the core competence is achieved in the sense that a child that understands his family composition, culture, traditions and behavior will freely interact and communicate. This project will also add up in helping children appreciate the diverse cultures and family histories of colleagues within their class. Although students are encouraged to interact in class, there are higher chances that their interaction might not extend beyond academic matters. As a result, therefore, many of them might not be aware of their colleague’s family histories, composition or even general background. This project will thus help open up conversations, new friendships and even social groupings amongst students once they learn of their friends’ stories, and thus social interaction and development. The last bit of this project requires students to make presentations using a visual aid such as posters in front of their parents and classmates. Such presentations require high levels of confidence and self-believe which will be slowly built in the course of the project. (MacDonell, 2007). An emphasis of this project is that although students might be helped in designing questions to solicit information on their family history, each of them will be required to administer the questionnaire personally. The benefit of this is that it will help students gain confidence to express themselves without fear or contradiction so as to get the most accurate information from whichever informant they choose. The big assumption is that if the students can successfully seek and obtain the required information, they will have no trouble presenting the same before other people. The overall success of this project about the achievement of its core objectives will be evaluated basing on students’ behavior before, during and after the whole exercise. For instance, if the students can obtain accurate information and confidently present the same, then the project will be termed a success. If a large number of them cannot explain their posters or lack confidence to stand before people, then the project will not have achieved its goals. Sample presentation poster to illustrate living community Source: Loris malaguzzi center, Rggio Emilia by Jason Lin. Project Two: Shapes in natural world Big idea: Objects have attributes that can be described, measured, and compared This project revolves around the most immediate environment that surrounds kindergarten students. One thing about children in this age bracket is that they are inquisitive and eager to learn. They also possess a sharp memory in the sense that they rarely forget things they are told, especially things said by someone they have confidence such as older siblings, parents or teachers. Similarly, shapes constitute almost each and every object in nature. In fact, all objects are described concerning shape and size. Introducing kindergarten students at this age will help them master the concept of shapes at an early age, a concept that will stick in their minds as they grow. Furthermore, they will slowly learn how to describe objects regarding shapes and sizes thus improving their ability to describe objects around them. The concept of 2D and 3D is meant to enhance their description of shapes further. It is expected that the students’ ability to memorize and recall taught concepts will be exploited to help them understand the differences between 2D and 3D shapes. Although it might be early to introduce the concept of dimensional shapes to kindergarten students, it is assumed that the entire idea of shapes is best taught when handled at once rather than teaching it in bits. For instance, it might be hard, at a later stage, to introduce terms such as cubes and cuboids when all students know are rectangles and squares. Once the students can successfully separate and group 2D and 3D objects, then they will be required to identify the same from different drawings and pictures to ensure that they fully understand the differences. The idea of the park has been incorporated into the project to enhance curiosity. Once the students learn that they are to visit a new locality, they will develop an eagerness to know where they are going, what they might find there and more so the new things they are likely to find there. The concept of curiosity and adventure will, therefore, prepare the students psychologically and put them in a state of anticipation to learn new things. The second trip to the park will be so as to test the students’ ability to recall previous concepts taught. If the students mastered the different types of shapes during the first visit, then they will quickly identify and name the various shapes in the park. The primary objectives of this project will be to foster critical thinking and communication skills amongst students. Critical thinking will come in when students will e required to think of the differences between shapes and thus recall the correct name of the various objects. Communication, on the other hand, will be enhanced through the emphasis on students to describe their most immediate environment regarding shapes. A collection of shapes for use by kindergarten students Source: /wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Capture.jpg Project Three: Design our Christmas Classroom Big idea: People create art to express who they are as individuals and community As children grow up, they tend to associate Christmas with all sorts of happiness and celebration; everyone is always happy and excited. This design project, therefore, aims to capitalize on the general depiction of Christmas in society to bring out the creativity in students. The initial part of the project will, therefore, be creating a Christmas mood and letting students list all sorts of activities that take place during Christmas. Each student, depending on his or her background, has a unique experience about Christmas which he or she would wish to share. The presumption here is that during the previous projects, students would have learned how to communicate efficiently and will, therefore, find no difficulties in sharing their experiences. The various experiences from different students are what will create our pool of ideas for decorating our design project. All the students will jointly do the decoration of the classroom without any restrictions. All the students will have freedom to express their feelings and adjust the beauty of the room depending on what they feel about Christmas. However, the major challenge will be that for every suggestion one makes, he or she must explain its relation to Christmas. Although the whole exercise might look like a fun activity, it will be a valuable learning forum since students will have chances to discover what their friends think of Christmas hence broadening their experiences and knowledge on the broad concept of Christmas. Most students have bright ideas but fear speaking out hence allowing them to practically execute their thoughts might increase their confidence and subsequently help them to open up. Similarly, the decoration exercise might just be another forum to help identify other creative talents from students. Personal interaction and integration will also be of great concern in the execution of this project. As indicated in the introductory remarks, all our activities will be done by a team and not individually. There are certain attributes that determine the effectiveness of a team and these will be what the project will inherently seek to achieve. The project will thus help evaluate the students’ ability to work in teams and successfully realize their objectives as intended. In an ideal situation, students have already formed groups to which they would like to work in. Although such groups are a welcome idea, this project will disrupt such groupings and have students placed together with entirely new friends so as to evaluate their ability to integrate and interact with others. A collection of Recycled materials for d...