PBL+Primary

=Project Based Learning in the Primary Grades =

[|Monster Exchange]
==== This is a worldwide collaborative project. The teacher sets up an account and finds a partner school anywhere in the world. The students then draw and color a monster. They write a description of their monster and send it to the partner school. They then read the description and draw your monster based on the description. The photos or scanned drawings are then uploaded for comparison. ====



This project can be done between classrooms, or even between buildings. Collaborate with anyone!

== __** [|Projects By Jen] **__ Projects by Jen is a site that has ongoing collaborative projects available to teachers. Some are ongoing, others are in certain time frames. You can always do the project and compare with other class results online, even after the project is "complete". ==

[|The Great Egg Roll 2012:] Each class that participates will roll eggs, find distances, gather averages, estimation, and more!The Project runs March 26-April 13th [|Charlotte's Web Revisited:] Activities will be available to use for preK-6th grades. Students are encouraged to contribute to their voicethread and if possible, share their classroom projects through a webpage, blog, wiki, etc. The Project runs April 16 to may 25

[|Guess The Wordle:]This is a daily site you can go to and there is a wordle displayed. All of the words on the Wordle are clues or hints all related to one topic. Students have to guess the topic. After doing a few of these students can create their own. Allow them to pick a topic of choice or give them guidelines on what categories they can use. EX: food groups - all the words would have to be a type of grain, dairy product, fat, fruit, vegetable, etc. The "answer for the following WORDLE is Grains.

= **__[|PicLits]__** =

This site allows students to select a picture then add text. They can drag and drop words in to make sentences. Students can also "freestyle" or type their own text. This site has words organized by parts of speech which is helpful.

Ideas for Piclits: Diamante poetry adjectives describing the picture used story about the picture used progressive sentences

[|Scholastic Character Scrapbook]

Students create a digital, printable scrapbook for characters from stories. There is no log in needed. Students can decorate the character and add to different "top 10" lists. The list includes facts about the character, appearance, character accomplishments, challenges faced, etc.

__**Photo Scavenger Hunts **__ Students can use digital cameras to go around the room/school looking for specific objects. Ideas include: Words that start with "___", words with certain vowel sounds, sight words, colors, 2D shapes, 3D shapes' attributes of a person/object, etc items that remind you of_____

Pictures can be put into a PowerPoint and displayed on a web page, printed and put in a class book ,printed and used for flash cards,

Often the hands on nature of the project and moving around, using technology is enough. Not all digital camera activities have to be "published" Just like not all works of writing need to be "published".

I Spy Books
Students look at I spy books to understand concept. They then work to gather materials matching a theme - could be color, number, short vowel words, long vowel words, 2 syllable words, story, animals, etc. They take a photo of the "scene". They could then take a photo of the individual items to be found. They also need to write a list of the items to find. Then all of the student pictures are printed and put in a class book with their list (and possibly individual pictures of items to find) This is a fancier version of an iSpy diorama, but it gives the idea of gathering materials for the iSpy activity. [|(adapted from a third grade lesson: I Spy Higher Order Thinking)]

**[|Using Wordle]** With PBL, try to give students more choice in their project. Set the guidelines, but allow students to make some choices. Using a checksheet or a simple rubric to score assignments allow for creativity, yet setting guidelines. Here are some WORDLE ideas: Words that start with " " create separate wordles with lists of nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.Common Nouns, Proper Nounsanimalswords to describe my Momwords to describe medescribe classmatesCVC wordssilent e wordssight words (once printed students can "hunt" for the words)food groupscommunity businessesgoods/servicescolor wordsnumber wordsstudents own "guess the wordle" (see Project's by Jen category above) Basic Checklist Example: WORDLE Checklist
 * Name: ||
 * 8 words || Yes || No ||
 * words spelled right || Yes || No ||
 * title is big || Yes || No ||
 * your name || Yes || No ||

**__ 11-12 USD 345 Key Things Wiki __**
Elementary teachers gathered resources for technology base on grade level. There are GREAT Links use by district employees with age appropriate activities and ideas. K-1 Wiki 2nd Grade Wiki

= **__Using Menu Boards to Help Young Students__** =

[|SQWORL]
Take a website that looks like this: [] There are too many options for students to click on! QUICKLY and EASILY create a "menu board" - or a shorter menu of choices for students to choose from. Make it look like this: [] Teacher creates an account and makes as many "pages" as she/he needs. Save year after year, add to them, change them.

Use the same concept as SQWORL - only not web based. Students can just open the file, or it can be open on your student computers. Then the links are limited to what you want them to use.
 * Menu Boards in Power Point or SMART**

Shorten URL's for MUCH easier typing for primary students:
Type in long web address, and make it short!

Bit.ly.com []

Tiny URL [] (can customize the name)

More tiny URL []